Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

Shocked to find I had to pay 2 and a half per cent to withdraw Sterling from an ATM today. Are all ATM's charging now?

There are a couple of threads running about Garanti starting to charge. I tried and used the TEB ATM near Lemar in Girne today without charge. There may be others that do not charge and certainly one member found one but refused to say which one it was in case we all used it and ruined it for them. Very helpful.............not.

I would suggest that if anyone finds another ATM from whatever bank that is not charging it would be nice for us all to be able to benefit so a quick post in here would be helpful.

Thank you. Very helpful and unselfish xx

Yes I lifted £300 at Garnati atm and Lloyds charged me £7.50 so let us know what other banks have no charge ta

tylerbabe wrote:Yes I lifted £300 at Garnati atm and Lloyds charged me £7.50 so let us know what other banks have no charge ta

So, contrary to what others have said, you are saying that Lloyds charged you £7.50?

Others have said that it was the Garanti ATM which imposed the charge - not their UK Bank.

Lloyds do charge for withdrawing cash here. Hence I changed to Nationwide who don't. You may find that you could get charged by both banks so would check.

Having driven from Karsiyaka to Girne this morning in search of a no charge ATM, it’s definitely Garanti that charge. I could have withdrawn dollars and euros at various cash points but none had sterling so ended up at Garanti in Girne. The machine informs you there will be a 2.5% charge before you get your cash.

As Chris Wright says some UK banks, including mine, RBS, do charge, so now I’m getting charged both ends, with no option to change as I haven’t a UK address and am never in the UK anyway. I did open a transferwise account which is working out a tiny bit less expensive!

When I return to the UK I shall certainly apply for a Revolut card and use that. Having found TEB do not charge I suspect many more of us are using that instead of Garanti hence no sterling when people try to use it. Paying 2.5% out every time you take money out is not an option. We don't even get that as interest in the UK so the other option for me is have current account in here with a local bank and transfer an amount across from the UK. For a substantial amount earlier this year it was a fixed fee of £9 so that may be the best option along with the Revolut card.

I used to do that, pay sterling check into Turk Bank and after a month draw out Turkish Lira but then the bank started to charge me interest for looking after the balance, so don't do that any more. I don't see what all the fuss is about paying to use a service, if you don't want to pay - don't use the service. Remember nothing is for nothing in this world, only the air you breath and if they could tax that, they would.

Chriswright03 wrote:When I return to the UK I shall certainly apply for a Revolut card...

Why not now?

I did!

Garanti charging £7.50. Which is 2.5%. Lloyds making a further charge of £1.50. Total of £18 per month, have to find another option.

Yes forgot about the £1.50 charge as well so lifting £300 costs you £9.00

Keithcaley wrote:

Chriswright03 wrote:When I return to the UK I shall certainly apply for a Revolut card...

Why not now?

I did!

No means of getting the card to me here in the TRNC. I can apply now and get it delivered to my UK address but then it may go missing so easier just to wait.

Keithcaley wrote:

Chriswright03 wrote:When I return to the UK I shall certainly apply for a Revolut card...

Why not now?

I did!

How do apply for this Revolut card ?

Just Google it... Or take a chance and try revolut.com

Here’s some info about Revolut:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credi ... vel-cards/

The Starling card is another alternative to Revolut, is also backed by a current account so has other functionality, and at present, no overseas fees:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banki ... ntaccounts

So if you use your UK (HSBC) bank card to withdraw Turkish Lira, instead of Sterling from the Garanti Bank what charges do you actually pay?

Answer:

Garanti Bank will charge you 5.5% Transaction Fee!!!!!!

Don't forget that HSBC will also charge you a 2.75% Transaction fee and that is 2.5% of the total of Garanti Bank charges and the amount you withdraw!

This morning my friend tried the system, here is what he did:

From the Garanti Bank ATM he withdrew 2000TL on his HSBC Premier Card. Below are the transaction figures from his receipt:

Amount Withdrawn: 2,000,00 TL
Transaction Amount: 293.61 GBP
Exchange Rate: 7.18650 TL = 1.000000 GBP
Transaction Fee: %5.50

It is only afterwards when you work all this out that you see the full cost.

