ATM Fees

Why pay a fee to take your own money out of your checking account? Many people do just that because they use ATMs that don't belong to the bank where they have an account. In fact, banks collect more than $2 billion every year in ATM charges.
If you use a so-called "foreign-international" ATM, you can expect to pay two fees. Your bank will charge a fee because it has to process a transaction from some other bank's ATM, and the bank that owned the ATM will charge a fee - called a surcharge - because it has to process a transaction from someone who's not their customer.

It's common for each bank to charge $1.50, $2 or even more in major metropolitan areas, airports, hotels and other places where they know it is hard to find an ATM owned by your bank.

Consumer groups argue that processing ATM transactions costs banks very little and that these fees are just an opportunity for institutions to make money. Banks respond to that surcharges provide them with more revenue to install ATMs at sites that wouldn't ordinarily have them.

You will always know if you're going to be surcharged because a statement is displayed on the ATM screen before you press the key to get cash. You're given the option of ongoing with the transaction or canceling it. In fact, probably very few people decline the transaction at that point.

If your bank doesn't have ATMs it will likely have an agreement with an ATM network that either allows you to access certain machines for free or you'll be reimbursed by your institution for surcharges. Usually there's a limit of four to six fees that will be reimbursed.

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