Germany

122 readers

4 users here now

founded 4 months ago

MODERATORS

tfm@europe.pub

German ATM surreptitiously charged a fee of €9, without receipt (www.belastingdienst.nl)

submitted 1 week ago by ciferecaNinjo@fedia.io to c/Germany@europe.pub

3 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I wrote previously about German ATMs neglecting to give receipts.

After receiving my bank statement, it shows that an ATM charged a fee, which was not disclosed at the time of the transaction. Every ATM I used a non-SEPA card in mentioned no fee, which I found surprising because non-SEPA cards are almost always charged a fee within SEPA in my past experience. At the time I thought perhaps the ATM operators simply decided to treat all cards as SEPA cards, perhaps for simplicity.

Some machines indeed charged no fee in the end. None of them offered a receipt either. But one ATM charged €9, the highest ATM fee I have ever seen.

Can this be legal?

The link is to a Dutch site, but it shows that in NL producing a receipt is not an obligation. Which in the very least suggests the EU allows a situation where receipts are unavailable.

top 3 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] tfm@europe.pub 7 points 1 week ago

Probably a dodgy independent ATM. They are the worst. Always go to ATMs from banks.

[–] renormalizer@feddit.org 3 points 1 week ago

Seems like ATMs have to display fees for foreign (i.e. not from the same bank) cards since 2011. That obligation can be satisfied by a putting a sticker with a fee schedule on the ATM. You don't necessarily have to confirm the fee during the withdrawal process. Receipts are unheard of here. I don't remember ever being offered one by the ATM and I'm always withdrawing from a foreign ATM, with a credit card.

There are some scummy ATM operators out there that seem to prey on people not knowing better. I'd steer away from ATMs that are not in a bank branch or not branded with a well-known name. Doesn't mean that the fees aren't high, but at least they should be transparent about it.

[–] rbn@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 week ago

As a German with a German credit card, I would say that the ATMs usually ask me if I want a receipt and that they also display any fees (very rare!) upfront. But I don't know if there are laws for that.