Here in the UK they charge on everything, IIRC when I went to USA they charged something like £5 per withdrawl, then the amount you got would also have an expensive spread. The £5 per withdrawl was irritating as it forced you to withdraw $200+ a time, the more you took out the cheaper it would be overall.
This is normally the typical US ATM fee which UK banks don't bother to try and return to you, AIUI. The credit card spread by itself isn't that bad; it's better than almost all alternatives except for pre-pay currency cards (not as secure or convenient as a credit card especially if you get saddled with a big pre-auth somewhere) or shopping around for the cheapest cash conversion (in which case you end up with a wad of high-value notes you can't spend if you're not careful).
