Which bank as a canadian resident

[pickypalla]

Hey guys,

as an canadian resident based in ontario, which bank can you recommend to get fee free cash at atm´s???

The most important is getting cash in europe fee free.

I am thankful for suggestions.

[pickypalla]

isn´t here any canadian traveller????


which bank do you use???

[brclarke]

All I can tell you is that Toronto Dominion charge fees overseas - how much depends on the type of account you set up.

I think this is really a question best answered by inquiring with a few different banks, and seeing what each tells you.

[Scrabblebiker]

Maybe HSBC? They have branches in many places of the world.

I'm not aware of any banks that allow fee free foreign withdrawals. I'm with a credit union and I've always been charged except in Indonesia, but that was because the Indonesian banks weren't charging any fees. I also have a BMO MasterCard, Capital One MasterCard, and Vancity Visa card and they all charge foreign withdrawal fees. If you find a suitable bank, please share your findings.

[huguesfrederic]

Not saying that it is free to use, would depend on your type of accunts, but a start for you to explore.

Global ATM Alliance | Scotiabank

[thepinproject]

As far as I know and according to people who have used it, Charles Schwab Bank does not charge withdrawal fees overseas (basically they charge but then they reimburse you at the end of the month or quarter).

[pickypalla]

thanks for the hints. i will check them.

i don´t ask for myself and i can report in germany it is totaly normal to get money for free at a lot of atm´s all over the world with your visa card.
two years ago they even paid you back the fee the atm charged by itself. sadly this changed.

but you still get the best and actual rates and the bank doens´t charge anything.

it´s always an onlinebank but that doesn´t matter for this service.

i thought maybe there must be something like this on the other side of the ocean too.

Any more suggestions are welcome!

[thepinproject]

The last few years, the advent of Digital Nomad trend sees mobile-online banks which offer fee-free withdrawals around the globe.

E.g. have a look at https://next.n26.com/en-eu/ or

this article: The World’s Top 10 Neo- and Challenger Banks in 2016 | Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH

[inspiratron]

Hello,

Scotiabank (and its online subsidiary Tanherine Bank) is part of the Global ATM Alliance. This USED to mean that all the banks that signed on would give each other's customers free withdrawals - so, when a Scotia customer travels in Europe, they seek out a partner bank's ATM (for example, BNP Paribas in France, Deutsche Bank in Germany and Spain, Barclays in the U.K., etc.) and they could take out money without an extra fee from either bank or the ATM.

Now, it seems Scotiabank and Tangerine customers can withdraw from an ATM of another Global ATM Alliance member, but for $3.50. Not a bad price, but not much better than some other banks can offer their members on premium plans. For example, my all-inclusive plan with TD (free when you can maintain then a certain balance) charges me no fees at all to use ATMs worldwide, BUT the ATM I want to use may still charge me a fee, which might cost more than $3.50.

So, going with Scotiabank/Tangerine and using the Global ATM Alliance partner ATMs will give you very consistent pricing - always $3.50CAD per withdrawal abroad - but you can possibly match that if your bank offers an account with free foreign withdrawals, if you go out of your way to find ATMs that charge only a cheap fee. When I was in Barcelona this year, I actually encountered two ATMs with no fee at all.

[pickypalla]

Thanks a lot.

I just wanted to write my results if my own research and i also found the scotia bank as the best solution.
even there arent so many deutsche bank atm´s in germany...

the tip with tanherine/tangerine is good. i didn´t find anything about them.

do you know anything about the exchanging rates you get the money at the atm?

[inspiratron]

Hi pickypalla,

Based on this and this (both from American banks, but it works the same way I think in Canada?), it seems that the exchange rates are set by Visa/Mastercard for foreign transactions, not the bank itself. So, unless your bank charges an additional percentage fee, it should be the same price as the bank down the road from yours. HOWEVER, the per-transaction fees that the bank will charge on top of that (if any) will differ from bank to bank.

(This is all from looking online, not actual comparisons that I've done, so I know that I might be missing some things here. There's all the rage about a Charles Schwab bank card in the states that offers NO foreign exchange markup, so I might be totally off the mark in regards to whether banks add an additional markup as a percentage, on top of what Visa/MC adds.)

That said, the general consensus online seems to be that regardless of the bank, you will *always* get the best rate when using your card for foreign purchases by using an ATM in the country you're going to - not at your bank, not at a bank in the other country, or at point of sale (which have 2.75% forex markup usually) 0 just at the foreign ATM.

Cheers!