Actual cost, at banks exchange rate, if you changed £ into 2000 TL would be £278.55. So the bank has added on 5.5% transaction fee of £15.06 to get you to £293.61.

Then you will have to add on the 2.75% that HSBC will charge on the £293.61 = £8.07.

This gives you a nice total of £23.13 to get 2000TL out of the Garanti Bank ATM - nice work if you can get it!

To avoid this you can always cancel the withdrawal at the Garanti Bank ATM but you need to have a quick mind to do the calculations while they are on the screen. Needless to say, we will never use the Garanti Bank ATM's ever again and never have an account with them!

As a comparison
Transfer £300 to TransferWise by RBS debit card, charge £0.60 (can be avoided by using online banking).
Change to lira, charge .90% + £2 of £299.40, £4.66
Transfer to Creditwest
Charge by Creditwest or the intermediary Turkish Bank, don’t know, 41.20 TL, sterling equivalent £5.75
Total £11.01

If I’d withdrawn £300 here at a Garanti cash point, RBS would have charged me £5, and Garanti £7.50, making £12.50

Both still a lot cheaper than the example above

Well, I prefer to help others (!) - got Sterling from the ATM next to (big) Starling near Ileli, and was not charged. (My bank being Nationwide I am not charged by them either). Hope it won't run out of Sterling too quickly now!

Thanks Guys, all good information to help others. As far as I know you can withdraw Sterling at Garanti and TEB but I do not know of other banks that provide Sterling in their ATM's. For sure - as of 06:10 yesterday - the TEB ATM in Girne (at the bank close to where Mr Pound used to be) did not charge anything for withdrawal of Sterling. I am also a Nationwide customer so they don't charge me either, the only problem I had with the TEB ATM was the amount I could withdraw - my card is limited to £500.00 per day and the amounts offered were £300 and £600 as well as lower amounts, there did not appear to be any way to put in an "other" amount but I will check again once my pension goes in again next week to see if I can hit the £500.00 in a single transaction.

Garanti Bank ATM's seem to be charging for any currency withdrawal off a UK Debit card and I will not use them again!

If anyone knows of any Banks that have ATM's that dish out Sterling I would be happy to hear about them - don't care where they are as I am happy to cruise around and find one - lol. Also banks that do not put Sterling into their ATM's would be nice to know of!

For sure Credit West do not have and can not have Sterling in their ATM. Apparently this is because they are not a Turkish bank but are a Cypriot bank.

From another thread posting: "Bankamatic at Lemar no longer offers Sterling". I think this must be in the row of four ATM's?

Two TEB's I know have sterling (unless they are empty) are the one noted above and another in the row of four ATM's at the end of the Karakum Lemar car park.

Good searching people.

Good information on this topic.

Yesterday I applied on line for the Starling Bank Card. Downloaded the app to iPad and applied. Seemed straightforward to me and no problems with the app or application. Given an account number and sort code immediately. No need to deposit funds into account to open.

We are in TRNC at present but bank card will be delivered to U.K. address and be available for use when we return again in 2019. We will transfer funds from our other U.K. bank (Which does charge for overseas transactions) into the Starling account and use the Starling card to withdraw sterling if available or TL if not.

No charges from Starling Bank to withdraw cash from ATMs overseas.

Well it looks like we have worn out the TEB ATM at Lemar! Currently out of order. Somewhere in one of these threads there was talk of another Bank that was not charging to use their ATM although I cannot find it at the moment. The ATM did say try later so I guess that is the only answer but I also suspect it will be the usual rush before the weekend that has emptied it.

EDIT: It would appear it is Tukey IS Bankomat but where they are I don't know.

I seem to remember that it was a post by Erol, and I think that he mentioned IŞ Bank - I know that there is a IŞ Bank branch next to Arçelik near Barış Park, but I'm not sure whether there are any other free standing ATMs.

I don't understand the business model that allows you to draw a foreign currency (Sterling) and not charge you anything for the Service when you are not even their customer!

