Imagine this for a second: banks charge you fees to access your own money… while they earn interest on it.
ATM fees 
Monthly “maintenance” fees unless you park $10K earning garbage interest
Wire transfer fees
Foreign transaction fees
According to a Bankrate.com survey, more than 25% of Americans with checking accounts pay an average of $24 a month in banking fees. And I can promise you—I pay a lot more than that while traveling. It feels like a rigged game.
Here’s how it usually plays out on the road:
Wells Fargo charges me $5 for using a non-Wells Fargo ATM
Except… Wells Fargo ATMs don’t exist outside the U.S.
The ATM owner then slaps on $3–$10
Then the bank adds a foreign exchange fee to “hedge” my money
That’s $15–$22 gone before I even see my cash.
You always get f#cked in the ATM drive-thru. 
Sure, there are ways to reduce the damage—pull out more cash at once and eat fewer fees—but that means carrying more money and increasing the risk of getting robbed. I hate carrying cash. I travel with backup cards for a reason.
Recently, I found a partial solution: banking with Charles Schwab in the U.S.
They never charge ATM fees
They reimburse any ATM fees you incur worldwide
It’s not perfect. The downside is that moving money into Schwab can take up to two business days, which can hurt in an emergency.
So yeah—win some, lose some.
But for fuck’s sake…
It’s my money.
