TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Bank of America Customers

Scotiabank is now charging $5 for ATM withdrawals for BOA customers, it has been free in the past.

TY for the heads up.

Their webpage says the opposite...at least for customers using their Scotiabank card. It may just be lagging in reflecting what happens in real time life.

http://sx.scotiabank.com/about-scot...r-machines-atms/global-atm-alliance.html

There are of course the usual legal weasel words in mice type at the bottom:

By free access, we mean Scotiabank will waive the International ATM Access Fee and Global ATM Alliance members will waive any terminal convenience or usage fees for any withdrawal transactions performed at Global ATM Alliance machines with your ScotiaCard. Free access does not apply to Scotiabank ATMs in Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Panama, or Belize. All regular account fees continue to apply.

That may be what the web site says. However the reality is we live here and have been using Scotiobank for about 15 years with no charges. Yesterday we were charged $5 for our transaction. Probably in anticipation of their pending sell out to some other financial institution. The ATM's have all been changed out too.

BofA doesn't sock you with the foreign based transacation fee of 3%? They do for me, or at least say they will, so I got a different ATM card.

Never have in all these years, at the ATM. We don't use it as a debit card. Our CC's (not BOA) have no fees for transactions here.

Now you have me intrigued (or, I'm just easliy confused). You can withdraw cash at an ATM using a credit card, paying no % of withdrawal fees, or not incurring interest charges?

No, I'm talking about using BOA ATM cards at Scotiabank ATM to withdraw $ from a BOA account in the US. Up until now, Scotiabank had some kind of arrangement with BOA for this service.

Ok, in the US. Thanks.

The ScotiaBank here on SXM.

I would say go cashless except there are still many businesses in SXM that are cash only. In New York almost everyone pays with debit or apple pay. It is funny to see customers at 7/11 with a coffee in one hand and their cell phone to pay for the coffee in the other.

ScotiaBank is probably passing along a fee that BOA is charging. Unless you're also paying a fee to BOA.

Next time you're back in the States, look into opening an account with TD Bank. They re-emburse ATM fees world-wide. That's what I use in SXM.

The fee is from BOA, not ScotiaBank.

Just going to bring back cash and stash it

I appreciate the "head's up" on this. Used BOA Travel Awards card in December /January with no problems. Checked in advance for standard terms (collision coverage/no up charge for foreign purchases etc.) . Will know to use another card for ATM next vacation.

BOA Travel Awards card is a CC.....I hope you don't use a CC to get cash out of an ATM. It's still appropriate to use that BOA card for the purchases you mentioned

Scotia Bank SXM's ATM operator is Global ATM Alliance which may have changed from another ATM operator?

Check with other banks on the island or another ATM to see if there is a different ATM operator with lower fees...

I have used the ATM in the gas station at the border roundabout but there was a fee as well.

...or use a card that refunds all atm fees

That works too!