Hello,
I'm an American who's going to be in Oulu for 3 months this summer, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to be able to use my money there without getting charged massive international fees. When I was in Europe last year, I got charged insane fees when I pulled money from the ATM; my American bank only charged me a small set amount each time, but they said that depending on the European ATM I use, they charge their own fees for foreign withdraws.
I read somewhere that Otto bank in Finland doesn't charge international fees, is this so? And/or are there other banks like this as well?
Thanks for your help!
Best ATMs in Finland for foreigners
Re: Best ATMs in Finland for foreigners
Otto is not a bank. They supply ATMs and practically they are the only one you can use because in Finland banks don't have their own ATMs. They all use OTTO.
Therefore your problem depends on which bank you are using, not related to ATMs.
Therefore your problem depends on which bank you are using, not related to ATMs.
Re: Best ATMs in Finland for foreigners
The fees are caused by your own bank and not the ATM. I haven't been to many countries there the provider of the ATM adds an extra fee. Brazil is one of the few I remember and i'd try different banks since after choosing the amount the machine would say something like "A fee of Rs5 will be added to the transaction" and that would be on top of what my bank would charge me for foreign currency withdrawal. I'd then cancel the transaction and try a different bank to find their fee (some added zero to the transaction).
As the other reply said, OTTO is a jointly owned network by finnish banks, they pool their ATMs to make one nationwide network under one brand. There are very few non-OTTO ATM's in the country (there is no demand since there is no extra fee from OTTO).
Is the fee from your bank a fixed fee or related to the amount? if they are charging you $5 per withdrawal + 2% then get out a large amount in one go rather than $50/day.
You should look at your end on what you might do differently. You could get a prepaid master / visa card and use that. Each card will have its own terms. You could get one in the USA and then use it to either pay in shops in finland or use in an ATM to get cash.
Or you could get a prepaid euro master/visa card. Convert your dollars in one go and then pay euro amounts in euros (or get euros from otto with your euro prepaid card). You need to check the terms and rates, OTTO won't add extra fees with this method, the provider of the card might.
Finally the card needs a chip to use in shops and you enter the PIN when paying instead of signing anything. At least in the UK americans have trouble if their cards don't have a chip. The ATM's might still accept cards without chips, the OTTO machine has a yellow slot and a blue slot and if you look at the screen long enough something will come up saying which slot to use (I think blue = chip card, yellow = other cards).
When I go to the US I hardly use cash at all. I use my credit cards to pay and get through about $50/week in cash. So you should consider this and only use cards to pay. It's possible to pay for a carton of milk with a card in finland or pay a taxi with a card. I probably spend less than 5 euro/month in cash.
Be aware that there is the concept of a combined credit + debit card here (finns call debit "bank" though). so you'll see/hear talk about "credit or debit" and sometimes little labels on the terminals (stuck over the display obscuring some text sometimes!). If you have this kind then check the rates with your bank. With my combined credit/debit card the fees from a foreign ATM are not the same for the credit method and debit method! and in some countries that don't have credit/debit cards the shop terminals or ATM's don't always ask which you want. they make some decision for you (and don't tell you they're doing this). only the missing question of "credit or debit" alerts you that the machine is deciding itself what method ("application" in bank speak) it will choose. So then the rates become a bit of a gamble.
Last time I was in texas the shop assistants would see my credit card (which has a chip) and try to process it as a debit card (which I suppose uses a pin in TX). this failed everytime (it's a credit card). Eventually I realised I had to tell them to process it as a credit card and i'd sign for it and that worked. Probably at the time only debit cards in texas had chips. perhaps banks there have joined the modern world and issue credit cards with chips now though.
As the other reply said, OTTO is a jointly owned network by finnish banks, they pool their ATMs to make one nationwide network under one brand. There are very few non-OTTO ATM's in the country (there is no demand since there is no extra fee from OTTO).
Is the fee from your bank a fixed fee or related to the amount? if they are charging you $5 per withdrawal + 2% then get out a large amount in one go rather than $50/day.
You should look at your end on what you might do differently. You could get a prepaid master / visa card and use that. Each card will have its own terms. You could get one in the USA and then use it to either pay in shops in finland or use in an ATM to get cash.
