Following a multi-year effort by the Alaska state legislature, with support from the National ATM Council, the state signed into law a bill that authorizes surcharges on international credit/debit card transactions at retail ATMs.
Previously, independent ATM companies were “precluded from charging a reasonable fee for providing ATM services to international visitors in Canada,” NAC executive director Bruce Renard said last year. “This has placed a ‘hidden tax’ on Alaskan cardholders and penalized Alaska’s small businesses who collectively have been subsidizing surcharge-free ATM transactions using foreign cards.”
Added Renard after the bill was signed into law by Gov. Mike Dunleavy: “Retail ATMs help keep our nation’s consumer-spending based economy running strong each day by providing convenient and widespread access to cash across America. This new state legislation will help spur valuable economic benefits from broad based cash access at retail throughout Alaska – a very good thing for The Last Frontier.”
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