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On Sunday, Elaine and I decided to try a new-to-us Italian restaurant in Philadelphia’s Old City. The restaurant is BYOB, which is always appealing to thrifty me. But it’s also cash only.
No problem, I thought. I bank with Chase, and a quick Google search turned up an ATM near the restaurant. But when we got to the ATM, a sign indicated you couldn’t access it on Sundays. The next closest Chase ATM was nine blocks away—which was tempting, but time was short.
It’s hard to express just how much I hate paying a fee to access my own money. But I sucked it up and walked into a TD Bank, where the machine dinged me $3.50 for my $200 cash withdrawal. That hurt, but I was mentally prepared.
Instead, the gut punch came this morning, when I checked my account balance—and discovered that Chase had charged me an additional $3, bringing the fee on my $200 ATM withdrawal to $6.50, or 3.25%.
Think about that: Vanguard Group charges 0.03% of assets each year for its total U.S. stock market exchanged-traded index fund. Even financial planners typically don’t charge more than 1% of assets per year. And yet banks apparently think it’s okay to ding folks 3% of assets for a onetime transaction that involves nothing more complicated than spitting $20 bills out of a machine.
Yeah, it’s going to take a while to forget this one.
Schwab checking debit card also refunds all domestic and foreign transaction fees. Recently used the card onboard a cruise ship. Fee was $6 on a $20 withdrawal. Schwab refunded the fee as is their policy. We travel to Canada a lot. It serves us well there. It’s a great card.
I just want to share what I feel may be the most inaccurate financial statement of all time. ( This has nothing to do with what you wrote, though)
A friends wife told me, ” The best way to make money is to buy a house and hold it for a long time.” I was tempted to compare the return of Warren Buffetts BRK to the average home values over decades, etc.,( or even the returns of the entire stock market) but, I threw in the towel.
Buffetts house was purchased in the fifties for around 35k, its now worth around 1.2 million, and you clearly know that that pales in comparison to market returns, even before factoring in decades of taxes, insurance and much more. Oh well. if memory serves , the market return would be around twenty five million and BRK stock….!!!!!!
If you’re heading to Europe you also need to be aware of foreign conversion fees. I had a Capital One checking account purely for travel as it charged no ATM fees, reimbursed those charged by other banks and charged no foreign conversion fees. Cap One has since changed the account and Schwab might be a better bet today. Also, look up dynamic currency conversion scam.
This just happened to me in Mexico… combine the need for convenience and not wanting to stray from the resort, the ATM told me a $7.95 atm fee would be assessed. Fine. Ally Bank reimburses me up to $10 per month, I’ll get it back. The next screen, they also want an extra 7.95%!! I cancelled and then later went back realizing it was my only option. That was my worst ATM experience. $12.72 to get $60.
Just a note for information – Fidelity’s Debit/ATM card associated with their Cash management (checking) account reimburses all ATM fees…which is one of the main reasons I use them because I find the usual ATM fees at the machine itself (one vendor) and my bank (second vendor) just unacceptable. I must admit though that my paranoia causes me to keep $200 tucked into the back of my wallet ‘just in case’. The cash us