More on 'Foreign Fees'

As an experiment, I withdrew money from my local Citibank ATM. Even though it's a Citibank, it's still considered a foreign bank.

Here's the details:

I withdraw 1000 HKD, and that became a $132.87 withdrawal in my checking account, with no separate Foreign Fee.

Calculating the exchange rate, that's 1000/132.87 = 7.53. This is a bad exchange rate. Just a week ago I withdrew the same amount of HKD, and was only charged $129.

Thought of in another way, if I got the same exchange rate as I did a week ago at another bank, I should have been able to get $1030, for my $132.87.

I think some banks embed their fee within the withdrawal amount, other banks separate out their fee as another 'Foreign Fee' line item.

Let's assume that's the case and work backwards. I paid $132.87 to withdraw $1000 HKD. X/132.87 = .03 (assume a 3% charge). X = $3.9861. $132.87 - $3.99 (round up) = 128.88. The actual exchange rate net of Foreign Fees is 1000/128.88 = 7.76, which is much more inline with the current exchange rate.

So yep, I'm still getting charged 3% from withdrawing from this Citibank ATM, even though the charge is hidden in the withdrawal amount.