What's in it for them?

I used to think that it was a money laundering scam

EDIT: - just seen your post Chris!

Ah but where is Baris Park Keith? You may notice I have edited my post now after searching the other threads and it is IS Bank.

Let me Google that for you...

Sorry, I just couldn't resist that!

Barış Park is near the Electricity Substation / Girne Police Station road in Girne here...

Keithcaley wrote:I seem to remember that it was a post by Erol, and I think that he mentioned IŞ Bank - I know that there is a IŞ Bank branch next to Arçelik near Barış Park, but I'm not sure whether there are any other free standing ATMs.

I don't understand the business model that allows you to draw a foreign currency (Sterling) and not charge you anything for the Service when you are not even their customer!

What's in it for them?

I used to think that it was a money laundering scam

EDIT: - just seen your post Chris!

Keith,

I think you will find out that it is only "fee free" for banks within the EU - another thing we will lose anyway under Brexit! - back to the Golden days for us customers of Nationwide I guess!

Must find out more about these cash cards but have an insane distrust of all things electronic when dealing with my pensions - lol.

Keithcaley wrote:Let me Google that for you...

Sorry, I just couldn't resist that!

Barış Park is near the Electricity Substation / Girne Police Station road in Girne here...

I was doing it anyway but for some reason Google was on a go slow. I did find it but then couldn't get back on here to edit my post. Ta anyway.

Chriswright03 wrote:Well it looks like we have worn out the TEB ATM at Lemar! Currently out of order. Somewhere in one of these threads there was talk of another Bank that was not charging to use their ATM although I cannot find it at the moment. The ATM did say try later so I guess that is the only answer but I also suspect it will be the usual rush before the weekend that has emptied it.

EDIT: It would appear it is Tukey IS Bankomat but where they are I don't know.

I believe theres one near the Boldakan cemetry car park in Girne and lemar karakum never used either so cant vouch for the charges

There is an Is Bank atm on the lapta strip, just by the turning for lamboussa market but it is rare in my experience to find this with sterling in it. Then there is one outside the starling supermarket past alsanjack / golden lady statue if heading from west towards Girne. This more often has sterling than the lapta strip one but still is about 50/50. Then there are 2 atms outside the Is Bank branch in Girne, not far from Baris park and next to the arcelick shop, these most often have sterling but it is difficult to park outside these.

waddo wrote:Thanks Guys, all good information to help others. As far as I know you can withdraw Sterling at Garanti and TEB but I do not know of other banks that provide Sterling in their ATM's. For sure - as of 06:10 yesterday - the TEB ATM in Girne (at the bank close to where Mr Pound used to be) did not charge anything for withdrawal of Sterling. I am also a Nationwide customer so they don't charge me either, the only problem I had with the TEB ATM was the amount I could withdraw - my card is limited to £500.00 per day and the amounts offered were £300 and £600 as well as lower amounts, there did not appear to be any way to put in an "other" amount but I will check again once my pension goes in again next week to see if I can hit the £500.00 in a single transaction.

Waddo there is a box in the middle of the window where it offers the various amounts where you can type in the amount you want. Just did it and it worked. Oh and this was at the Lemar car park so it is up and running again.

For info Iş Bank ATMs do not charge but will only give out a max of £300 per transaction so you still end up paying £5 at the UK end (assuming you get charged by your bank). Thankfully I managed to get what I needed yesterday from TEB at Lemar Karakum with no charge.

Come back HSBC!

waddo wrote:So if you use your UK (HSBC) bank card to withdraw Turkish Lira, instead of Sterling from the Garanti Bank what charges do you actually pay?

Answer:

Garanti Bank will charge you 5.5% Transaction Fee!!!!!!

Don't forget that HSBC will also charge you a 2.75% Transaction fee and that is 2.5% of the total of Garanti Bank charges and the amount you withdraw!

