Any ATM Fraud Problems Lately?

[wrtiii]

The only fraud is the fact that Scotia Bank charges a $5 US fee to use their machines.

Not fraud - they tell you very explicitly and you have to say OK. And it's $4.50 US.

No matter how you exchange money, you are going to pay a transaction fee. If it makes you feel better when the fee is hidden in a lower exchange rate, you have other options such as the cambios. Yes, taking USD out of the ATM then changing it at the cambio is the worst option. I always plan to get enough money for the weekend by Saturday early afternoon as running out of money on Sunday seems to be normal.

[Mike_D]

Not fraud - they tell you very explicitly and you have to say OK. And it's $4.50 US.

No matter how you exchange money, you are going to pay a transaction fee. If it makes you feel better when the fee is hidden in a lower exchange rate, you have other options such as the cambios. Yes, taking USD out of the ATM then changing it at the cambio is the worst option. I always plan to get enough money for the weekend by Saturday early afternoon as running out of money on Sunday seems to be normal.

I guess my sarcasm didn't come through in my post. My point was that many banks charge lower or sometimes no surcharge fees to use their ATM. I just think that $5.00 is a little high, since at home I can find ATM machines that charge no fees. However, I do agree that withdrawing Jamaican dollars directly is the best exchange rate.

Not to split hairs, but the surcharge at Scotiabank is actually $5.00 US as of last week. Below is a snip of my withdrawal at the Scotia ABM by the roundabout on 1/31/2018. I withdrew $400 USD (the machine was out of Jamaican currency), and you can see the total is $405 with the $5 "owner surcharge" added.