Austria Cash withdrawals are free for any owner of an Austrian
Maestro card at a bank. Some independent ATMs – 67 out of 8,500 as of 2016 – charge a small fee (€1.95 in 2016). By law, a warning is given when a fee is charged. In July 2016 it was discussed if a law should forbid these fees or the fee must be displayed clearly during the transaction. Very few, small banks charge an extra fee when one of their own customers uses a different bank's ATM.
Finland Cash withdrawals are free for any owner of a Finnish bank card or
Visa Electron cards on ATM brand "Otto." which is the largest ATM network in Finland. There are smaller rivals which have fees. "Otto." ATMs accept also Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Diners Club credit cards. They also belong to
Maestro,
Cirrus and
Plus networks. Fees depend on card issuer. Some banks do charge fees after a given number of withdrawals within a month.
Germany German banks generally charge fees for withdrawals at another bank's ATM, both within the national
Girocard debit card/ATM scheme as well as when using a debit card's
Maestro or
V-Pay facility abroad. Fees for withdrawals within the Girocard scheme are all implemented as surcharges (
direktes Kundenentgelt) which go from €1.95 up to €5.00 or higher and must be displayed to the customer before the money is given out. All ATMs are connected to the national Girocard interbank network. The ATM owners do usually join one of the ATM groups that mutually lower or waive fees, so that customers can withdraw free of charge. The most extensive network of ATMs belongs to the savings banks associations ("Sparkassen") with 24,600 ATMS. Most of the private banks are either member of the
Cash Group (7,000 ATMs owned by the major banks) or
Cash Pool (2,500 ATMs owned by smaller banks) – they are usually found in city centers. The credit unions ("Volksbanken" and "Raiffeisenbanken") provide around 18,000 ATMs and are associated in the
BankCard ServiceNetz, very often in smaller towns and villages, but less frequently available in the big cities. Fees for withdrawing money in the Maestro scheme (outside of Germany, but also at some ATMs at airports in Germany) or with a credit card are charged by the customer's bank and are not displayed during the transaction. Some German banks such as
Deutsche Kreditbank,
ING-DiBa and
Consorsbank have started issuing complementary
Visa cards for cash withdrawals to their customers, in addition to the traditional Girocard. Those issuing banks will absorb the interbank fee that they are obliged to pay to the ATM operator under Visa regulations. Although the cards use the Visa
credit card protocols, the funds are taken directly from a linked bank account just as with
debit cards, and there are no cash advance fees. As surcharges for cash withdrawals by credit card are uncommon in Germany, almost any ATM in Germany can be used for free cash withdrawals with such a Visa card. Some banks like the ING-DiBa have started requiring their customers to withdraw at least €50 on their own and partner ATMs. This regulation was put in place because banks pay a fixed amount for a withdrawal from an ATM unattached to the amount the customer withdraws. An exception where the regulation does not kick in is if the customer's balance is below the €50 threshold, then they can get as little money as possible.
Ireland Section 149 of the Consumer Credit Act, 1995 requires a credit institution to notify the
Central Bank of Ireland of every proposal to increase a previously notified charge or to impose any charge in relation to the provision of a service to a customer that has not been previously notified to the Central Bank. Not all ATMs are operated by credit institutions. Third party charges are not subject to this notification process. The government imposes a 12 cent
stamp duty fee per ATM withdraw in the Republic on debit/ATM cards charged at the end of a calendar year, capped at €2.50 for cards that have only been used at ATMs and €5.00 for cards used at ATMs and point-of-sale.
Netherlands Cash withdrawals are usually free for an owner of a Dutch debit card, both within the Netherlands and in the rest of the European Union. Cash withdrawals from another bank in the Netherlands are limited to a maximum of once a day and a lower limit per transaction. The one transaction per day limit generally does not apply to withdrawals outside the country. Up to €2,300 may be withdrawn per cashpoint.
Norway No ATM normally surcharges. However, most major card issuers will levy cash-advance fees unless the client pays a higher annual fee for the card. Some cards have no ATM fees, but these are the exception – like
Skandiabanken (Sbanken) Visa and Gebyrfri Visa, both smaller foreign-based banks.
