ATM fees gone awry

I was in Mexico a few weeks ago and I made the mistake of withdrawing $80 from an ATM. The reason that this was a mistake is that the ATM dispensed US dollars. Being in a tourist area, I assumed that this was a US ATM. I was unfortunately very wrong.

Here’s what you may end up paying for an ATM withdrawal…

1. Exchange rate to transfer my $80 to about 900 pesos – 8% cha-ching.
2. Exchange rate to turn my 900 pesos back into USD – 8% cha-ching.
3. Adjustment fee (no idea what this one is) – 3.5% ch-ching.
4. Finally I was charged a non-Chase ATM fee (which I expected, more or less) – $3 cha-ching.

Conclusion… 23% to withdraw US money from a Mexican ATM.

I went back to the ATM and not once did it say anything about any fee whatsoever, not a fixed fee, let alone a percentage 3 times in a row.

Lessons learned:

1. Don’t withdraw from foreign ATM’s (not likely to be feasible).
2. Don’t withdraw money in your own currency from a foreign ATM.
3. There are going to be ATM fees even if there aren’t any listed.
4. If there are no fees listed, there’s a reason why they’re not listed!
5. Most of us are in the wrong business!