Banking in Brazil as a foreigner

Brazil has been my home for at least 6 months of the year for the past 6 years. I say "my home" as it is the only place I actually own a house, though I do not have permanent residence here.

As a non-resident I an unable to open a bank account here so have to rely on my UK account and cashpoint machines (ATMs). Since the exchange rate at the moment is very favourable it is probably a good thing I don't have a local account holding my meagre savings, but accessing this money can be a challenge. When I first came here the daily (local) withdrawal limit was R$1000, which at the time was around £330, but recently, for some unknown reason the banks have reduced the ATM withdrawal limit - for foreigners - to R$500, which is around £90 at the current exchange rate! One "reason" given is it is to protect tourists from muggings or being taken to an ATM at gunpoint to clear out their account - however it is possible, where there are multiple different banks, to make a withdrawal at each in succession up to the R$500 limit.

In my town we only have one physical bank, which has 6 ATMs, though only 4 actually dispense cash - the others are for deposits, balance enquiries, bill payments (if you have an account there) and other services. One of these is a "priority" or preferencial ATM, for disabled, pregnant, elderly (over 60 here!), and mothers with toddlers.

It is possible to make over the counter withdrawals of amounts up to your own bank's daily limit (though I have never tested this), but getting inside the bank is a challenge. You have to pass through a revolving, metal-detecting, door watched over by an armed security guard - so have to divest yourself of anything metal, including keys, coins, phone, glasses, and so on. These are passed through a perspex "letterbox" in the armoured glass wall, and collected by the security guard (he needs to check there are no weapons in them!), who then gives them to you. You then are faced with a ticket machine - you have to select whether you are a customer or not, then it asks for an ID number??? The guard informed me that I simply have to press "continue" at this stage, and then it asks what service you want, so I select counter (as opposed to talking to an adviser or other employee), and then I select "preferencial"! The previous time I went in there was no queue at the counter, just the person being served, so I declined priority, and then sat as 4 priority customers in a row entered an were attended before me! One had a pile of bills to pay so I ended up waiting 30 minutes! So the next two times I selected priority, however the automatic system (linked to a screen) wasn't working so I had to wait to be called - and both times they served around 10 people before me! I only ever go inside as a last resort now.

I went in the other day to withdraw some cash and only three ATMs were functional, and had long queues, so, although I am entitled to priority treatment, chose the shortest queue (there appeared to be several qualifying customers already in the priority queue anyway). After a 10 minute wait it was my turn, so I inserted my card - and it told me the machine had a problem with my card and I should go to another ATM! As there were still long queues at all the machines, and I wasn't out of cash, I decided to return at a later time.

Today is Sunday so I decide it will be a good time to try again. Still only 3 cash dispensing machines functional, so I choose a different one to the one that caused problems before, and everything seems to be going smoothly - until it comes to dispense my money. "Counting notes" - lots of whirring from inside the machine, and the cash slot opens. More whirring, "counting notes", slot closes - and this carries on for 10 minutes, before I get a message there is a problem with the cash drawer and transaction is cancelled! I take a chance on the priority machine and this time it dispenses my money, though I must admit I was starting to worry what I would do if I couldn't withdraw cash from the only bank in town!