List Of Credit Card Foreign Currency Transaction Fees
Not too long ago I went on vacation in East Asia. While I was there I had the fortune to be accompanied by local friends who could spot me so I didn’t need to convert my American dollars into local currency. However there were at least two occasions when I glanced upon several beautiful small wooden art pieces that I wanted to buy. While I had a few local currency bills on me, it wasn’t enough to buy the slightly expensive art pieces. So I had to resort to what I ordinarily would do back home in the United States – pull out my trusty cash back credit card. Fortunately, I had the foresight prior to traveling to another country, to research and familiarize myself with credit card foreign currency exchange fees.
Watch Out For Hidden International Credit Card Foreign Currency Exchange Charges
While foreign currency exchange fees are now generally listed and disclosed by credit card companies, card issuers rarely publicize these hidden charges, preferring to leave them in the fine print. While some complain that the majority of these interchange fees are not used to process the actual currency exchange, but rather used to fund credit card reward programs and other direct advertising campaigns, the real concern is the lack of education when it comes to incurring these fees. Frequently, consumers who use their credit cards overseas come home to the unwelcome surprise of costly fees on their billing statement.
The foreign currency transaction fee for credit card purchases is comprised of two parts – the fee percentage charged by the card payment network (such as Visa, Master Card, Discover, American Express) and the fee percentage added by the card issuer (such as Citibank, Chase, Bank of America). Visa and MasterCard impose a standard 1% fee on all foreign currency charges to cover the expense of converting your foreign currency purchases back into U.S. dollars. The fee is imposed on the card issuer, but the expense is usually passed onto the consumer. Banks and card issuers that issue Visa and Mastercard also tack on their own additional transaction fee to the total – usually another 2%.
American Express does not have an extra card issuer fee, but it does impose its own foreign currency conversion charge of 2%. Previously, Discover Card was the only major card payment network that levied no foreign purchase transaction fees, however they have now updated their policy and tacked on the nearly ubiquitous charges. But then I challenge you to find a place overseas that actually accepts Discover Card. I think those living abroad probably have never heard of Discover before, likely thinking it’s some off shoot of Visa or Master Card.
Credit Card Issuers That Have No Foreign Currency Transaction Fees
Capital One credit card is one of two major issuers that charges no foreign currency transaction fee for credit card purchases made abroad. While Visa and Mastercard still levy fees on Capital One – the card issuer has made the conscientious decision to waive the fees as a cost of attracting customers. Thus it looks like your best foreign purchase bet would be to apply for a Capital One Visa Or Mastercard to avoid the expensive and cumulative currency exchange transaction fees. I personally have the Capital One No Hassle Miles Card, which I use to earn 1.25 miles on each dollar spent, good for any airline with no seating restrictions, mileage cap, or expiration date on miles earned.
List of Credit Card Foreign Transaction Fees Sorted From Lowest to Highest
Today, most of these foreign transaction fees are laid out in more readable form on your monthly credit card statement. Sometimes they are denoted by a simple asterisk indicating the fee percentage that was levied, while some card issuers will list the actual dollar amount of the transaction fee portion. The transaction fees I’ve provided below include the total combined charges imposed by both the card issuer and the card payment network. Pay attention to some of the hidden special offers out there, especially the ones from more obscure credit unions and brokerage/banks.
| Credit Card Issuer/Offer |
Fee For Foreign Currency Transactions |
| Capital One | 0% |
| Schwab Bank | 0% – Schwab Bank Invest First Visa |
| Stanford Federal Credit Union | 0% – SFCU Visa Cards |
| Affinity Federal Credit Union | 1% |
| NASA Federal Credit Union | 1% |
| Pentagon Federal Credit Union | 1% |
| USAA (Military) | 1% |
| American Express | 2% – Not Generally Accepted Overseas |
| Discover Card | 2% – Not Generally Accepted Overseas |
| Advanta | 3% |
| Bank of America | 3% |
| BB&T Bank | 3% |
| Chase/Washington Mutual | 3% |
| Citibank (Citi Card) | 3% |
| HSBC | 3% |
| PNC (National City) | 3% |
| SunTrust Bank | 3% |
| TD Bank | 3% |
| U.S. Bank | 3% |
| Wells Fargo | 3% |
Reminder Before Using Your Credit Card To Make Foreign Purchases
Modern credit card programs today implement sophisticated transaction software to detect fraudulent and unauthorized credit card activity. If your card has always been used in the New York tri-state region for example, but suddenly credit charges start streaming in from some place like Thailand or Indonesia, your card issuer may raise an eyebrow and start declining those international charges as part of their anti-fraud measures. A quick e-mail or phone call to your credit card company before you travel should prevent such an inconvenience from happening.
