Anyone ever used their foreign-issued Debit Cards in Pakistan for cash withdrawals ??

Society Travel & Tourism
1

AOA,

Has anyone used their US/Canada/UK/European issued debit cards for withdrawing cash from big bank ATMs in major cities of Pakistan (like lahore, karachi, islamabad etc )?
If so, please share if you had difficulty or if it went thru without issues ??

Thx.

2

Previously you could do it easily thru citibank. I dont think they have citi anymore. I'll ask around if anyone did that recently

3

I tried my UK ones in July 2017 - nothing worked. But they do work in UAE.

But credit cards work in Pakistan for expenses.

4

Walaikum Asalaam... we tried our Canadian debit cards in Lahore this last December and they worked only at international bank ATMs like Bank Al-Falah. Bank Al-Falah is also in the Middle East. They didn't work at local bank ATMs like Meezan. They will charge a fee (around Rs. 250-300/transaction) for withdrawals and your bank will also charge too for using an international ATM.

It would be advisable to also let your bank know in advance that you'll be using your card overseas so they do not block it.

Credit cards usually work everywhere in-store.

5

^^ Beware doing transactions through that bank though. Locally, it is known as bank al 'fraud'. Media won't tell you that.

6

Thanks for the replies. I know we all take cash usually but this was just to know, in case of emergency or shortage so what can be done. Hopefully more people can share their experiences as well.

7

For extra cash needs, I use TransferWise to transfer money from my US account into a relative?s Pakistani bank account. They give excellent exchange rate and minimal fee. The first transfer took around 1 week to complete but subsequent transfers completed within hours. Keep in mind though that withdrawing more than PKR 50,000 cash per day is subject to a 0.6% tax, which can be avoided by withdrawing over multiple days.

8

There are some credit cards, like i've heard about from capital one, and that they dont charge money on international transactions for one year. So you apply for the credit card, use it and then cancel it upon return after paying off. Best case scenario

9

thanks for the replies. (hopefully more people share their experiences).
JazakAllah