That friendly ATM screen offering to charge you in euros or pounds instead of the local currency is not a convenience. It is a markup of 5 to 12 percent or more, and it is free to decline.

In Spain the ATM fee is a lottery decided by which machine you pick. Some banks are free for foreign cards, others charge up to 7 euros, and Euronet hides a much bigger markup. Here is how to always pick the cheap one.

Portugal is one of the easiest countries in Europe to withdraw cash cheaply, as long as you use the right machine. Multibanco is effectively free for foreign cards, Euronet is not, and one prompt (sometimes two) can undo all of it.

Georgia’s ATM fees are small by global standards: two banks are reported fee-free, and the conversion prompt still costs more than any of them.

Every Thai bank charges foreign cards a flat 220 baht (and rising) to withdraw cash, and there are no fee-free ATMs left. You cannot delete the fee, but here is how expats shrink it to almost nothing.

Pulling cash out abroad rarely costs one fee. It costs up to three, stacked on top of each other, and two of them are avoidable. Here is how to spot each one and shrink your withdrawal costs to almost nothing.

Not all Mexican ATMs charge the same. A BBVA machine can cost 197 pesos while a Banamex or BanBajio charges under 35, and BBVA is on every corner. Here is the full fee-by-bank table, the limit trap nobody mentions, and how to withdraw pesos for almost nothing.

If you earn in euros and live on another currency, the fee on the homepage is not the fee you pay. Here is where the money actually leaks, why Wise and Revolut both win and lose depending on how you use them, and a worked example on a real salary.