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I have a visa debit card through my local bank (not a large corporate bank), and am contemplating using it at Jamaica ATM's. My bank informs me they will not charge any fees to use it. What would the local ATM fees be, and where is a good place to withdraw money? I will be staying at Charela Inn.
I’ve withdrawn money both at Scotia and NSB and have not been charged any fees - not by my service (Revolut) or the local banks.Quote:
Originally Posted by ZSCHULZ
Is your bank saying they will waive the foreign transaction fees?
The fees you will encounter at an ATM are set by the ATM owners and can vary.
I would also suggest an app like Card Valet which would allow you to turn your card on and off as needed.
At the ATM inside the NCB by the HiLo the ATM fee was $2.50 plus your banks international transaction fee. In my case it was 3%.
My bank says they have a 1% foreign transaction fee.
You will also want to understand your banks fraud protection policies...like do they offer Zero Liability Protection. There are some institutions that will not allow your card to be open in certain countries, so check on that too. Also, understand that you need to be monitoring your account while you are on vacation and be mindful that in the event that you do experience fraud, it may be possible for the fraudsters to wipe out your account before you notice the missing funds.
Thanks Jamaicajeanne! Your knowledge of the internal bank workings helps us all!
It is what I do everyday...beside dreaming that I was in Jamaica, LOL
The ATM charge is only $3-$4 US. I only use the ATMs at Scotia bank or NSB (I wouldn't trust the ATM at Times Square, it's either empty or down anyways) and have never had a problem in the 3 years of using it.Quote:
Originally Posted by ZSCHULZ
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If you search for "ATM" you'll find several threads discussing this.
No matter what they say, there are transaction costs embedded in whatever system you use. If they say "no fee", they're likely just giving you a worse exchange rate.
Here's one post I made on the topic a while back. While the exchange rate has changed, the overall assessment has not.
https://negril.com/forum/showthread....l=1#post174566
Last month, I used the ScotiaBank ATMs at the bank near the roundabout, at Times Square, and at the craft market near Couples. Mostly I withdrew JM. No problems, except one day the Times Square machine was out of money. This seems to happen mostly on Sundays and also is an issue at the bank, so plan accordingly.
FYI I'm in JA now and have used my debit card at an ATM and my credit card at the supermarket.
At the ATM (NCB- Scotia charges me like $5us to use their machines so I used NCB on purpose) I took out $15,000j. That cost me $111.94us plus $1.50us fee from my bank. Calculated rate 135.8j/1us. I only use my debit card at ATMs, never for purchases. I don't want to have to fight to get money back if the worst happens.
I bought groceries for $9497.53j. My credit card charge for that is $70.88. So 133.76j/1us. My card is a Capital One that has no foreign fees, and I set it up to email me every time there is an international charge. It has 100% fraud protection. I use it whenever I can.
Both were today. Hope that helps.
Scotia charges 5$ fee unless you have a bank of America card, their partner. Nvm does not charge fees.