Wise ATM fees abroad: free allowance, limits and charges

Wise ATM fees begin only after you pass a monthly free allowance set by where your card was issued: 250 GBP in the UK, 250 EUR in the EEA, 250 USD in the US. Since May 1, 2026 that allowance has been an amount per calendar month with no cap on how many withdrawals you make, it resets on the first, and it counts per account. Past it, the charge differs by region.

How the free Wise ATM allowance works

Wise states the rule by the calendar: “Each calendar month you have a free withdrawal allowance” (Wise help center). Inside that amount Wise charges nothing for the withdrawal itself, and the number of trips to a machine stops mattering everywhere except Brazil. Which allowance applies comes down to the card rather than the country you are standing in, because “ATM withdrawal threshold and charges are based on where your latest card was issued”, usually the registered address on the account (Wise). A UK-issued card carries the 250 GBP allowance wherever you travel.

Carrying several cards does not multiply the allowance. Wise puts it directly: “If you have multiple cards on your account, the fees apply per account” (Wise). Two cards, one allowance.

The clock is the calendar month. Wise describes “a monthly limit, which refreshes on the first day of the month”, with a separate daily limit that refreshes each day at midnight (Wise). To check how much of the allowance is left and when it rolls over, open the Cards tab and pick Your spending limits, where you “Select View ATM fees to see your free allowance, and when it resets” (Wise).

Brazil is the one place still counted in withdrawals rather than money: “You have 1 free withdrawal each month”, and a 20 BRL fixed fee applies to each one after that (Wise). A Brazil-issued card also sits outside Wise’s automatic currency conversion whenever BRL is involved (Wise).

The structure dates from May 1, 2026, when Wise began “updating the structure of free ATM withdrawals and the fees”, switching over at a different local hour in each country (Wise). Wise summarized the result for customers in the UK, EU, Australia, New Zealand, the US and the Philippines as “no limits on how often you can withdraw” (Wise).

Whatever you do owe comes out of the account itself. “All the Card transaction fees will be withdrawn from your Wise Account”, and if the balance cannot cover them your “Card may be declined” (Wise card supplement agreement). Leaving a small buffer in the account currency avoids a refusal at the machine for the sake of a few units of fee.

Wise ATM fees by region

The allowances and charges below are the ones Wise publishes for the structure effective May 1, 2026, by the place your latest card was issued (Wise).

Most regions in that list charge a percentage and nothing else. A fixed fee per withdrawal sits on top in five places only: Brazil at 20 BRL, Canada at 2.69 CAD, India at 1.40 USD, Japan at 100 JPY and the US at 1.95 USD (Wise). Hungary carries the highest percentage in the table at 3.59%.

What a UK or EEA card pays after the allowance

The UK wording is the clearest of the set. Wise’s UK card fees page gives free withdrawals up to a total of 250 GBP a month, after which a 2.69% fee “applies only to the amount in excess of that 250 GBP allowance” (Wise). Take out 400 GBP across a month on a UK-issued card and the first 250 GBP is free, which leaves 150 GBP exposed to the percentage: 2.69% of 150 GBP is about 4.04 GBP for the month.

The EEA works the same way on a 250 EUR allowance, which the Irish page states as “2.69% of amount over 250 EUR” (Wise). Wise illustrates the percentage itself with an EEA card: a 2.69% variable fee on a 100 EUR withdrawal comes to 2.69 EUR, and the variable fee is applied to each withdrawal you make above the monthly allowance (Wise). Australia is built identically above 400 AUD (Wise).

Practical consequence: once the allowance is gone, a single larger withdrawal costs less in Wise fees than several small ones only where a fixed fee is charged per withdrawal. Where the charge is purely a percentage of the amount above the allowance, the split makes no difference to what Wise takes.

The fee on US-issued Wise cards

A US-issued card withdraws free “as long as the total combined amount withdrawn does not exceed 250 USD” in the calendar month (Wise). Once withdrawals in the month pass 250 USD, Wise’s US card fees page states the charge as “1.95 USD + 1.95% fee applies to each ATM withdrawal” after you reach 250 USD in a calendar month (Wise).

The same page adds the reminder that applies at any machine anywhere: “ATM operators may charge their own fees” (Wise). Two more US-specific points matter before a trip. Daily spending limits are not simply equal to the monthly ones as they are for other cardholders (Wise), and a balance inquiry is unavailable: “You can’t check your balance at ATMs” with a US-issued card (Wise).

Converting when you don’t hold the local currency

The ATM fee is one layer; conversion is another. If the currency you are withdrawing is not in your balances, “we’ll charge a conversion fee to convert it for you” (Wise). The US cardholder agreement extends that to part-held balances: a withdrawal larger than your balance in that currency triggers a conversion, and “Wise currency conversion fees will apply” (Wise).

