Wednesday, April 5, 2023, 00:25
Paying for purchases with a card and withdrawing cash from the ATM are daily actions that, apart from possible overdrafts in the account, do not have to bring us any unpleasant surprises. Things change when you travel abroad, to countries with a currency other than the euro. It is then when we must take into account the possible commissions that our bank can charge us.
Pay by card abroad
When we pay an amount with a card abroad, the only commission that the bank can charge us is for the currency exchange. This charge is only applied, logically, in countries with a currency other than the euro. In addition, “there are banks that exempt the client from paying this commission,” recalls Estefanía González, director of communication and content at Kelisto.es.
When paying with a card within the Euro Zone we will never pay commissions, whether it is debit or credit. Outside this area, the bank will apply a charge for payment with a card in foreign currency -or commission for currency exchange- “regardless of the type of card you use to pay,” González clarifies.
In any case, remember in the web portal specialized in savings, there are some entities -such as Pibank, imagin, EVO Banco and Deutsche Bank- that do not charge commissions for this concept.
It must also be taken into account that if you pay by credit card, additional surcharges may apply, “because your bank would have the option of charging you for allowing you to postpone the purchase for a few days or months.”
They would be, they explain in Kelisto, the same expenses that we would face when paying with a credit card in Spain. If the payment at the end of the month is used – deferring the purchase for only a few days, until the end of the month or the beginning of the next – the banks will not charge anything, “neither interest nor commissions”.
If any deferred payment modality is used -splitting the purchase into several months or a fixed fee that will be paid each month until the debt is paid- “normally, the banks do charge you: some will charge interest (a TIN or Type of Nominal Interest), others will charge commissions, and there are even those that apply both concepts”.
Commissions for withdrawing money from the ATM
Withdrawing cash from ATMs abroad with a card carries more surcharges than if it is only used to pay for purchases. Estefanía González explains that two could be applied: the commission for currency exchange, and the corresponding one for withdrawal at ATMs. However, there are three factors that will influence the final cost of the operation: the destination of the trip, the bank that issued the card, and the type of plastic used (debit or credit).
Regarding the surcharge for withdrawing from the ATM, in the Euro Zone the bank will charge a commission for the withdrawal. Of course, the community regulations indicate that “it can never be higher than what they would charge you for doing the same operation in your own country.”
In countries with currencies other than the euro, this type of commission would not have any limit. In addition, to this surcharge we would have to add the currency exchange charge.
And if the credit card is used to withdraw the money, we could suffer additional costs. As it happens when paying with plastic, they will depend on the way in which you decide to return the money extracted to the bank (payment at the end of the month or any other form of deferred payment).