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Comment by Haemm0r | Hacker News Reader

I always withdraw cash money using the debit card when I'm abroad. It has acceptable exchange rates(always better than the money exchange rates at the destination country) and much lower fees(mostly just a fixed amount of €) than the credit card (quite high percentage + fixed fee).

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This really depends on the credit card and bank. My old French credit card that was supposed to be great for traveling had 2.5% conversion rate plus 0.30 euros fixed fee.

My US amex is usually only 0.1% more than current market rate and so better than any debit card I have by far.

In my experience, European countries are by far the worst when it comes to exchange rate and added fees. One hypothesis is that interchange fees are capped so credit card companies can't make as much from the merchants but even before that happened, I remember the fees being very high.

The problem with exchange rates is usually that the institution managing the ATM/Payment Terminal tries to trick you into using their exchange instead of just charging your card in the local currency and have your bank do the exchange. And the ATMs exchange rate are a ripoff. You’re not a returning customer, so they milk you as much as they can. This holds true for both credit and debit cards. Check with your bank, they’ll give you the proper advice and it’s usually “charge in the local currency and let us handle the exchange.”

Modern banks in the UK such as Monzo, Starling, Revolut and others have no FX fees.

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