LLM

I used this for the first time overseas, at Tel Aviv airport. The charges posted to my Schwab money market account at interbank rate plus the $1 fee. Much better than Union Bank of California which now charges $3.50 fee plus 2% forex add-on. My MBNA goldpoints card still has no forex add-on. I think I have a winning combination!

uncertaintraveler

[QUOTE=mmthomas44]In 2003 I used BofA card at Duetsche Bank ATM in Italy. I was charged a foreign ATM fee by BofA. I used it at Duetsche Bank ATM in Germany a few weeks earlier and was not charged ATM fee.

That's interesting. I have never had that happen to me...

grbflyer

When using an overseas ATM, you will likely get hit with a fee by your OWN bank if it's a big bank. Citi, Chase, Wells Fargo, BOA, Wachovia, etc. all typically charge $3-10 for each foreign ATM transaction (in addition to the Visa/MC 1% conversion fee if they pass it on). Some premium customers might be exempted from those fees, but check with your bank. My banks (Commerce Bank of NY/NJ and Umbrellabank.com) do not charge anything for using my Visa ATM cards overseas.

****
i work for chase, they only charge $1.00usd for non-chase atm machine withdrawls. and you can get those waived if you have certain accounts. i will check with my managers to inquire about fees with credit card purchases.

Boraxo

That is not entirely correct. My bank does not charge a Visa/MC conversion fee because my ATM card is not a debit card. And this highlights a more critical misunderstanding about use of U.S. ATM cards overseas.

You do not need a debit card to use ATMs overseas. Any ATM card linked to the Cirrus or Plus system will work just fine. My Citi ATM card - which is NOT a debit card and has NO visa or mc logo - has worked perfectly in ATMs located in England, France, Spain, Israel, Morocco and other places. Also, there is no "VI/MC conversion fee" because I am not using the services of visa or mc. Of course, your bank (and perhaps mine) may add its own currency conversion fee, but that is another matter.

You can also get cash easily with your ATM visa debit card. But you may risk being shafted with a VI/MC "transaction fee" depending on how the transaction is handled. That is one reason why I carry a non-debit ATM card. (Another reason is that if the card is stolen, the thief will not be able to drain my bank account by using it as a visa card for merchant transactions).

I am sorry to see TheMicah's fine summary is slowly getting bumped up the page. That post is really all one needs to know about foreign exchange and using your ATM card or credit card overseas. ^

themicah

Are you sure that Plus works overseas? I knew about Cirrus, but thought Plus was mainly domestic. If Plus definitely works, I'll amend my summary to reflect that (I'll also amend the summary to reflect that you don't need a debit card).

Also, although I thank you for the compliment on my summary, I also note that your correction to grbflyer was actually a correction to his/her quote of summary. So I guess the compliment isn't fully deserved...

Boraxo

To be fair, Citi is only on Cirrus, not Plus. I have seen a number of dual Plus/Cirrus machines, but will have to double check as to whether that was outside the U.S.

And yes, I noticed later that the quote was from your post - though to be fair the distinctions between pure ATM and ATM/debit cards are blurring, as opposed to the debit vs. credit cards. Thus, I stand by my compliment as your summary post really cuts through many pages of confusion...IMO it should be a sticky.

themicah

This discussion seems far more appropriate for the new wiki system. So I have moved my summary to the wikipages:

http://www.flyertalk.com/wiki/index....reign_Exchange

Please feel free to edit it if you have confimed correct information to add. Please try to keep the page readable, however. I've put a lot of work into its formatting, so please don't screw it up.

alanh

Plus is owned by Visa. If you check their ATM locator, it shows lots of Plus ATMs outside the US. I've use my Plus BofA ATM card outside the US fine.

imm2b

I used my fidelity debit card in Mexico and they didn't charge me any fees.

uncertaintraveler

MBNA seems to be going overboard on applying their foreign transaction fees. A few weeks ago, I purchased a ticket on BA from IAH-LGW on BA's USA website, priced in US dollars, and noticed that on my most recent statement I was charged the foreign transaction fee.

I called to complain, arguing that the terms and conditions for applying the foreign transaction fee clearly states that the fee applies only when purchases are made outside of the US or in foreign currency--the CSR stated that BA charged MBNA in foreign funds, so they passed that on to me. I argued that any such transaction was between BA and them, and because my transaction was solely in US dollars and on BA's US website, I had no reasonable expectation or notice that any foreign transaction fee would apply. The CSR stated that this wasn't true, because "everytime you use your MBNA card with a foreign company, you are on notice that a foreign transaction fee could apply."

I then said, so...everytime I use my MBNA credit card to fill up at BP gasoline stations, or buy a Sony TV, or use it at a Honda dealership, I should expect a foreign transaction fee?

The CSR then promptly agreed to waive the fee...

Regardless, I won't be using their credit card any longer. Forcing the consumer to conduct corporate background checks before using their card seems a bit much to me.

LLM

Just FYI, before I left for my last trip I confirmed with MNBA there was no FX charge yet on the Goldpoints card and indeed none was charged.

izzik

I'm really sold on Commerce Bank of NY/NJ.
Just used my ATM card in London - withdrew 80 GBP and it was posted as $137.56 or 1.7195 USD per 1GBP. Their YES Checking account only requires a $100 minimum balance.. and I think the first year has no account minimums (if that $100 is too much for ya).

themicah

I've added a preliminary list of cards to the Wiki page associated with this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/wiki/index....reign_Exchange

Please add other cards if you have confirmed data for them, or if you don't know how to edit a Wiki or HTML tables, send me a PM with the information and I'll do it when I get a chance.

LLM

Good list. Just a correction: the goldpoints card does not add even the 1% as yet.

ziobacio

I just added a line for the card I used for three weeks in Italy: the MBNA Fidelity Investment Rewards MC, which gives 1.5% cash back. (This is not the same as the MBNA Visa now being advertised at the Fidelity site.)

The card turned out to be an even better deal than I thought: no additional fee of any sort on the statement. I checked the exchange rate for several random purchases against the calculator at http://www.xe.com/ccc/, and the imbedded cost of the transactions seemed to be 0.3% to 0.7% (it's hard to match dates exactly).

For cash, I used my USAA debit card. No fees for ATM use.

The only time I got dinged is one shop used dynamic currency conversion (DCC) on my charge. I tried to explain to the clerk not to do that, but he didn't know what was going on, and I gave up (language difficulties, I had no idea how to say DCC in Italian). Throughout my trip, actual exchange rate ranged from 1.17 to 1.19 dollars per euro or so, but on that DCC charge, the exchange rate was almost 1.25! On a 15 euro charge, that meant almost an extra dollar.