It’s Easy to Avoid ATM Fees in the Republic of North Macedonia

It’s easy to avoid paying ATM fees in Macedonia. When it comes to making cash withdrawals it’s a very tourist-friendly country.

I lived in Macedonia for a month and never once had an ATM machine try to hit me with any withdrawal fees. Having said that, I didn’t try ATMs from all the banks. I only used three:

• NLB
• Halkbank
• Stopanska Banka AD Skopje

I have no idea if any of the other banks are likely to charge fees but if you use ATMs that belong to NLB, Halkbank, or Stopanska Banka AD Skopje you should be able to avoid paying cash withdrawal fees in Macedonia.

Another good thing I noticed with these banks was their machines don’t use dynamic currency conversion to try and trick people into accepting an unfavourable exchange rate. Macedonia is the first country I’ve been to where the ATMs never presented me this undesirable option.

UPDATE (September 2022): Unfortunately, NLB appears to charging ATM fees now. According to a comment posted by an anonymous site vistor, the feee is 300 MKD per withdrawal.

How to Avoid Foreign Transaction Fees from Your Own Bank

However, avoiding ATM fees in Macedonia, or any other country, is only half the battle. Most travellers will still get hit by the foreign transaction fees made by their bank back home.

Fortunately, it’s possible to avoid such fees by opening a Wise Multi-Currency Account. Opening an account is easy. You can do it online and it totally free. The account comes with a special Wise Mastercard. You can use it to pay for goods and services anywhere in the world and to withdraw cash from ATMs. It’s a great way to avoid lining the banks’ pockets by paying unnecessary fees. I’ve had a Multi-Currency Account for quite a while now and it’s saving me money every week.

So, if you are visiting Macedonia, it will be easy to avoid paying ATM fees. If you want to avoid paying your own bank’s foreign transaction fees, that’s doable too.