Poland There are few but extensive independent ATM operators in Poland (e.g.
Euronet, ITCARD owner of Planet Cash ATM network, eCard, Global Cash) as well as smaller bank-owned networks. Fees depend on inter-bank agreements and are explicitly stated in card contract. Typically withdrawals from own and allied networks are free while from competitor's machines are subject to a percentage (3-4%) with constant minimum fee, e.g. 5 PLN (~$1.4). In 2013 ATM fee for using other domestic machine was decreased to 1.2/1.3 PLN per transaction. Premium accounts often come without any withdrawal fees, albeit at higher recurring cost. As of 2010 many banks offer optional contracts on "free" withdrawals from any ATM at flat monthly fee, usually priced similar to one withdrawal. The maximum amount that can be withdrawn in one operation is usually 30 or 40 notes (~US$1,000), varying with the type of machine, ATM management system and banknote denominations used.
Portugal All
Multibanco withdrawals and payments in Portugal are free. Recent European Union directives allowed merchants and banks to charge the customers for transactions, but the government approved a law that forbids charging any kind of fees.
Spain There are significant variation in charges applied. A card issued by a Spanish bank will normally expect to incur a fee up to €1 on each ATM withdrawal, where the transaction is conducted on an ATM operated and owned by the customer's own bank. However, outside this situation, there is anecdotal evidence of significantly higher charges being applied where third-party owner/operated ATMs are used, including those operated/owned by other Spanish banks. These may be in reported but unverified cases to be as high as 5% of the value withdrawn. An effort is currently being made to research, identify and quantify the structure and nature of what, from this anecdotal evidence, appear in some cases to be excessive charges. The case is complicated because the fees can originate from the ATM operator, or/and the customers own bank, for as "processing fees".
Sweden In Sweden, most banks issue debit cards for an annual or monthly fee which includes free withdrawals in Sweden and within the
eurozone. However, customers are subject to a fee if using a cash machine elsewhere. Some cards from some banks are, however, subject to fees also when used in the eurozone and some Swedish cash machines. Most of these cards are issued by
savings banks.
Switzerland Fees are not usually charged for withdrawals at a banks' own ATMs, but may be at those of other banks. For example,
UBS do not charge for withdrawals at other banks whereas
Credit Suisse charge 2 CHF per withdrawal. Sometimes, banks provide the cardholder with 10, 12 or 24 free withdrawals, especially if the bank is a small one, with few ATMs. Most Swiss banks hand out
Maestro cards to their customers, in most cases for an annual fee of around 40 CHF, so that any ATM can be used.
United Kingdom During the 1980s the number of banks and building societies charging issuer fees (i.e. charging fees to their own customers when they used another operator's cash machines) gradually increased. However, in 1990 Barclays announced they were introducing an acquirer fee for all non-Barclays cardholders at their cash machines. This would result in "double charging", where the customer was charged by both their card issuer and the machine operator. Public reaction against this proposal was very strong and a campaign launched by
Nationwide Building Society and the UK
tabloid newspapers resulted in issuer fees being removed altogether. Interchange fees remained. These are paid by the card issuer to the cash machine operator to cover the cost of the transaction. Their cost is absorbed by the card issuer and not directly passed on to the end customer. In 1999 the UK cash machine network
LINK opened membership to so-called independent cash machine operators (IADs); organizations which do not issue cards. IADs initially focused on the pay-to-use market, where the customer covers the cost of the transaction directly and this, coupled with a low-cost business model, meant that the number of pay-to-use cash machines rose rapidly, peaking in 2007 at just over 27,000 cash machines. Most of these machines are in low footfall locations such as convenience shops, garages, nightclubs and pubs. The fee charged in 2005 was usually between
£1.00 and £1.50, but occasionally they have been known to charge up to £5 and £10. Rules regarding signage on pay-to-use machines were introduced in 2005 and enhanced in 2006 and since 2007 the number of pay-to-use cash machines has fallen. By the end of 2010 there were around 21,000 cash machines. == See also ==