Withdrawing cash from ATMs in Croatia – access fees

As you know, Croatia has been a part of the Eurozone since January 2023 so for all tourists coming from a country within that zone there is no need to exchange Euro to Croatian Kuna anymore. That makes payments easier and more convenient for everyone as it takes away the hassle of constantly converting the prices to your own currency.

It is also advisable to pay with your debit or credit card whenever possible since it is more convenient for the customers as well as the sellers who, especially in smaller shops, often run out of change. However, many people prefer to use cash as they believe that is a better way for them to keep track of their spending while on vacation. Also, certain goods and services (for example vending machines, ice cream or fast food, sports services or equipment rentals or a simple tip for a friendly waiter) require cash as card payment is not available.

When considering cash, the first advice would be to assess how much you plan on spending while on vacation and to bring that amount of cash with you. But if you don’t feel comfortable carrying around larger sums of cash, you might need to resort to withdrawing money from an ATM in Croatia. This involves access fees: the cost for withdrawing money from a local ATM with a foreign bank card.

There are two types of fees associated with each ATM withdrawal: the first is the fee, charged by the owner of the ATM you use, and the second fee is charged by the bank that issued your card.

This second fee therefore depends on your bank and you should check it yourself but it is usually less than 1 € for debit cards – fees for withdrawing cash with a credit card are usually higher.

For cash withdrawals using bank cards issued outside of Croatia the local banks will charge an access fee. These fees should be clearly stated on the screen before you complete the transaction and you should be given an option to decline them and cancel the transaction if you don’t agree with them.

Below you can see ATM access fees charged by major banks in Croatia:

• Zagrebačka banka: 5.31 €
• Privredna banka Zagreb (PBZ): 4.78 €
• Erste Bank: 4.75 €
• OTP bank: 5.49 €
• Raiffeisen bank: 4.65 €
• Hrvatska poštanska banka: 5.00 €
• Addiko bank: 3.89 €
• Istarska kreditna banka Umag: 4.75 €

If you use an ATM in Croatia that is owned by the Croatian branch of the same bank (or the bank from the same group) as the one who issued your bank card, you might avoid these fees.

A few examples:

Clients of OTP bank can withdraw cash without fees on OTP ATMs in Croatia.
Clients of Unicredit bank can withdraw cash without fees on Zagrebačka banka ATMs.
Clients of Intesa Sanpaolo can withdraw cash without fees on ATMs by Privredna banka Zagreb.
Clients of Sparkasse bank can withdraw cash without fees on Erste Bank ATMs.

However, clients of Addiko bank AG still have to pay a fee of 0.73 € even on Addiko ATMs in Croatia.

You might also have a package plan with your bank that allows you to withdraw money from ATMs abroad without any fees (either for a certain number of withdrawals or for all of them).

There are also independent networks of ATMs throughout Croatia, set up by companies like Euronet, Monestiq or Auro Domus. Those usually charge access fees for withdrawals however the fees are set individually so make sure you check before using either of those ATMs.