Avoiding ATM Fees Using the Grocery Store Trick
When I can’t find an ATM without fees, I just go into the nearest grocery store, and buy something small and pay for with the ATM card and ask for cashback. In urban areas I look for a drugstore like Walgreens. I’ve never had a surcharge, and it’s a ‘purchase’ so your own bank won’t charge you either for using a foreign ATM.
But what should you buy? If you buy something useless, that’s wasting money too right? If I see something on sale or need something anyways I’ll get it, but my standby is stamps. You’ll use them up sooner or later, the price is the same everywhere, and they don’t lose value.
Find more in Frugal Living | 7/13/06, 5:04pm | Trackback
July 13th, 2006 at 5:53 pm
I always wondered, what happens to old stamps when USPS rises its rates?
PS. I don’t mail much — I buy a set of stamps when the rates go up, and still have some left when the rates go up again.
July 13th, 2006 at 5:58 pm
Next time you go to the post office, buy as many 2 or 3 cent stamps as you need. I went in and asked for the exact number of two-cent stamps I needed during the last increase.
July 13th, 2006 at 9:11 pm
Yup, been doing tat for past 5 years coz I used to live in a small town (and since I bank online, my ATM was not available). I used to buy the 25 cents gum from Walmart and get $100 back
July 13th, 2006 at 9:34 pm
Stamps do lose value though.
July 13th, 2006 at 9:55 pm
Yes, Anon is right: stamps do lose value. As time marches on, your stamps will be ravaged by inflation. If my calculations are correct, in 24 years your 2 cent make-up stamps will be worth…1 cent. Suggest you liquidate and roll the proceeds into I-bonds.
July 13th, 2006 at 10:11 pm
Its my favorite trick. I pay maybe 1-2 ATM fees/yr.
July 13th, 2006 at 10:12 pm
Tough crowd
July 13th, 2006 at 10:22 pm
the ATM fee hits when you just finished dinner in a restaurant and they tell you that they don’t accept credit cards. Cash or check only. That happened to me once and I ended up paying $3.50 to the bank who owns the ATM, $1.50 to my bank, and $3.00 to the restaurant. Because this “famous” BBQ place is in the middle of nowhere, I had no choice but to pay. The food wasn’t even that good, and we saw some roaches roaming around a corner! This is all my friend’s fault who always have passion for Texas BBQ.
So my advice, always keep some cash in your pocket.
July 13th, 2006 at 10:37 pm
This is actually a great idea. Although I get my fees rebated from usaa so I don’t have to worry about it. I also think gmac will rebate fees too but I haven’t used their debit card.
July 13th, 2006 at 11:41 pm
Blake said “Suggest you liquidate and roll the proceeds into I-bonds.”
ahahahahahah. Good one.
I’ve also been using this trick for a while. A Kroger even let me get money out without buying anything. The cashier just rang up a 0.00 transaction and I “paid” with my debit card and asked for money back on the key pad.
July 14th, 2006 at 7:42 am
Good idea but the old Home Depot loop hole was so much better, you buy a $100 GC and go into the store buy a nail for $.60 cents and they’ll give you the $99.40 back.
July 14th, 2006 at 8:16 am
If you have a safeway around, you can use your discovercard, and get cash upto 50 bucks with your small grocery store transaction and even get Discover CASHBACK on it. I have been doing this for ages.
July 14th, 2006 at 9:02 am
I use ETrade bank.. no atm fees anywhere.
July 14th, 2006 at 9:16 am
The easiest way to avoid ATM fees is to sign up for USAA four star checking, open to everyone. They have no minimum balances, and have no fees for ATM withdrawals. And they pay up to $15 worth of other banks ATM charges per month. So I use whatever ATM I want, with no charges (assuming I dont go over the $15/Month)
July 14th, 2006 at 9:56 am
USAA is no longer allowing non-military to open new accounts.
July 14th, 2006 at 10:07 am
My husband sometimes finds himself out of cash in the middle of the week and asking if I have any. It’s become old habit to pause before finishing our weekend shopping transactions to check and make sure he has enough cash for the week. And then I add $20 to it (which I stick in our emergency envelope at home.) With direct deposit and many stores taking debit, it is easy to find yourself without any cash.
July 14th, 2006 at 2:23 pm
I would suggest to get the cash back with buying the “gift card” from the store (if you will come back to this store in the near future). Then you put off the time to make the decision (on what you should buy) and still keep the purchasing power.
July 14th, 2006 at 2:35 pm
Actually with a 5% cashback card at grocery/drugstores stamps aren’t the same price everywhere. It’s small change but I’d hate to buy a stamp with my debit card when I can use citi/chase/amex 5% cards.
July 14th, 2006 at 4:12 pm
I’m not sure about that Discover Card Cashback trick. I’ve never done it because I always thought it was a cash advance, which does not have a grace period.
July 14th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
Ha… I think we can use our debit card to buy something (or gift card) and get the cash back. Then.. in the near future, you bring your receipt and the thing we bougth back to the store and ask for a refund. Therefore, it won’t hurt the chance we use Citi/Chase/Amex 5% rebate.
July 14th, 2006 at 7:49 pm
Will,
Discover treats it as purchase from grocery store. If they have a 5% cashback special even better. You will still have the same grace period as ever. No cash advance at all.
July 14th, 2006 at 8:32 pm
I never get why people pay ATM fees. I’ve done this maybe once in the past 3 years. I use my credit cards whenever I can for the reward points and use about $200-300 in cash each month. I make sure I have some cash in my wallet and some extra cash (like $60) in the house and hit my bank’s ATM about a couple of times a month when I get low. But then I live in Manhattan - maybe a lot of people live far from their banks?
July 14th, 2006 at 8:55 pm
Go one step further and get paid to take cash! Use your discover card and take up to $50 at most grocery stores. Buy stamps or something usefull and add $50 cashback at the register. You will get up to 1% and the whole thing is treated as a purchase. You get about 50 cents for each cashback. Back when I used to work in an urban area I went everyday and just deposited the cash in the bank atm at the store. Free float too.
July 15th, 2006 at 5:33 am
Yes, you can do cash back at the grocery store with Discover Card and it’s coded as a purchase. No fee. I’ve done it before. There used to be a page about it on the Discover Card web site, but I can’t find it. I think Discover called it “cash over” on the page.
July 15th, 2006 at 10:03 am
I usually use a GMAC atm. You can withdraw money from any bank and it will reimburse you up to $6 for ATM fees.
July 15th, 2006 at 11:00 pm
what’s the highest cash amount can you get from using debit card? For instance, if I want to buy a $400 tool from Home Depot, can I actually get $400 from Wal-mart first? That 5%, then home depot has some 10% off coupons. That’s a lot of savings.