I’m not sure where is the best place to put this up to date information as of October 2023:
Have just been to Singapore, Spain and Portugal. I hope this information is helpful. Full disclosure - I am allergic to Bank Fees.
Cash - Good News: before leaving Australia how to obtain cash in a cost effective way took a lot of effort searching the internet and I still wasn’t sure until actually travelling and testing ATMs whether we would be successful keeping fees to a minimum.
First Rule: in case you have not read this before - Do Not Use any ATMs associated with Euronet - ever! The charges are outrageous. And Euronet are everywhere, outside convenience stores, restaurants etc… so very tempting - I cringed everytime I saw someone at an Euronet.
ATM machines - Debit Cards (hopefully you know not to use your Credit Card at an ATM)
UBank Debit Card & ING Card were equivalent to each other with no fees and the same fair exchange rate:
ING has more rules - but I was already used to their rules and managed to do my 5 transactions at the beginning of every month to meet the requirements. If that is too difficult - UBank is awesome.
I used UBank and kept ING as my back-up. You need a back-up.
ATM machines - countries
Singapore – one ATM was going to charge 8SGD we walked around the corner to Maybank (yellow colour) and it was zero fee. Suggest google the nearest Maybank to your accommodation - there might even be one at Changi. I took out $20 with ING, UBank and Wise to test their exchange rates (fee free so it was a worthwhile exercise as I was travelling for 66 days). All 3 were similar. I don’t like Wise because they pretend to be fee free but they are not - they have a limit to the withdrawls you can make per month before charging you fees - the limit is so low it’s not a fee free option - also they charge you to move your money around - also I find their marketing under hand. UBank and ING are truly fee free.
Spain – The first banks we tried charged Euro8 or more; the 3rd bank we tried was Deutsche Bank, charged Euro3 on a withdrawl maximum of Euro300, and we went with that. I would google Deutsche Bank and go to the nearest one to your accommodation.
Portugal
we used Multibanco – Caixa Geral de Depositos and got charged zero fees. Apparently all Multibancos do not charge a fee – but we stuck with the same brand after having success at Caixa Geral de Depositos in Lisbon. We found that brand everywhere in Portugal.
The maximum withdrawl at one time was Euro200. It didn’t matter because 3mins later or after someone else used the ATM or using a different card accessing the same account you can get another Euro200. We got Euro600 out at a time, (3 times) because in Portugal they appreciate cash - and some smaller businesses only accept cash - fair enough.
Note that during the process the ATM asked if we wanted to accept their exchange rate and we pressed Decline, then it asked a second time in a different way, like do you want to lock in the the exchange rate?, we pressed Decline again – then it processed the withdrawl at our banks exchange rate – which is many many Euros better than the rate offered by the ATM – for us anyway as we were using a Debit card with Australian UBank and Australian ING and both give the best exchange rates on offer.
Credit Card - Lattitude 28 degrees: for good exchange rate and no fees is still the best Credit Card for overseas travelling - in my opinion. Unless you are a points gatherer the best fee free / no points earning credit card.
As a couple we have an account each and each of us has an additional card with the others account. We use one card / one account all the time - it’s easier to track our transactions using only one card - and therefore to know quickly whether there is a fraudulent transaction. We have the other card as our back-up. You need a back-up.
Travelling alone I would either use my UBank Debit Card for everything and keep the 28 degrees Credit Card as back up - or the other way around.
I hope this is helpful
