What are typical ATM withdrawl limits while you're traveling in a foreign country? I usually take out an equivalent of $300 in local currency without any problems.

However, I have a trip to Japan and Thailand coming up, and I figure I'll need 60,000 Yen (~$520) and 12,000 Bhat (~$340). I'd hate to find an ATM every few days and would like to take out a lump sum if I can.

I'm also wondering about withdrawl limits in Europe. I use Bank of America by the way.

In Japan you will need to use the ATM's either at the Airport or Post Offices, unless your Hotel has one. The general street ATM's will not take foreign cards.

Japan is a cash society, credit cards are not accepted at most traditional places, so many people carry around large sums of cash with little risk of being mugged.

I have withdrawn via Visa 100000yen (about $1000) by mistake successfully at a Post Office, just watch the 0's!

UK is generally �250

Don't you have a daily/weekly limit also at your home bank?

I told my bank prior to going to Japan and they set my withdrawal limit higher for me. As for the actual ATMs I have found not all ATMs in Japan work as previous posters mentioned but I always used CITI bank ATM with no problem. The Japanese withdrawal limit is HUGE. Can't remember how much but taking a $ 1000 bucks CAD was no problem for me.

I think this is determined by your bank and the limits you agree to when you establish your account. Daily limits are typically $300. Doesn't matter where you make the withdrawl, Japan or your hometown grocery, the limit is the limit. Because I travel a lot internationally I have run into same issues that you describe, and I convinced my bank (Wells Fargo) to increase my daily limit to $500, but that's as far as they would go. They will not do temporary increases (say for the duration of a trip) either, stating it's for customer's protection as well as bank liability.

With the weak dollar now, and Euro at $1.34-1.35, even a $500 daily limit is really not a lot. I usually withdraw the max that I can (assuming I need that much and will be there long to spend it) so as to minimize impact of transaction fees (WF=$5.00 out of network ATM withdrawl fee).

I'd recommend asking you bank to increase your limit.

$5.00 is very greedy, even by the standards of banks based in the US. You may want to shop for another bank that has a lower or no out of network ATM fee if you use ATMs in foreign countries a lot (perhaps only as an account to load with money for traveling, if WF has other account features that you want to keep using as your primary account). Another option is if you have access to a bank that has subsidiary or associated banks in the countries that you visit that allow you to use their ATMs without additional fees.

Yup - in my experience (with UK banks) it's the case that your daily cash withdrawal limit in your native currency applies overseas. I delibrately maintain a low daily limit in GBP (e.g. if my card gets stolen, my loss is limited), but hence have to increase it before overseas trips.

This is one of the many reasons that Wells Fargo sucks...you are just a number to them and they will never help you out with even the little things such as temporary debit card limit increases. A $300 daily limit is typical with Wells Fargo but not with the rest of the banking industry. A typical bank has a limit of a little over $500 (all 3 of my banks are $505 to allow for ATM fees). I never pay a fee when using my card unless the individual ATM charges a fee. This only happens while traveling as all ATMs around me are free as all of the smaller banks in my area partnered to create a "privleged status" network of ATMs that have no fee. So now only Wells Fargo and US Bank customers have to drive across town to avoid ATM surcharges.

I would 2nd the idea of getting a new bank. I don't understand why anyone would use Wells Fargo! I do really like US Bank but I don't bank with them...they even offer a lot of their services for free to non-customers!

I don't know if you are an Amex holder. I usually have them send foreign currency to my house before a trip. A get a decent exchange rate-last used for Thai Bahts. That way you are not limited to ATM's.

Have a great trip.

Thanks for all your replies! I didn't know that the limit is set by my bank. I called up BofA and found out that my limit is $1000. That should be more than sufficient for anything (I hope).

In Japan, they're not only at Post offices or airports. There are SOME malls that take foreign ATM cards -- the one at Odaiba in Tokyo does so.

Sanosuke!

That's odd because we just opened an account with WFB and our rep (the branch manager) said our ATM limit is $500 per day, debit (PIN) limit is $1500 per transaction, and debit-Visa purchase limit is $2500 per transaction but if we needed to--buying furniture, cruise tickets etc--we could have the limits raised. Note that the debit (PIN or Visa) limits were per transaction and can the daily limit is only based on the balance of our account. I'll double check to make sure I got that right when I'm there tomorrow.

But, I have had success with other banks in the past when it came to increasing my daily limits either for travel or a special purchase. I think the largest amount I've taken out of a machine at one time was $2000 at an Amex machine years ago. A coworker made the mistake of going to Vegas with a bachelorette group last month. A few members of the party were newbies...you guessed it, they got a little too wild and spent a little too much money. So my coworker being the "richest" one of the group had to get them some cash to some expenses since the others' credit cards were maxed out (20somethings just out of college). Problem is she hit her "daily" ATM limit the Friday they went to Vegas and the limit applied all weekend. She wound up having to use one of those workaround machines. Since most checkcards have two limits--a ATM cash/debit PIN limit and a credit purchase limit--she could use the credit "purchase" portion of her card and get more cash. Of course the service fees were 10 times a regular ATM withdrawal, she wasn't pleased with her group

The system was originally designed for a world which was not online, or at least could not be relied on being so. A number of defaults are based in, which can then be overridden as systems contact each other.

Whatever limits you have in your home country, foreign ATMs (and sometimes even non-foreign ATMs on a different network) may default to separate limits for a transaction, for transactions from that machine and for total amount allowed from that network. The limits are based on the issuing bank of the card. Of course individual ATMs can have per-transaction limits based on their own policy.

Actually a similar system applies to visa/mastercard credit cards. Whatever your limit at home, when you go overseas, a "default" limit applies - though generally the real limit will catch up later - perhaps within seconds. That's why the first time you use your card overseas it can work fine, then suddenly stop working (even though you know it should be OK) and the next day its all OK again. Its because the first time you used it a separate "local" limit may have been set up if the network couldn't get the information over fast enough or the home network is playing it safe.

B of A has different limits based on whether you have Gold (don't know if they have this level anymore), Platinum, or Priority Platinum (Premier or Private Bank). My Priority Platinum is $2000 cash/day.

When was the last time you were in Japan? These days I pay more than 90% of my purchases with my card. I think with 60000 Yen in cash I could go for 2 weeks, even when doing sightseeing and going to "traditional places" like temples.

Citibank cash machines work as well, but the post office is a good safer.

HTB.