Credit Card Users Who Have Made Credit Purchases Abroad May Be Entitled To A Cash Settlement
If you made a foreign transaction using your Visa, Mastercard, or Diner’s Club credit card at least once between February 1, 1996 and November 8, 2006, you may be entitled to claim money from a legal settlement. In response to an anti-trust class action lawsuit brought against Visa, Mastercard, and Diner’s Club for alleged fraud and conspiracy to fix and conceal foreign currency transaction fees on credit card purchases to the detriment of card issuers and consumers, a legal settlement has been worked out. Under the settlement terms of In re Currency Conversion Fee Antitrust Litigation (MDL 1409), those who fall under the plaintiff class have three ways to participate and claim their settlement money.
While two of the options require that you gather your billing statements and receipts to verify the estimated value of your foreign credit card purchases, the simplest method for most is to file for the Easy Refund option, which is the route I personally took. As noted, this option is recommended if you traveled outside of the U.S. for less than one week or had foreign transactions of less than $2,500 using your eligible cards during the 1996 to 2006 period.
April 18th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Thank you for your post. I have been using the wrong Visa card when I have a Capital One Visa card on my wallet. I have been charged 3% for all transactions…From now on Capital One is the one I will be using
April 19th, 2008 at 2:56 am
No problem Mike. These credit card companies definitely don’t do a good enough job of advertising these foreign transaction fees. But then again, why would they want to spoil a good thing for them…
May 8th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Discover has struck a deal with UnionPay, a Chinese credit card, so that Discover is accepted all over China. It is actually now more widely accepted than Visa or MasterCard. I know this because I am on a month-long trip to China and Hong Kong and researched what card to use before I left. Sometimes the merchant might not know what to do with the card, but you just need to tell them it is a UnionPay card.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Anyone have luck negotiating with their credit card company to temporarily wave the foreign transaction fee?
May 21st, 2008 at 6:25 am
I tell my overseas visitors to New Zealand about this all the time and they often look at me like I’m crazy. “Our credit cards are an extension of us. Surely they wouldn’t bite us!” I’ve linked to you in some travel tips I’ve posted and hope your info will bring clarity, or at least stimulate good questions before people buy up large.
Jill
May 21st, 2008 at 10:27 am
The CapitalOne card seems like a good deal, but they refused to honor a charge I made to buy airline tickets, and by the time I had straightened it out I had to pay an additional $500 because the prices went up at the end of the week. Unlike many other cards, CapitalOne does not tell you when it is going to refuse a charge (for example, Bank of America will take the charge and then call you), so even if you tell them ahead of time they can decide to leave you stranded. As a result, I may pay a higher fee, but at least my card works.
May 30th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
CapitalOne is also extremely slow in posting large transactions, which means you can be left with no available credit for weeks while traveling. I recently had an $8k hotel bill for a large business group I was traveling with. When I paid the hotel CapitalOne immediately reduced my available credit by the $8k, but I couldn’t pay my credit card bill until this finally showed up on my account a week later. Then, when I immediately paid the bill off in full on-line, fraud put a 2 week hold on my payment because it was too large. End result, for 3 weeks I couldn’t use my card while traveling, even though I had previously set aside enough money to pay off my full credit card balance immediately. Not a good solution when you’re overseas and you need a card you can rely on! I’d rather pay the fees and have a functional card.
June 14th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
I have made severla purchased from “overseas” retailers over the years. On a recent purchase I noticed the next month a finance charge. Since I pay my CC payment each month in full I called BOA. They stated FTF are billed as advanced cash billing and that the interest is compounding. I told them that was crazy and cancel my card. They agreed to waiver this fee. Next month if there is a fee this card is bye bye……any suggestions for a CC that will not do this????
