I am headed to Spain next week (Madrid, Seville, Granada). I just talked to Bank of America (whom I bank with) and they mentioned that use of any ATMs other than Deutsche Bank, Barclays, BNP or Bank of America comes with about a E5 charge (E3 for Bank of America plus approx E2 for other bank). My question is any of the above bank ATMs exist in Madrid, Seville and Granada and are easy to find ? I tried their websites, but they are not clear.

Thanks in advance for your help.

There are ATMs every ten feet in Madrid and the rest of Spain. Just like here they have the logos of the bank or credit card company that they accept. When using the ATMs watch your surroundings, and know who and what is around you. Have a fun and safe trip.

Since Interbank ATM comission depends on specific bank-to bank arrangements it seems that only with those you will be free of extracharges.

All of them use the Servired network, but you will be able to find branches and ATM's for Deutsche and Barclays, If I recall correctly Bank of America only operates corporate finance here and BNP is mainly a private Bank in Spain.

In any case, they (DB and Barclays) are not very common. Most likely you wil find ATM for other banks. My advice for trying to minimize the impact. Use mainly servired ATM which belong to the same network and will charge probably less. The other two (4B and 6000) even though are connected are reputated for higher interconnection fees.

And as has been discussed numerous times, please be sure to arrange for 4 digit pin number as the ATMs in Spain use only 4 digit pins.

Your bank branch can arrange for the needed pin in a matter of moments ...

I had a bank of america account and could use my ATM at just about any bank here in Spain. That being said, BoA RIPPED ME OFF by chargin $5 USD for each transaction. try to take out larger "chunks" of money rather than 20 euros here/30 euros there to help soften the blow!

Regarding the BofA comments, I just thought I'd add info that I found out from an e-mail that I sent to BofA's customer service. Apparently, there is a Global ATM Alliance that BofA is a part of and the use of a BofA ATM/Check card within ATMs in the alliance ONLY in CERTAIN countries will result in no fees.

Barclays - UK
BNP Paribas - France
Deutsche Bank - Germany
Santander Serfin - Mexico
Scotiabank - Canada
Westpac - Australia and New Zealand

No where does it say Spain, but when I called customer service two weeks ago to inquire if the no fee policy included branches of these banks in Spain, I was told that yes, I wouldn't be charged a fee if I used one of the member banks. However, based on today's e-mail from BofA and that last post, the $5 fee does apply in Spain. At least I found out before hand, but now I have to rush arrangements with my credit union. No fees from them for using my card, although I'll have to pay the fee to the Spanish bank.

-Linda

I will say this. Citibank is everywhere in spain(except for Ibiza).

I thought of that, but unfortunately there are no Citibanks in the Seattle area.

I don't have too many complaints with BofA, because they have a ton of ATMs in the Seattle area...but there have been times when their services have not been enough. For instance, when I went to college in MA, they didn't have any banks in that region. The year that I graduated, they merged with Fleet! Now, they have "global" ATMs, but not in the country I'm visiting. Oh well. I guess I'll have to test it out when I go to Canada this weekend.

Welcome fellow Seattleite!

If you can get your credit union account going, that is a good bet. I used my credit union atm card and was easily able to find ATMs in Spain that did not charge me a fee.

Also, don't forget to let them know when you will be traveling and that you will be using the atm card in Spain. That way they won't put a security hold on your account for suspicious activity.

Have a great trip!

Hi Vicki . Thanks for the welcome ! I did indeed get everything settled with the credit union yesterday. So, spending money wise, I am all set. I informed them that I was going abroad too so that they wouldn't freeze my account for suspicious activity. I saw the reminder somewhere else on this site . Good thing, because I wouldn't have thought about it! Last time I went, I either used my debit card to charge or used traveler's checks.

If all goes well, I may just try to do more banking through the credit union. My experience at their branch yesterday has been so much better than my past few experiences with BofA branches.

-Linda