German ATM surreptitiously charged a fee of €9, without receipt
German ATM surreptitiously charged a fee of €9, without receipt
Wie zijn verplicht te factureren?
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.
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.