June 28th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
The answer would be to eliminate Credit Cards altogether. We all carry a cell phone so using the WAP portion – we can do the transaction less than the CC charges. Since it is PIN driven no lost ID or CC fraud. It’s great for the merchant since the transaction would no be subject to charge-backs.
July 5th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
We travel a lot and have been using CapitalOne for the last few years, after being burned with high overseas transaction fees on our regular Visa (MBNA/Bank of America). CapitalOne has been driving us crazy with unannounced blocks on any transactions with an overseas business, even though we go out of our way to notify them in advance. Each time we call them and wind up talking to several different people before the problem is corrected. Sometimes we think the problem was corrected and find out later that it wasn’t. We are now looking for an alternative solution, because CapitalOne’s practices are out of control and too much to put up with.
August 23rd, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Capital one seems like a great deal – and I got their Platinum Cash Card for the specific reason that they said they did not charge a foreign currency transaction fee. But then when I started to make charges overseas, I saw that the amount actually charged is approximately 1% higher than the published rate in the WSJ.
What’s with the discrepancy? The answer is buried in their legal conditions and terms: “For international transactions, MasterCard’s currency conversion procedure includes use of either a government mandated exchange rate, or a wholesale exchange rate selected by MasterCard for the processing cycle in which the transaction is processed, increased by an adjustment factor established from time to time by MasterCard. The currency conversion rate used by MasterCard on the processing date may differ from the rate that would have been used on the purchase date or cardholder statement posting date.”
Best I can tell is that they use the adjustment factor as a type of foreign currency transaction fee. If not – what’s with the discrepancy?
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:34 am
The “discrepancy” is using that WSJ rate. The newspaper published rate is for interbank transactions of $1M of more. You will NEVER get that rate for your credit card transactions. The US Visa and MasterCard associations charge 1% fee to the banks for all forex transactions. In the old days, this was the only fee you saw, but as you know most large banks charge 2% to 3% after conversion into US dollars.
Also keep in mind that you’ll get the rate as of the day the transaction is posted. If you return an item abroad, you will lose money as the rate is different for purchases than credits. Just like the buy and sell forex rates have spreads.
I had OK experiences with Capital One but I only use this card for overseas purchases.
A JCB card may also be a good option for you, particularly for travel to Japan. However, you must be a resident of CA, CT, HI, IL, NJ, NY, NV, OR, WA. http://www.jcbusa.com. They do not have a separate forex fee and their association upcharge is 1.1%. Discover card has an alliance with JCB similar to that of Union Pay. Currently JCB cards are accepted wherever Discover cards are accepted. Reciprocity is supposed to start by the end of 2008, but this has yet to be confirmed.
November 4th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
I live overseas. Capital 1 has no fees, but is the worst CC company I have used. Card # was stolen, and they can’t seem to figure out how to mail me the replacment or send the mom-in-law stateside a card. Reps are foreign and don’t do very well.
Use at your own risk
December 1st, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Capital One Canada charges a 2.5% foreign exchange conversion fee
I just applied online for one and I decided to read the disclosure agreement before I submitted my application and I saw 2.5% foreign exchange conversion fee for foreign transactions. Maybe US capital one is the only one that dont charge foreign exchange conversion fee
December 9th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Hi,
I think you blog needs a real update, banks are way ahead of you!
I made an online purchase on December 5th, 2008 from an online retailer(epharmacy) based in Australia using my citi bank Master Card. The actual purchase is US$ 16 but transaction fee is US$ 40.
I’ve no idea how to deal with issue. it is really messed up situation.
December 10th, 2008 at 3:02 am
Sohail, I would really recommend calling the number of the back of your credit card and finding out what that is about. I use my U.S. currency credit cards all over Central Europe and never have I even heard of such a ridiculous fee. At the very least you ought to easily be able to get them to waive the fee this one time.
Good Luck – I’d really like to see what Citi’s response is. That’s insane!
January 13th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Schwab has a cashback credit card with no foreign currency transaction fee(s)…you need to establish a Schwab broker account however (having said that there’s no minimum and no fee on either the brokerage account or the cc, so maybe there’s no downside).
Schwab Bank Invest First Visa Credit Card
February 1st, 2009 at 4:33 pm
I deal with the Foreign Currency Transaction Fee problem every day. Luckily there is another option for people who don’t want to deal with Capital One, but who also don’t want to deal with the fees – Charles Schwab Bank offers a Schwab Bank Invest First™ Visa Signature® credit card. No transaction fees – plus 2% back to an investment account.