Wise picks the source balance for you. Its Smart Conversion takes “the currency with the lowest conversion fee”, and where several balances carry the same fee it uses “the one with the best exchange rate” (Wise). The Australian card supplement agreement words the tie-break as converting “based on the highest conversion rate” (Wise).

You cannot override the choice: “You can’t set a default or preferred currency to convert from” (Wise). The one lever available is exclusion rather than selection. Money moved into a jar is kept out of card spending, so if you do not want a particular balance touched at an ATM you “add your money to a jar” (Wise).

The rate on that conversion is the mid-market one. Wise’s card pages promise spending “at the mid-market rate” with “No markups or margins” (Wise), and the conversion article repeats that “You’ll always get the mid-market exchange rate when converting money”, with a fee that varies from currency to currency (Wise). The published floor for that fee is “From 0.24%” on the UK pricing page (Wise) and “From 0.23%” on the US one (Wise). Because the figure depends on the pair, check your own route in the app rather than budgeting on the headline.

Two limits on all of this. Where Wise does not support the currency, the card network’s rate takes over: the UK and EEA agreement says Wise “will convert the amount at the current Mastercard or Visa rate” (Wise), and the US agreement says “Visa exchange rates will apply” (Wise). And Brazil-issued cards are outside automatic conversion when BRL is involved (Wise).

Say no when the ATM offers to convert

The single most expensive button at a cash machine is the one offering to bill you in your home currency. Wise recommends refusing, “because most ATMs and card terminals will use an unfair exchange rate” when they convert for you (Wise). Wise says its own research found that accepting the machine’s conversion usually costs “6%-13% more than if you withdraw without conversion” (Wise).

The prompts are worded differently from one machine to the next. Wise’s recommended answers are: continue without conversion when offered the choice; debit in the local currency rather than your home currency; no when asked to let the machine convert for you; and no when asked to confirm the exchange rate (Wise). If the screen asks whether to debit in your home currency or the local one, pick local (Wise). The US cardholder agreement makes the stake explicit: “you must choose the local currency” for the Wise exchange rate to apply (Wise).

One more prompt catches people out. The Wise card is a debit card, so “for most ATMs just select the debit option”, though in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand debit may not be offered and credit works instead (Wise).

ATM operator fees, failed attempts and declines

The machine’s own charge is separate from anything Wise takes. “Some ATMs may charge additional fees over what we charge”, which Wise cannot predict but which are usually shown before you confirm (Wise). Wise’s advice is blunt: “Always review the fees you see on the screen before withdrawing your cash” (Wise).

Those operator charges are not free of consequence inside your account either. “Wise withdrawal fees and third-party ATM fees are counted towards the withdrawal limits” (Wise). Attempts that produce no cash can also cost you headroom, because “Unsuccessful withdrawal attempts may count towards your limits and free allowance” (Wise). That is a reason to stop guessing after a refusal and find out why.

Wise lists the refusals that show up at a machine: a frozen card, limits already reached, a PIN entered wrongly three times, an unsupported country, and a card whose details no longer match an address you have changed, in which case “your old card may not work for certain payments” (Wise). Hardware is on the list too: “Some ATMs, particularly in the US, may only support magstripe payments”, which means enabling magnetic stripe withdrawals in the app (Wise). When the machine takes the transaction but hands over nothing, Wise points you at the operator, which should be able to help with an error on its own machine (Wise).

Wise card withdrawal limits and how to change them

Two layers of limits apply at once. Account spending limits cover card spending and ATM withdrawals across every card on the account, and on top of that “You also have ATM withdrawal limits”, which apply to cash alone (Wise). Each layer has a daily and a monthly figure, and for most cardholders the daily figure matches the monthly one by default, with US-issued cards as the exception (Wise).

Rather than trusting a number you read somewhere, read your own. Go to the Cards tab, select Your spending limits, and in the Account limits section you will see your daily and monthly ATM withdrawal limits and when they refresh (Wise). To raise or lower them, Wise’s steps are: the Cards tab, Your spending limits, Edit in the Account limits section, then your new limits and Confirm (Wise). US-issued cards have several kinds of limit that are edited individually, and there you “can only change between default and maximum limits” (Wise).

A per-card limit cannot buy you more room than the account allows: “The amount you spend still can’t exceed your account limits” even if the card is set higher (Wise). Limits are also not fixed for good, since Wise reserves the right to “increase or decrease spending limits or add additional limits” at its discretion (Wise EEA Customer Agreement, March 11, 2025). If you move country, change your registered address and order a new card, Wise updates the limits on all of your cards automatically (Wise).

