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SINGAPORE – The Philippines, South Korea and Thailand are the most costly international locations for travellers to withdraw money at ATMs, in line with contemporary information from fintech large Smart launched on Tuesday.
Common ATM charges in these international locations vary from 2.13 per cent to 2.68 per cent, stated Smart, which ranked ATM charges at Singaporeans’ favorite locations.
Nonetheless, travellers shouldn’t fear an excessive amount of as they don’t have to rely solely on money. Varied cost modes reminiscent of multi-currency e-wallets and playing cards have sprung up in recent times, providing better flexibility to holiday-goers.
Ms Lim Paik Wan, enlargement lead for Asia-Pacific at Smart, stated you will need to concentrate on hidden prices when withdrawing money abroad.
These prices typically embrace international transaction charges and undisclosed mark-ups on trade charges.
“Unassumingly small charges can add up. To place this in perspective, if somebody withdrew $150 per day for every week within the Philippines, totalling $1,050, they’d pay the equal of $28.14 in charges,” she added.
Mr Atul Garg, principal founder and chief govt of cross-border funds firm SingX, advised The Straits Instances earlier this yr that the prices of ATM card withdrawals can go as much as 3 per cent to 10 per cent.
There are three forms of prices – by the ATM, the traveller’s card issuer, and a hidden international trade mark-up.
He suggested travellers to withdraw one great amount as a substitute of a number of small quantities, and faucet their financial institution’s abroad ATM networks to keep away from charges.
Smart’s information confirmed that Malaysia, Switzerland and Indonesia are the most affordable international locations for travellers to withdraw money, with common ATM charges starting from 0.02 per cent to 0.34 per cent.
The numbers are based mostly on 3.8 million money withdrawals made with a Smart card at third-party ATMs from September 2021 to August 2022.
Smart stated travellers ought to test the charges charged by their card suppliers, a few of whom provide free ATM withdrawals overseas as much as a sure threshold.
“To economize, both trade cash earlier than you journey or convey a multi-currency card to withdraw money when you arrive. If there are a number of ATMs (abroad) inside a brief distance of one another, it might be value evaluating their charges, as charges will differ from financial institution to financial institution,” stated Smart.
For instance, travellers can use the Smart multi-currency debit card to withdraw cash at ATMs worldwide totally free twice a month for quantities lower than $350.
Subsequent withdrawals are charged at $1.50 per transaction, and customers can even be charged a further 1.75 per cent in the event that they take out greater than $350 in a month.
Smart added that travellers ought to by no means withdraw cash on a bank card as this includes excessive charges and curiosity.
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