It’s nice to have options.
Also – the foreign currency transaction fee on the Amex is higher than 2% (somewhere between 2.7% and 3%) and it’s accepted widely here in Poland.
February 4th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Hey,
One basic question about credit cards. Lets say I buy something at an online store for 100$/5000 Indian Rupees using a US based credit card. Paypal/Merchant’s bank contacts the credit card company and the credit card company authorizes the payment. The item gets shipped. When would the amount be credited into the merchant’s account? If that happens exactly at the time of purchase, the merchant would get 100$/5000Rs. But if that were to happen after 2days, and lets say the $ value drops to 48 Indian Rupees after 2 days. Then, will the credit card company just transfer 100$/4800Rs to the merchant’s account or will it transfer 5000Rs? This might sound silly, but I had this doubt since some of my credit card transactions appear with a latter date on my statement. I have never used my US credit card for purchases in India, so I don’t know how it works.
Pls clarify..
February 24th, 2009 at 8:48 am
I have ordered prescribed medicine for years from Canadian pharmacies. Paid by Mastercard ( Citibank). No problem til about a couple months ago when “bam” I am charged for a foreign transaction. The Pharmacy is based in Houston, Tx, which buys from some place in New Zealand. They pay with US dollars. I contacted Mastercard & they give me a song & dance about my buying from foreign suppliers. I bought from a US based ( even tho they are Canadian ) company. I can’t believe they can get away with this. I challenged them & my Pharmacy-but got the same answer-I doing a foreign transaction! I don’t like it. If I buy a new TV-it was made in China or somewhere besides the USA-I dare you to buy very much that is not made in a foreign country. Should we be charged for that? I’m looking for a credit card company that does not make that charge. Any suggestions? I am an 84 yr old woman & feel like I’m being used & I shop with these people to save a buck!! Thanks!
February 27th, 2009 at 8:37 am
Just received a message from Discover Card. They are now tacking on 2% for foreign currency transactions.
All good things come to an end I guess.
February 28th, 2009 at 8:53 am
Discover is now charging 2% for Foreign Purchases. I just got the notification. I am upset. It was the reason I changed to Discover!
February 28th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
There is a new card in town – The Charles Schwab Bank Visa. It does not charge a Foreign Currency Transaction Fee and it gives you a flat 2% cash rebate on all purchases. I’ve been tracking the differences, and this seems like the best alternative.
March 4th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Barclays Visa charges 3.00% on all foreign currency conversions. So listen up everyone, it’s not on the list, but I have first hand knowledge!
March 10th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
sir, i am a business citizen of india. i want a free lifetime credit card. please send me details.
March 13th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
I spend most of my time in France and have had good luck with Capitol One. Yes, there is the occasional transaction denial when the issuer’s fraud software thinks it sniffs something funny. But other than that, it’s been okay. And I collect cash-back rewards on all overseas purchases. As noted above, Discover isn’t accepted much in Europe and now also see currency conversion as a revenue generator. so Capital One is the only U.S. card to turn to, although I’ll check out the Schwab card.
What I would really like to avoid are wire-transfer fees and unfavorable foreign exchange rates from my greedy American bank when I wire money from my U.S. account to my overseas account. The unfavorable foreign exchange costs me 4-5% of the transfer. Any one have any ideas?
March 14th, 2009 at 1:41 am
Dan the way I get around the fees is pretty arcane, but it works. I live in Poland and when I need to deposit money into my Polish Bank Account, I’ll go to the ATM in my Polish Bank – make a withdrawal from my US Bank in local currency, and then walk over to the counter to make a deposit in local currency to my Polish Bank account.
My US Bank charged 1 1/2 percent for the foreign currency fee, but gives a very fair exchange rate.
It’s not the most convenient and it is a little time consuming, but I avoid larger fees. My bank will also raise my ATM-limit substantially if I call them prior to the transaction, so I’ve never had an issue of not being able to withdraw enough cash.
If you click on my site, to the right there’s a link for credit cards where I’ve had several entries about Capital One and The Charles Schwab Card – You might find some of the older posts helpful.
