Bank charges when withdrawing Sterling in UK

[eamonn]

Recently whilst in the UK I withdrew £200 sterling from an ATMs in UK using my Pass Card. There was a bank charge of approximately 10 euros. Can anybody explain why the BOI applies this charge. A branch clerk told me it was to cover their costs of currency conversion and electronic communications between themselves and a foreign bank which is not in the Eurozone. I mean how much does it cost to send an e-mail?

 

[Spock]

Hi Eamonn,

Unfortunatly you got charged because the UK/Sterling is outside of the Eurozone. There is lots of regulation on charges inside the Eurozone (more info on the website) but once you go outside it the banks charge the foreign exchange fee, plus a transaction fee (usually a percentage) - this is what made up the €10 cost you incurred. There is more info in these documents from IFSRA [broken link removed] and [broken link removed] (PDF's).

Having said that, you can't beat the convenience of going to another country, popping your card in the machine and getting some cash - gone be with the days of "oohh I'm travelling to England/abroad/on holidays in a month, better order some foreign currency from the bank weeks in advance just so they'll have it on time"...

There no email involved BTW, its all just a bunch of computers that communicate amongst each other, checking things like current balance, withdrawal limits etc etc.

Hope this clears it up for you...

S.

 

[moneyhoney]

Is this not one of those situations where your bank have you over a barrel? You have no choice but to buy fx before you go and pay commission OR use your ATM abroad & pay extortionate charges.

BTW, UB & NIB don't change for UK ATM withdrawals. They just convert the currency, tho at what rate, who knows?