This is abit frustrating but why are banks allowed to fix their own foreign currency exchange rates?Some just pull numbers out of their ass and set that as the exchange rate.

Am expecting a mastercard debit card with some dollars in it.When I withdraw money(ksh.) from a local ATM,will it calculate the exchange rate according to numbers internationally/CBK or will it calculate according to the imaginary number set by barclays bank in this case?

Are there any other banks/ATMs that accept mastercard but with competitive exchange rates?

The prevailing global rate is applied if you are withdrawing KES locally from an international Mastercard. At least that has been my experience. Anytime before I withdraw, I have used www.xe.com for a rough idea of the rate and it has always been accurate. But you must factor in ATM withdrawal fees, FX conversion charges, the card provider's commission and other costs which the firm that gave you the card will inform you on. A Mastercard is accepted on KCB, BBK, Stanbic and Pesapoint ATMs because I have used them before. There are most probably more ATMs that accept it. In other words the last thing you should be concerned about is finding ATMs that will accept your card.

i have been using bbk and the rates are okey.pesa point i triend once and i dont intend to go there again they rates were too low.

Exchange rate are determined by the branding company which can either be VISA, Mastercard, JBC, Mastero, Dinners and many more.
VISA rate will be standard across board for all visa acquirers (POS and ATM) for a particular currency on any day. Difference comes in when an issuer(The bank that provides the card) opts to charge or defined a commission on a particular type of a transaction depending either on transaction type, currency type, transacting point. That why you find some issuers opt on charge point of sale others do. for foreign currency txn some issuers inflate the exchange rate levied by visa/mastercard to PROTECT themselves against exchange losses. Hence the discrepancy.

The issuing company is charging $3.15 per ATM withdrawal,this shouldn't be a a problem if I withdraw huge sums at a time.Point of sale transactions are free.

However,this is the part that I still don't understand:


Basically what does this mean?It was written in small fonts and appears to have strategically been placed at the bottom of the page for me not to see it.Is this some sort of fine print?
What does this mean if say am withdrawing sh.10,000?