March 16th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
updates – the cash settlement for visa is over and I spent a month in England for summer 2008 and I was able to use my amex quite a bit
March 23rd, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Discover will charge foreign currency fee starting 6/1/2009
March 26th, 2009 at 9:54 am
Just a note of caution when using Capital One. Be aware that the conversion fee that they use is the one for the posting date, not the transaction date (even though I had 4 capital one reps tell me the opposite) . I recently made a purchase and it was posted to my account 2 weeks later. In this economy with the changing conversion rates, it ended up costing me 12% more than I was expecting, as I was looking at the conversion rate the day I made the transaction.
March 27th, 2009 at 2:49 am
One way to get around foreign transaction fees with a large amount of dollars is to use a cashier’s check. I used this to take out thousands from wamu and place in my RBC accunt in Canada. This way, I saved over $120 to transfer over $3000 to pay for school. Othewise, writing a check directly to the school would cost me that much, plus the $120.
April 3rd, 2009 at 10:23 am
I have just found out that Citibank has now started charging the same 3% Foreign Transaction Fees even if the transaction is in US Dollars and there is no conversion necessary. As long as it is out of the country the fee is charged. I too am going to check into your Capital One suggestion!
April 6th, 2009 at 1:38 am
Anyone have experience with the ETrade Bank Platinum Visa? it appears to have no foreign currency fee.
The posting date is done by the bank after the merchant submits your transaction. Even though there may be an electronic authorization, the transaction is not complete until the merchant sends in the information. Just like in the US there could be a 2 to 3 day delay with posting, it can be even longer overseas.
April 7th, 2009 at 11:52 am
After many years of charging to my Adavantage Mastercard credit card in US Dollars with no charges of foreign curreny; now I got hit with this fee. I use it in Panama where all transactions are done in US dollars.
I try Captial One.
Don’t they make enough with the interest they charge?
April 14th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
I have been a Citibank Premier Pass card holder for a long time. I bought/paid stuff online and it so happens the company is based outside the US, even though the amount I paid in US Dollar, they still charged the 3% Foreign Transaction Fee. (Example: Hostels.com is based in Dublin, Ireland even though you are paying US Dollar in their deposit.) I called Citi, argued with them, but to no avail. I emailed these companies as well (like Hostels.com) to inform them but to them it’s my issue with the Credit Card and I should use another campany.
I’m pissed and made my research and found this article. Thank you, I said!
So I got a Capital One and recently bought a flight from Dublin to Liverpool through RyanAir and it cost 13.70Euros. In my Cap1 statement, it came out as $19.52. This transaction was on 4/8/09.
Today is 4/14/09 and the exchange rate from xe.com is: 1 EUR = 1.32777 USD or 1 USD = 0.753141 EUR.
Just to get an idea:
If you simply get the Euro rate from 13.70Euros to $19.52, that’s 1 EUR = 1.42 USD or 1 US = 0.70 EUR. This is a terrible rate!!
If you simply convert 13.70Euros using the rate on 4/14/09, it’s $18.19. That’s a difference of $1.33 from the $19.52 Capital One charged me!
If you only apply the 3% Foreign Transaction Fee from, say, what Citibank charges, to the $18.19, that’s only 0.54 cents, NOT $1.33!
Yes, in my experience with Citibank’s Premier Pass, their Foreign Exchange conversion rate is usually very close to whatever is the market rate. Also the same with American Express.
I called Capital One to ask what was the Euro amount that came in for this transaction. I wanted to see that maybe RyanAir charged me more than what I had in my receipt from them. But Cap1 could not provide this to me. They say, they only get the $ amount from MasterCard. I’ve had American Express, Discover, Bank One, Chase, and Citibank Credit Cards in my adult life. The foreign amount is always there in my statement as well as the US Dollar amount. Cap1 gave me the MasterCard number to ask them.
I called MasterCard and the best that they can do is provide me the rate on that transaction date (4/8 as I mentioned above). And they said, it’s 1 US = 0.75 EUR. This rate is very close to the rate I got today as mentioned above.
I don’t know, something is wrong here. Until they can provide answers to me, I’d rather use my Citibank Premier Pass despite the 3% fee.
