I used my US card in Finland & the ATM just asked me Charge in USD or Charge in EUR - I feel like I should choose USD coz thats the currency in my bank account but it had these super confusing numbers on the screen saying 8% markup so not sure. What should I do?
Happened to me at a S-Bank ATM inside a Prisma supermarket in Espoo. I laughed when I saw the “great guaranteed rate” - it was way worse than what Google showed. Hit EUR, and my Wells Fargo account converted properly. A Canadian traveler next to me hit USD and immediately regretted it after checking his statement. Always EUR in Finland.
This is called DCC. Banks in Finland like OP, Nordea, and Danske offer it to tourists. The safe answer is always to take the withdrawal in EUR and let your US bank handle the currency exchange. Even if your US bank has a 3% foreign transaction fee, you’ll come out ahead compared to the ATM’s built-in markup.
I tested both at an OP Bank machine in Turku. Withdrawing €200, the USD option made me pay $238. The EUR option ended up being $220 once processed by my Capital One card. That’s an $18 difference just for pressing the wrong button. Local currency is always the way in Finland.
At a Nordea ATM in Helsinki Central Station, the screen offered USD or EUR. Always pick EUR. If you choose USD, you’re letting the ATM set a bad conversion rate with a markup (the 8% you saw). Choosing EUR means the card network does the conversion at the real rate. My Citi card always gave me better results on EUR.