Or you could get a prepaid euro master/visa card. Convert your dollars in one go and then pay euro amounts in euros (or get euros from otto with your euro prepaid card). You need to check the terms and rates, OTTO won't add extra fees with this method, the provider of the card might.
Finally the card needs a chip to use in shops and you enter the PIN when paying instead of signing anything. At least in the UK americans have trouble if their cards don't have a chip. The ATM's might still accept cards without chips, the OTTO machine has a yellow slot and a blue slot and if you look at the screen long enough something will come up saying which slot to use (I think blue = chip card, yellow = other cards).
When I go to the US I hardly use cash at all. I use my credit cards to pay and get through about $50/week in cash. So you should consider this and only use cards to pay. It's possible to pay for a carton of milk with a card in finland or pay a taxi with a card. I probably spend less than 5 euro/month in cash.
Be aware that there is the concept of a combined credit + debit card here (finns call debit "bank" though). so you'll see/hear talk about "credit or debit" and sometimes little labels on the terminals (stuck over the display obscuring some text sometimes!). If you have this kind then check the rates with your bank. With my combined credit/debit card the fees from a foreign ATM are not the same for the credit method and debit method! and in some countries that don't have credit/debit cards the shop terminals or ATM's don't always ask which you want. they make some decision for you (and don't tell you they're doing this). only the missing question of "credit or debit" alerts you that the machine is deciding itself what method ("application" in bank speak) it will choose. So then the rates become a bit of a gamble.
Last time I was in texas the shop assistants would see my credit card (which has a chip) and try to process it as a debit card (which I suppose uses a pin in TX). this failed everytime (it's a credit card). Eventually I realised I had to tell them to process it as a credit card and i'd sign for it and that worked. Probably at the time only debit cards in texas had chips. perhaps banks there have joined the modern world and issue credit cards with chips now though.
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blackquartz
- Posts: 18
- Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2014 5:11 am
Re: Best ATMs in Finland for foreigners
Riku2-
Thanks for all the info! Well, it's a mystery then as to where those fees I had were coming from; my bank said repeatedly that they don't charge anything for foreign withdraws other than the standard $5, so beats me... I guess my bank sucks, but I'm too locked into them right now to switch... Anyway, well I know I can't get a credit card, already tried and I don't qualify.. my debit card charges 3% per foreign transaction, which is fine for occasional purchases but might get too pricey added up. But I'm curious about this prepaid master/visa card you mentioned; is this some kind of credit card, or its own thing that's used for travel?
Thanks again!
Thanks for all the info! Well, it's a mystery then as to where those fees I had were coming from; my bank said repeatedly that they don't charge anything for foreign withdraws other than the standard $5, so beats me... I guess my bank sucks, but I'm too locked into them right now to switch... Anyway, well I know I can't get a credit card, already tried and I don't qualify.. my debit card charges 3% per foreign transaction, which is fine for occasional purchases but might get too pricey added up. But I'm curious about this prepaid master/visa card you mentioned; is this some kind of credit card, or its own thing that's used for travel?
Thanks again!
Re: Best ATMs in Finland for foreigners
In the US you will even find them at places like Walgreens and Duane Reade. They are with the gift cards. You load some money onto them and they work like a normal mastercard/visa card. with the exception that you can only spend up to what you loaded. You need to browse through their conditions though (how much the fees are for various kinds of transactions). You can pick these up in other countries too since normally no proof of address/name is needed. But i'm not sure they exist much in finland (on the basis that everybody has a bank account and not many foreigners come here).blackquartz wrote:I'm curious about this prepaid master/visa card you mentioned; is this some kind of credit card, or its own thing that's used for travel?
One slight disadvantage is that because it's prepaid there have to be checks to stop you spending more than what is on the card (if this failed then they could not track down who you are since you don't register the card or provide proof of address). So only machines which are online accept this kind of card. This is most places but sometimes the shop network fails or it's a conductor on a train/taxi. With a credit card they would accept it and charge you once they connect to the network again. With a prepaid card they decline it.
For the same reason the terminals at gas stations now ask you in advance how much you want to "reserve" on the card and check you have that money before letting you fill up with fuel. Before you just dipped the card and it charged at the end based on what the pump measured. This was changed when prepaid credit cards started to appear (otherwise a nice scam is get a $5 prepaid credit card, fill up the tank and the system then fails when it tries to charge your card for a full tank. you only paid $5 and throw away the prepaid card).