Wise card prices, digital cards and mobile wallets

A physical card is a one-time cost that differs by region. Wise’s card fees pages list the order price as 7 GBP in the UK with a 2.50 GBP replacement (Wise), 9 USD in the US with a 5 USD replacement (Wise), 10 AUD in Australia with a 6 AUD replacement (Wise), 7 EUR in Ireland and the EEA with a 4 EUR replacement (Wise), and free in Canada with a 5 CAD replacement (Wise). Replacing an expired card and ordering a digital card are free in all five, and express delivery starts at 10.85 GBP, 11.58 USD, 16 AUD, 10.40 EUR or 15.41 CAD depending on the region (Wise).

A digital card can still get you cash, but only through a phone. There is no physical copy, so it works online or on a device that supports contactless, and you can “withdraw cash if you use your mobile wallet at an ATM that supports contactless” (Wise). Wise says the same for both wallets: you can withdraw “from any ATM where there’s a contactless symbol” with Apple Pay (Wise) and with Google Pay (Wise). You can hold “3 digital cards at any time, in addition to your physical card” (Wise).

Three switches in the app can stop a withdrawal before the machine ever decides. Turning off the cash withdrawals control “will block all cash withdrawals” made with the physical card or a mobile wallet, turning off magnetic stripe blocks withdrawals where the terminal reads the stripe instead of the chip, and turning off contactless blocks withdrawing from a contactless ATM (Wise).

Wise card PIN, freezing and activation

The PIN is four digits, visible in the app, and “You can’t change your PIN in your Wise account”, though an ATM may let you (Wise). The four-digit length is written into the contract as well (Wise EEA Customer Agreement, March 11, 2025). Machines in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Spain will not change it, and a digital card’s PIN cannot be changed at all (Wise).

Where a keypad demands five or six digits, Wise says to “First try with your regular 4-digit PIN”, then add a zero or two zeros at the end, except in Malaysia, where “you need to add the extra zeros at the beginning” (Wise). Guessing is expensive: enter the wrong PIN three times and Wise blocks it, after which you unblock it from the Card tab, and contactless needs a chip and PIN payment before it works again (Wise).

Freezing is the right reflex if a card goes missing mid-trip. From the Card tab you select Freeze card, and while it is frozen “You can’t withdraw money from an ATM”, although “pending and offline transactions will still be processed” (Wise).

Activation deserves attention before departure. For most cards you activate by paying with the PIN, and if that chip and PIN payment is declined Wise tells you to use the card at an ATM for a withdrawal or a balance inquiry instead (Wise). US cards are stricter: “Cards issued in the US can only be activated in the US”, and the card details appear in the app only after activation, so finish it before you leave (Wise). Balance inquiries at machines are a weak fallback in any case, since they “don’t always give you accurate information” (Wise).

Wise cards that cannot withdraw in their home country

Two regions are marked by Wise as unable to withdraw locally: cards issued in Singapore and cards issued in Thailand (Wise). Those cards still work for cash abroad; home is the gap.

Two other regions can withdraw at home, but only at certain networks. Local withdrawals in Brazil are “typically only supported at Rede Banco 24 Horas ATMs”, and in Japan “typically only supported at AEON, E-net, and Daily Yamazaki ATMs” (Wise). If you live in one of those four places and plan to rely on the card for cash at home, test it against a machine you can reach before you need it.

Before you travel

• Activate the card. A US-issued card can only be activated in the US, and the details reach the app after activation (Wise).
• Read your own numbers in the Cards tab under Your spending limits, and edit them there if the daily or monthly ATM limit is too low for the trip (Wise).
• Open View ATM fees to see how much of this month’s free allowance is left and when it resets (Wise).
• Check that cash withdrawals, contactless and magnetic stripe are switched on, since each control can block a withdrawal on its own (Wise).
• View your four-digit PIN in the app, and remember the zero trick if a keypad asks for five or six digits (Wise).
• Keep a balance that covers the fees, which are taken from the Wise account and can cause a decline if they cannot be (Wise).
• If you only hold a digital card, add it to Apple Pay or Google Pay and plan on contactless machines (Wise).

How we checked this

Facts checked on October 16, 2026 against Wise’s own pages: the regional pricing and card fees pages for the UK, Ireland, the US, Australia and Canada, the help center articles on ATM withdrawal costs, structure, spending limits, PINs and conversion, and the binding card documents, namely the US cardholder agreement, the UK, EU and Australian card supplement agreements and the EEA Customer Agreement. Figures and wording are quoted from those pages, and every claim above links to the page it came from.