British tourists have been left furious over a new £6 at a time charge in a Spanish holiday hotspot.
UK holidaymakers have been slapped with a new £6 charge to use cash points in Benidorm – something tourists believe is “daylight robbery”.
Fees for using ATMs in Spain can vary, but are generally around €0.50–€0.80 per transaction. However, some ATMs may charge as much as €6-€7.
Calling the new charge “outrageous”, one Brit who withdrew the lowest amount of €50 in cash at a Santander ATM was told on the cash points screen he would have to fork out €7.
This works out at £5.84 – for the privilege. And they could even get an extra hidden fee on top of that.
A message on the screen said: “The bank owner of this ATM will charge you a commission of €7. Your issuing entity may charge you for this transaction, too. Would you like to continue?”
The man said: “British expats and tourists in Benidorm are now being charged €7 to take their own cash out at Santander cash points in the centre. It is outrageous.
“Most ATMs are free to use, and those that do charge only used to cost an extra quid or so. This is daylight robbery.”
This news is likely to leave people across the country furious with the beachfront destination attracting 832,115 British tourists in 2023, a 5.2% compared with 2019, according to Benidorm.org.
Asked if Benidorm is happy to welcome so many British tourists at a time when many holiday hotspots in Spain are asking their local government to regulate the tourism market, Leire Bilbao, director at Visit Benidorm, told Express.co.uk: “We are happy for every tourist that chooses us.
“Imagine, they are saving money all year to invest in their holidays and they decide to choose us. Our fidelity rate is very high – 73 percent of the tourists come back to us. That is a wonderful award for us.”