The Dangers of Getting Cash Abroad
This cash machine at the airport in Prague is the sketchiest I’ve ever seen:
They push you heavily to do a “0% commission” option that has a 10% markup vs the market exchange rate. They use misleading copy to suggest that it’s a “better” rate, when it’s clearly far far worse.
If you decline, the next page warns that your “exchange rate will be determined later and is not guaranteed” and makes you click on a scary red text button to proceed:
After that, the last page discourages you from getting a receipt, making it harder for you to even notice/prove if you were overcharged:
It’s one of the most aggressive UI anti-patterns I’ve ever seen. This is not accidental design, shame on them!
Of course, I just clicked the sketchy buttons to use the market rate and that’s the only thing that was deducted from my bank account. Unfortunately, I bet the vast majority of people fall for this trap. If you just landed in a foreign country, you likely don’t know what the exact exchange rate is (and you may not have internet on your phone to check).
Scam aside, getting cash in a foreign country is still amazingly useful!
If you’re wondering why it’s showing 40,000 CZK (nearly $1,700 USD!) above, it’s because that was actually the max default and I clicked on it out of curiosity:
