The original post: /r/moldova by /u/neburlaks on 2024-12-26 12:25:05.
Hi, everyone.
I took my time and gathered all info I could from official places about ATM cash withdrawal fees in Moldova for foreign cards in 2024 (info checked on 26 december 2024).
I hope this will be useful !
In summary:
ALL MOLDOVIAN BANKS CHARGE FEES, so it seems best way (for you as a tourist) is to get local currency is old school way, that is exchanging your hard currency like EUR, USD, GBP, etc. locally in Moldova in places like banks, exchange offices etc. There is plenty of those in Chisinau.
Also when withdrawing money from ATM you should note, that fees given here only reflect Moldovian banks side. Usually there is also some fees from your card issuing bank.
ATM cash (moldovian leu) withdrawal fees for foreign cards (issued outside Moldova) are below:
OTP Bank
1,5% + 1 eur
Big network - a lot of atms in Chisinau
Maib (Moldova AgroIndBank)
1.5% + 20 MDL (~1,05 eur)
Big network - a lot of atms in Chisinau
MoldIndConBank
2%
Big network - a lot of atms in Chisinau
Victoriabank
1,5% + 20 MDL (ATMs outside hotel premises)
2,5% + 20 MDL (ATMs inside hotels)
Relatively big network
FinComBank
2,5% + 50 MDL (~2,60 eur)
Rather small network
EximBank
1,9% (according to pricelist), but possibly 2,5% (read below)
Bank representative told me that fee depends on your foreign account currency - if its in USD or EUR, then price will be 2,5%, if in MDL (which is highly unlikely), then 1,9%... this is strange policy, I think they force DCC (dynamic currency conversion).
36 atms in Chisinau
ProCredit Bank
??? - no info about fees
Small network - only 2 atms in Chisinau
EuroCreditBank
2%
Small network - only 7 atms in Chisinau
Energbank
2,5% (limit per day is 400 eur equivalent)
Small network - only 7 atm in Chisinau
Comerțbank
1,5% + 15 MDL (~0,78 eur)
Small network - only 5 atms in Chisinau
Also interestingly that you can withdraw USD, EUR and RON in a lot of atms in Moldova, but withdrawal fees are even higher for those currencies.
p.s. No idea about situation with DCC (dynamic currency conversion) in Moldova - normal practice is to offer customer a choice and display question in ATM - "do you like to get your money with conversion?" or "without conversion". And you should always choose "without conversion", which means conversion of currency will be done by your own bank, not bank of ATM. If you choose "with conversion" conversion will be done by operator of ATM (moldovian bank) which will most likely bring you higher fees.
