any non-Banelco ATMs?

[here4now]

Sorry to post another question about ATMs -- I am trying to figure out the best ATM deal during my stay here...

I've noticed that all Banelco-affiliated ATMs, no matter which bank, assess 16 peso surcharge in addition to the fees assessed by my home bank. Do all Argentine banks charge a surcharge or is only at Banelco-affiliated ATMs? Are there non-Banelco ATMs? Thanks for your reply.

 

[Kate Cohen]

Hello, I have recently found out a few things regarding the withdrawal charges so I wanted to let you know and hopefully it will help you. Firstly, the Banelco charge definitely applies at Citi Bank, at HSBC and so on. It does not apply in all the Banelco machines however- I can only speak of the machines where I have regularly withdrawn money -for xample the standalone machines outside Starbucks in Palermo Soho, the Banelco machines inside Santander Rio and several other banks will deal you money without applying the $16 peso Banelco charge.

The larger banks have advised me this is a Banelco restocking fee for the machine and charged only by Banelco not the bank themselves, but I've been unable to get to the bottom of it since it is definitely not the case that all machines are applying this fee, even though all machines I use are Banelco.

I also pay my bank in England a monthly fee for a premier account to have free withdrawals abroad- so I made it a matter of principal to only use the Banelco machines which do not apply a $16 peso fee per withdrawal. Also it is not the case that you have very low limits on withdrawals- I can take $1000 pesos at a time from these same machines and have made withdrawals of $1500 at one time in two transactions. I have not tried for more but believe the limit might be $1500. It of course depends on your cash withdrawal allowance on your card and your security level- if your bank may place a stop on your card. I hope this helps you!! You can definitely avoid the fee.

Kate

 

[Hellek]

It is not only Banelco. The other big network is Link, the situation is exactly the same with them.

As Kate said though, there are some ATMs which do not have this fee. Among them are some in Citibank branches. If you take a good look you will see that in bigger branch offices some say "Cajero Banelco" and some say "Cajero Citi", eventhough they look just alike. The "Cajero Citi" are those you might want to try.

Or have a go with Santander Rio eventhough I must say that I DO pay those 16 pesos with Satander Rio's Banelco ATMs. Maybe Kate's bank has an agreement with Santander Rio, or the branch where I went has different ATMs, I don't know. Try around a bit.

 

[Johnny]

It is not only Banelco. The other big network is Link, the situation is exactly the same with them.

As Kate said though, there are some ATMs which do not have this fee. Among them are some in Citibank branches. If you take a good look you will see that in bigger branch offices some say "Cajero Banelco" and some say "Cajero Citi", eventhough they look just alike. The "Cajero Citi" are those you might want to try.

Or have a go with Santander Rio eventhough I must say that I DO pay those 16 pesos with Satander Rio's Banelco ATMs. Maybe Kate's bank has an agreement with Santander Rio, or the branch where I went has different ATMs, I don't know. Try around a bit.

The non-Banelco machines at Citi are charging the fee as well. There seem to be few good options. On another thread there were posts about debit cards issued in the states for which one is reimbursed for this little gouge. USAA and Schwab ? Or maybe it wasn't Schwab. I forget.