This morning my friend tried the system, here is what he did:

From the Garanti Bank ATM he withdrew 2000TL on his HSBC Premier Card. Below are the transaction figures from his receipt:

Amount Withdrawn: 2,000,00 TL
Transaction Amount: 293.61 GBP
Exchange Rate: 7.18650 TL = 1.000000 GBP
Transaction Fee: %5.50

It is only afterwards when you work all this out that you see the full cost.

Actual cost, at banks exchange rate, if you changed £ into 2000 TL would be £278.55. So the bank has added on 5.5% transaction fee of £15.06 to get you to £293.61.

Then you will have to add on the 2.75% that HSBC will charge on the £293.61 = £8.07.

This gives you a nice total of £23.13 to get 2000TL out of the Garanti Bank ATM - nice work if you can get it!

To avoid this you can always cancel the withdrawal at the Garanti Bank ATM but you need to have a quick mind to do the calculations while they are on the screen. Needless to say, we will never use the Garanti Bank ATM's ever again and never have an account with them!

As I understand it an HSBC Premier account does not apply charges to ATM withdrawals overseas? Or has this recently changed?
I have an HSBC Advance account which allows me to withdraw sterling free of charge overseas.

I've just Googled and they charge 2.75% non-sterling transaction fee for Premier customers. All other customers are charged an additional 2% cash fee to a max of £5.

I have been with Lloyds for years but prior to coming out here I was advised to get a Nationwide account as they do not charge. Worth considering but you need to be in the UK to jump through their hoops to get one.

Having always withdrawn Sterling from a Garanti ATM, I was curious as to whether this was only happening in the TRNC, but no, Garanti on the mainland are also charging 2.5 % , so now also on my own mission to find banks that don't charge. xx

JoandJelly wrote:I've just Googled and they charge 2.75% non-sterling transaction fee for Premier customers. All other customers are charged an additional 2% cash fee to a max of £5.

So no charge for sterling withdrawal?

Went to the TEB atm outside Lemar today to draw TL, Notified a 6% surcharge would be added. Using a Nationwide card.

Glenn wrote:Went to the TEB atm outside Lemar today to draw TL, Notified a 6% surcharge would be added. Using a Nationwide card.

What about if you were to draw out Sterling? I am unsure why you would want to withdraw tl anyway as you get a better rate at the Exchange places anyway and up to the other day there certainly was no charge with Nationwide to take Sterling out.

It may well be that TEB have caught on and are now charging but 6% is twice as much as other banks. Maybe it is because Nationwide charge 3% as well.

Went to a TEB ATM this morning looking to make a sterling withdrawal.

It’s probably me but I couldn’t see anywhere on the screen where I could change the language from
Turkish to English. Or any option to request sterling?

As I said it’s probably just me, plus the screen was in the sun but if anyone can advise it would be helpful.

I know exactly what you mean as I struggled the first time as well and had to abort and try again. It is in the bottom right hand corner of the screen and offers English, French and possibly more. Once you select that with the bottom right hand button all is well.

As Waddo noticed the other day the options it gives for the amounts were numerous but it jumped from £300 to £600 and did not give any option in between. So it looked like you could not take out the £500 limit but you can as there is a box in the centre of the screen that you type in the amount you want.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for reply.

Will take another look and see if I can work it out.

Yes TEB ATM. Insert card, then next screen you can change language with button, bottom right of screen.
Cash dispensed in multiples of £50

Brazen wrote:

JoandJelly wrote:I've just Googled and they charge 2.75% non-sterling transaction fee for Premier customers. All other customers are charged an additional 2% cash fee to a max of £5.

So no charge for sterling withdrawal?

Correct

JoandJelly wrote:

Brazen wrote:

JoandJelly wrote:I've just Googled and they charge 2.75% non-sterling transaction fee for Premier customers. All other customers are charged an additional 2% cash fee to a max of £5.

So no charge for sterling withdrawal?

Correct

Bear in mind that it doesn't stop local ATM operators charging you as described in other posts!

Has anyone tried Bankamatik atm it threw my Lloyds debit card out did not recognise it

Indeed Keith, but that wasn't the question.

Been to the TEB ATM near Lemar car park today and it isn't giving out sterling at all. Tried later still the same. Have we worn it out?