Withdrawing cash from an ATM with a credit card. Fees and interest, interest-free period

ČSOB will offer customers the possibility to borrow cash from an ATM free of charge and without interest using a credit card. The only condition for such a loan to remain completely free is timely repayment before the end of the interest-free period, just like when using a classic credit card.

ČSOB is preparing the event as a temporary event – it will start on December 1st and should last until the end of June 2023. It concerns all credit cards for natural persons (non-entrepreneurs), including those with the Poštovní spořitelna brand.

During the event, the bank will waive fees for all cash withdrawals via deposit at its bank ATM – by default, it is 50 crowns for each selection. At the same time, it counts not only ČSOB ATMs in the Czech Republic, but also in Slovakia, as well as KBC Brussels and CBC (Belgium), K&H Hungary (Hungary) and UBB Bulgaria (Bulgaria) ATMs.

For premium customers with Mastercard World Elite cards, ČSOB will also temporarily cancel fees for credit card withdrawals from all other ATMs in the Czech Republic and abroad. For other customers (with Mastercard Standard, MC World cards or with payment stickers), these fees will be reduced: withdrawals from other ATMs in the Czech Republic will cost 40 CZK instead of the usual 100 CZK and euro withdrawals in EU countries , Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Andorra and the Vatican. In the remaining cases, the commission will drop to 100 CZK from the usual 150 CZK.

The original commissions remain in the price list, the bank does not cancel them. Officially, this is just a temporary marketing event.

A good servant, but a bad master

ČSOB credit cards offer, like the competition, an interest-free period of up to 55 days. Example: Everything you pay by credit card in December (including ATM withdrawals) is “free” from the bank until January 25th. If you pay off the debt on time, such a loan will not cost you an extra crown.

The interest-free period is the advantage of credit cards over other options: discovery you accrue interest from day one, you usually have to charge interest or commissions even with the classic ones loans including so-called payday micro-loans.

But be careful: as soon as you are late or don’t have enough money, credit card loan they will become more expensive due to higher interest or, in the worst case, due to penalties. A disadvantage of a credit card can also be the flat-rate processing fees (if it is not part of a current account). It can also put you at a disadvantage when you apply for another loan, because they count you as a potential borrower in their records (card credit limit).

How much does it cost to withdraw credit from an ATM?

Credit card with an interest-free period, banks mainly provide you with cashless payments at merchants, at a terminal in a store or via the Internet. The bank receives a commission from such payments.

Bank they generally don’t want you to withdraw cash from your credit card because they wouldn’t be sure. Or they would also lose if you transferred the money from the loan account to savings account.

Therefore, almost all banks charge a high fee when you withdraw cash from an ATM with a credit card. Sometimes the fee is still tolerable if you have no other choice, for example Česká spořitelna earns 50 kroons from their ATMs, as does ČSOB (which will temporarily cancel it as part of the event). It’s worse when you come across a bank that calculates the fee as a percentage of the withdrawn amount. Raiffeisenbank probably has the strictest conditions, wanting 3.5% of the amount raised – at least 89 kroner each time.

The exceptions are Fio and mBank, where you can have at least some withdrawals without fees. But with them you will encounter another drawback – they immediately begin to calculate interest on cash withdrawn on credit, that is, not until the end of the interest-free period. So even if you pay off the debt on time, as you are used to with cashless withdrawals, it will get more expensive. Raiffeisenbank, UniCredit and Hello bank have a similar exemption from the interest-free period. In addition, Raiffka charges a higher interest rate (29.99% per annum) when using a credit card for cash transactions than regular non-cash payments (23.99%), Moneta also has a higher interest rate high for the Gold premium card (not the basic smart credit card).

The so-called can be more beneficial than withdrawing credit from an ATM reimbursement, when you first pay for your purchase with a credit card at the merchant and then withdraw cash. Česká spořitelna and ČSOB offer cashback with a credit card as a free standard and also have an interest-free period. Moneta, which charges a CZK 15 fee for credit card cashback, will also wait with interest. Conversely, Raiffeisenbank wants interest from day one in such a case. And UniCredit, for example, wants both a fee (19 CZK) and interest.

Transfer from a credit account? With Skip Pay for free

ČSOB’s temporary action to waive fees for withdrawing cash from an ATM using a credit card is as revolutionary as its subsidiary’s offer Skip the pay – formerly Mallpay. She specializes in deferred payments and since February of this year it has allowed it send money from Skip Pay account limit to any other account. In practice, Skip Pay thus offers an interest-free loan of up to 50 days and combines the advantages of deferred payments by credit card and overdraft.

Similarly, if you wanted to transfer money from a credit card loan account at a bank, perhaps just into your checking account at the same bank, you would usually expect a hefty fee. Some banks also pay interest on money transferred this way from day one, the interest-free period does not apply to them.

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