Automated teller (cash) machines (cashpoints, bancomats) are everywhere in Turkish cities, airports, and even in most small towns.
Choose your language: Turkish or English for sure, and sometimes French and German. Just push a button to get screen prompts in your language.
North Americans! Note that Turkish ATM keypads usually do not have alphabetical keys (ABC for 2, DEF for 3, etc: see the keypad at lower right on this page). If your PIN/password is actually a word, and you’re used to pressing the letter keys, you’ll have to translate your password into numbers. (Your mobile phone keypadmay have the letters on it.) Make a note now of the numbers from this USA keypad:
Your home-bank account will be debited for the amount you withdraw from a Turkish ATM (plus a service charge, of course).
Because bank card fraud is a big problem in Turkey, there is a chance that your home bank may limit or deny use of your ATM/cash/debit card in Turkey. Some travelers report that after one use in Turkey, their cards were ineffective. Talk to officials at your bank—in particular the Card Fraud Division—to make sure this does not happen to you. (Also, see the Cautionary Tale below.)
Even if they tell you all is well, you may still find your charges denied, so take your bank’s contact information with you so you can contact them and yell at them for not helping you.
Some elaborate cash machines issue Turkish liras, euros or US dollars, as you wish, but I wonder about the service fees…
Sometimes there are glitches: the machine doesn’t recognize your card, your bank or your account, or the data lines or computers are insufficient to handle the data traffic. Try later, or try some other bank’s cash machine. More…
Note that some machines may not process your transaction on Sunday because your bank may be closed. You may want to get money before Sunday.
A tip: figure out how many liras you want to withdraw before you step up to the cash machine. Do a quick conversion in your head (exchange rates) because you probably “think” in your own currency, but the machine will ask you how many liras you want to withdraw.
A Cautionary Tale
A TTP user from Canada had a serious problem withdrawing money from ATMs in Turkey. Here’s his story.
| Turkish Lira Exchange Rates |  |
Best Travel Agencies