Where to withdraw money without fees in Gdansk (Poland)

The first two things you do when you set foot in a new country’s airport: (1) buy a SIM card (2) withdraw cash.

In Gdansk, I didn’t do either. For the SIM card, it wasn’t necessary because roaming in Poland was included in my plan. And for withdrawals, there are only Euronet ATMs at the airport, which charge a service fee of at least €4.05 for every withdrawal!! (even though I have an international card).

Luckily, I was able to pay for my bus to the city center via an app and didn’t need any cash.

However, even though all restaurants and supermarkets in Gdansk accept credit cards without any issue, I still wanted to have some cash for tipping and buying small things like an ice cream or a pastry.

So I searched for ATMs everywhere, but the most visible ones are still Euronet. At BNP Paribas, the fees are also very high, so I withdrew from Bank Pekao. It’s very discreet; you need to do a Google search to find where it is. Here, if you have an international card like Revolut or Boursorama Ultim, there will be no fees (withdrawing 500 zloty costs me €109.62). You just have to refuse the exchange rate offered by the bank, that’s all:

If you have a regular card, tough luck, you’ll get fees everywhere. Your bank’s conditions apply. Or you accept the proposed exchange rate (which corresponds to an 11% commission) and the money is withdrawn in Euros from your card. If you exchange money, I calculated, it results in a loss of 16%.