My bank made me switch from my kiddie account to a grown up one. Obviously, they want me to get a credit card, which I'm not doing. I ended up switching to an account that costs $4/month, and $1.50/withdrawal.
The point of my question is that I'm overseas, which means that I have an additional $5/withdrawal that I'm paying for an international withdrawl. Is this a standard fee, $5? Are there banks that charge less, cuz $6.50 per withdrawal is a heck of a lot of extra money...it's 26 shekel (as of today's exchange).

Why don't you just open an account here? They charge a ton, but it sounds like it's still less than that.

There shouldnt be any fees for this. Ridiculous. Tell your bank to f off and get a new one.

Cuz my money comes from there, not here.
I'm opening an account soon for work, but that still won't give me access to my money from my parents.

First of all that is a complete ripoff. You can find banks with less fees and no monthly charge.
2. It might be cheaper to just write checks and give them to the money changer who usually takes 1.5%

Israel sucks. Here they have banks that pay you to have a checking account with them

That's not an option in terms of getting paid.
I'm talking about accessing the money that my parents so kindly put into my account that I then need to access.

I second greentiger. Your parents would have to pay for the transfer to your bank/account in Israel only. Also, are there Credit Unions in Canada, they usually have much better benefits compared to banks. There was also a thread about online banks once, maybe take a look.
As a side note, banks should pay YOU interest for having your money, not the other way around.

Why don't you get an account in the US/Canada and just use your ATM Mastercard or Visa in the Zionist Entity ?

Ok, lemme try this again.
I have a Canadian Savings account. It's a joint account with my parents, meaning that if I need money, my dad puts money into that account, I hop on a bus and go to a bank machine here and take out money. When I can get paid for my job (read: when I get my working Visa finally) I will be opening a Doar account (which AFAIK has no fees, so woohoo!) and I will have access to my work money thru that, but I will still need money from home (rent, etc) so my question really just is if that's a normal amount of money to spend on a withdrawal.

How many different ways do you need to hear that this is not normal? Tell your parents to open an account with HSBC or some other bank that has branches in Israel and Canada and stop getting taken for a ride.

No, it's not. Can your folks open a separate account for "themselves" in TD, Royal or RBS or one of the gazillion Canadian banks and give you a card, perhaps with your mothers name on it ? You could use this card for withdrawals.

We have Royal Bank currently. AFAIK this was the cheapest option (as stupid as that sounds). I wasn't too happy with any of the choices, cuz I know that's $5/withdrawal which is VERY frustrating.

I know, and that account can be a checking account and you write a Canadian check give it to the money changer he takes 1.5% and shalom al Yisrael...

And for those who suggested an international bank, it is illegal (or they just won't do it) to have an active account in more than one country (and currency) in order to prevent money laundering. So that ain't an option...

As for the $5 international ATM charge that is pretty much standard but the fee for every withdrawal AND a monthly fee is most certainly NOT...

Thanks, K-Rebbe!! Someone who finally gets what I'm asking.
The cheque thing isn't such a bad idea, it'll just take a while to get here...I don't have a chequing account, and AFAIK to transfer the account, I have to be present, and I don't really know when the next time I'm going back to Toronto is at this point. It would take too long for a cheque to get here from my parents.

We have a US HSBC account, and we're charged for money we take out here. Only about $1, but it's still a charge.

When I lived overseas I opened a Citibank account. They had branches in the country, and it was free to take out money from the ATMS, I could get it in dollars or pesos. Look into something like that.

Not exactly since I just did it with Citibank a few months ago.According to K-Rebbi, you are money laundering. Either way $1 is better than a $4 monthly account maintenance fee.

After I made Aliyah before I had a job and was earning shekel I lived off my HSBC account. They let me take out 6 withdraws a month with no change. (This may have been ended since then). Now I have a bank leumi account too and they charge me 1.21NIS every time I pull out money. Banks do suck here. Thank G-d Stanley Fischer (of Citibank fame) is the Governor of the Bank of Israel and has started to clean up the bank mess here.

I have a different definition of money laundering, then. And $1 isn't too bad, true. Royal Bank in general likes to charge- if you use your RBC card to take money out of a Bank of Montreal, or TD bank, they charge you a fortune, too.

Our Hapoalim account doesn't charge for withdrawing money, unless we use the bank teller.

Rub it in...

No that is not a problem, as the account is in the US, and is in dollars and you can't deposit money in Israel (you probably can't withdraw directly either even if there is a branch).

All banks allow for international ATM withdrawals....

Neither does Mizrachi. I think I pay like 10 shmeck a month for the account and I have more than enough free ATM withdrawals...
Depositing is always free...

It does suck that they don't give you free toasters, iPods, or even bath towels but the fees really aren't that bad...
They also passed a new law radically reducing fees that will go into effect this year.

I got a Hebrew-English dictionary. And a snazzy (fake?) crystal shachmate board.


As for the fee changes: I *heart* Stanley Fischer!

All I got was a bad attitude