5% ATM Fees in the First withdrawing within my country !

Hi,
I’m currently living in France and was interested about the revolut card with “no fees”. To activate the card, I decided to withdraw 10€ in a BNP bank in France. And guess what, I paid 0,50€ of fees which is 5% ! What a shame ! On the atm, the amount was written in GBP and I had only euro on the app. I’m very disappointed and if it wasn’t a mistake I’m just going to throw this card as it doesn’t have any sense to lose 5% on a withdrawing when I lose 0 with my personal card ! What are your thoughts ?

Hi Enzo,

When you pay or withdraw money, if you’re not in the UK, you should have the option to choose between GBP and the local currency (Euro for France).
You need to always use the local currency (euro), that way Revolut will do the conversion and you won’t have fees. If you choose GBP, then the ATM will do it and take fees.

I also live in France, and I took cash out at different banks without problem.

1 Like

Yes but when I chose the amount 10€, it was then written in GBP and I couldn’t change it into euro, how do you do it ?

Hey @Enzo1707 :slight_smile:

You should be given an option to “refuse conversion”

2 Likes

The ATM should show you their own conversion rate (bad one), with the option to refuse it like @Juliopp said.

I actually have a BNP atm near where I live, I will go take a look in the afternoon and take a picture for you :slight_smile:

1 Like

Ah thanks ! I’m going to withdraw again within the afternoon and try to refuse the conversion in the same bank.

1 Like

I can see why you got tricked:

20180126_142438

The whole “accept/decline” could be understood as “accept and get the cash” or “decline and f*ck off”.
I can confirm to you: press the Decline button, and you will get your money, without any fee. (I tried, and I was charged only the 20 euros I requested).

A much clearer approach I think was at Caisse d’Épargne:

20180126_142619
For those who don’t speak French, it basically says: “Choose an option” at the top, with “Standard withdrawal” on the left, and “Withdrawal with DCC conversion, provided by Euronet” on the right. Two buttons at the bottom saying confirm.

Here, you need to press “retrait standard” (the one without conversion from the ATM) :slight_smile:
Seriously, a 1.07 gbp/eur rate is just horrible… thieves…

As you can see it depends a bit on ATMs, but it’s usually there.

5 Likes

You were right, I went again to the same bank to withdraw, I pressed the decline button and I got 10€ as I wanted. Thanks for your help I didn’t know that, now I’m going to be careful and try in other banks :wink:

Make sure to do the same thing when paying in shops, always choose the local currency (EUR) :wink:

Even in the shops you need to to chose the currency? I didn’t know I thought it was automatic…

For the same reason you have the option on ATMs, you also have the option in shops (when your card is foreign, with a different base currency, like Revolut).

For contactless, it seems to take the local currency every time, never had an issue with it.

Ahhh ok ok, thanks for the informations ! :slight_smile:

You can learn more about this by looking up “DCC”, or “dynamic currency conversion”.

2 Likes