In Cyprus (as in many other European countries, by the way), you can often come across Euronet ATMs. I remember someone once told me to be wary of them, but didn’t go into much detail about why.
I hardly ever saw these ATMs in the capital, Lefkosia (Nicosia), but in tourist areas, they’re on almost every corner—brightly designed to catch your eye and offering the option to withdraw large amounts of cash. That’s appealing, since most ATMs have withdrawal limits. And when you’re abroad, cardholders usually pay an additional fee for each transaction, so it’s more cost-effective to withdraw less frequently but in larger sums.
For a long time, I didn’t really look into what made these ATMs so problematic—especially since I live far from any tourist zone and don’t have any of them nearby. But I kept hearing negative feedback, so at some point I decided to dig into the issue.
Complaints
What do people usually complain about? Mostly about the huge fees for withdrawing cash—and the fact that you often only find out about them after the money has already been withdrawn. How huge? We’re talking 10% (on a good day) to as much as 30% (!!). So, say you want to withdraw €1,000—the ATM gives you that €1,000, but your bank account is charged €1,200 or €1,300. That’s when you start wondering what just happened.
Interestingly, local Cypriots rarely run into this issue themselves—so they often recommend these ATMs to tourists. Why the selective effect? It all comes down to how Euronet’s business model works.
How Euronet Works
On paper, Euronet’s fee is fixed and relatively small for this kind of transaction. It ranges from €1.99 to €4.99 depending on the country, most commonly around €3.95 per transaction. So no matter how much you withdraw, you’re charged that additional amount “for the service.” But in practice, things are much more complicated.
The key point: Euronet heavily relies on DCC (Dynamic Currency Conversion)—a feature of bank cards that allows you to pay in your home currency while abroad. The original idea behind DCC was to help users better understand how much they’re paying and potentially save money by avoiding foreign exchange fees from their home bank (some banks still charge extra for foreign currency transactions, while others have stopped).
So, if you come to the EU with a card issued in, say, Ukrainian hryvnia, Belarusian or Russian rubles, the operator may offer to convert the amount into your home currency on the spot, and the request to your bank will be sent in that currency. The system doesn’t actually know the currency of your card—it only guesses based on the issuing country.
In stores, DCC is relatively transparent: the terminal lets you choose the currency and shows the amount you’ll be charged. Then it’s your decision whether to accept or not. The trick is that the exchange rate is set not by Visa or Mastercard, but by the acquiring bank. So how favorable the conversion is depends entirely on the provider’s bank’s ethics. But still, the bank can’t do it without your consent. If you see a bad rate, you can decline it and pay in the local currency—which may be cheaper.
Euronet, however, uses this system in a much more deceptive way. From what I’ve gathered, they essentially perform multiple conversions:
- If the ATM determines that your card is “foreign” (based on its BIN vs the ATM location), it offers DCC, i.e. to convert the amount into your home currency (home of your bank).
- If you accept (and the message shown is usually vague and confusing on purpose), the conversion happens—and here’s the twist:
- It’s done at Euronet’s own highly unfavorable exchange rate.
- It’s done via USD. So if your card is in Belarusian rubles: first rubles to USD (bad rate #1), then USD to EUR (bad rate #2).
- If your card is actually in EUR but issued in Belarus, and you still agree to DCC, your bank might perform a third conversion back to EUR.
So What Are You Paying For?
- Losses from conversion #1
- Losses from conversion #2
- The “service” fee (€3.95)
- (Possibly) another conversion by your bank if the card’s currency differs from the DCC guess
- (Possibly) your bank’s foreign ATM withdrawal fee
All of this makes up the final amount charged to your card. In practice, this often results in a total loss of at least 10%, and in some cases up to 30%, depending on your luck.
Since DCC can’t be applied to local cards, Cypriots don’t encounter any of this. That’s why they’re often relaxed about it and may even recommend Euronet ATMs—they never see the problem themselves.
Is This Even Legal?
Euronet is an American company based in Kansas, but it tries its best to mimic a European identity so that uninformed users mistake it for a local provider—and, after all, Europe doesn’t like to go after its own. Even the name Euronet hints at this intention.
Also, Euronet is not a bank, but a financial services provider—which means it operates under looser regulations.
Even though it uses the word “euro” in its branding, the logo clearly says worldwide, to suggest legitimacy: “We’re not some random scam—our scam runs globally.”
What’s more, they technically aren’t breaking any rules. DCC is an official card feature. They’ve simply found a clever way to exploit users’ lack of knowledge, while hiding the details. Everyone is shown a prompt, and they have the option to decline. If they agree—well, whose fault is that? Don’t like it? Well, you could’ve just declined and not used it.
Euronet places its ATMs specifically in tourist-heavy areas, where people don’t know which banks are local and where the chance of DCC being triggered is highest. That’s why I don’t see any near where I live—it’s not a tourist zone. Tourists, however, need quick access to cash, and Euronet lures them in by offering large withdrawal limits.
Because of how DCC works, Eurozone residents are mostly unaffected, since their cards are usually already in euros. Still, some countries consider Euronet’s practices borderline predatory—but technically, there’s nothing illegal. To stop this, laws around DCC transparency and consumer protection would need to change. But that’s a slow process—and frankly, not a priority for most Europeans, since it doesn’t affect them.
And so the business continues to thrive. There are other networks like this in Europe, but Euronet is probably the biggest and best-known.
What Can You Do?
Personally, I recommend avoiding Euronet ATMs altogether and instead looking for a bank branch in your area, which will almost always have its own ATM. In Cyprus, you can also safely use JCC network ATMs—a nationwide payment network you can trust.
As a general rule, avoid DCC unless you really understand what you’re agreeing to. Sometimes, your own bank’s fee and conversion rate will be much more favorable.
And most importantly—spread the word among your friends. The fewer users fall for these traps, the less profitable this kind of business becomes. (Though let’s be honest—there will always be enough people chasing fool’s gold.)