April 16th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
A follow up to my above post. I recently used my Citi Premier Pass to book a hostel in Liverpool. The deposit is 8.40Pounds. It came out as $12.47 in the Citi PP statement. That’s pretty good for it is very close to market rate. This transaction was done on 4/14. Today 4/16, xe.com’s rate is 1 GBP = 1.49243 USD or 1 USD = 0.670050 GBP. If you apply this to the 8.40Pounds, it’s about $12.54.
I’m planning to use Cap1 again for some small amount to have another example and let you know what happens. But I dunno fellow consumers, I was turned off by the 3% fee at first. But if Capital One (or Mastercard for the matter) is using crappy conversion rates, I’d rather use the card that uses rates close to market rate even if it charges the 3%.
Something to think about. Thanks all.
April 17th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Beware of CitiCard incurring 3% Foriegn Transaction Fees on ANY business conducted with a foreign country while still in the USA. I am currently disputing this fee added to my air travel booked with British Air online. My financial transaction was in USD at a NYC office.
Upon query, 2 Account Managers have interpreted their terms to include charging this fee for “any business WITH” a company OUTSIDE of the USA, even if no conversion of funds occurred. I am pending receipt oftheir documentation and published definition.
April 28th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
State Farm Bank (part of State Farm Insurance Co) charges 1% on foreign currency transactions and gives you a 1% credit towards the cost of a state farm insurance policy, or they will give you the money back if you have a bank account with them. They issue the rebate only after it exceeds $50.
I have used them. They are a very considerate company. So far whenever there has been a dispute they take my side; Chase and Capital One always took the merchants’ side. I can (and do) choose to have State Farm automatically pay their credit card bill from my checking account at a local bank (not State Farm bank).
May 3rd, 2009 at 11:38 am
I’ve been using Discover up to now in China because it’s accepted just about everywhere, but now that they’re introducing that 2% fee looks like I’ll have to look at something else. That Visa card sounds nice, but then acceptance isn’t nearly as wide as with Discover.
May 8th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
Citi will charge 3% for US$ purchases made online to a non-US company. But even more amazing is that when I bought airplane tickets in US $ from a US company (Orbitz.com) online the foreign transaction fee was added by Citi because the airline was foreign!!!
What’s next, will we be paying a foreign transaction fee to buy gasoline that comes from Saudi Arabia at the corner gas station?
May 18th, 2009 at 10:07 am
I was charged this rip off fee using my CitiCard with a company in Montreal (I live in the US). I am going to cancel this card and get a Schwab Visa. I’m fed up with this sort of practice.
May 18th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
the schwab visa is great – their currency rate is very close to the actual market, and there’s no international fee. but in the chart where it says american express is ‘not generally accepted overseas’ is way off – it’s widely accepted
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:26 pm
I just called American Express and they said the international fee is 2.7%. Is there any card that doesn’t charge a fee?
May 23rd, 2009 at 5:06 am
Jamie – Try Capital one and Charles Schwab Bank Visa. They both are the best bets on the market right now. Charles Schwab has the best deal for people who spend a lot outside their country.
May 24th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
So, I guess it’s a consensus that the best international credit card for making purchases overseas without having to pay foreign currency transaction finance charges is – any Capital One credit card or the new Charles Schwab rewards card right? Might have to look into one of these options
Discover Card, while pretty popular in China as I’ve heard before, is not really widely used and definitely not as widely accepted outside of the United States, making its international credit card usability somewhat limited. Sure, while Discover continues to make major inroads into places like China where the company has recently signed a partnership deal with China’s largest credit card network, China Union Pay to accept the Discover Card, the 0% fee offer alone for foreign currency purchases doesn’t make it all that attractive…
But these 3% foreign money purchases are just outrageous – 3% of the total credit card purchase cost – are you freakin kidding me! That is ridiculous. I found out the hard way when I returned home from my spring trip to Europe and saw the surprising and shocking finance charges on my Bank of America card. Calls to the BoA customer service reps went ignored and I was stuck having to pay the charges – per my customer application agreement as the lovely people at Bank of America put it. Grr!
Any idea if the new federal credit card rules or credit card consumer Bill of Rights law that President Obama and congress just passed covers these foreign currency credit card transactions? Do they do away with them or limit how much foreign fees the card issuers can sneak on cardholders?
May 26th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
just found out that discover is now charging 2% foreign currency transaction fee.
June 7th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Commerce Bank (Cherry Hill, NJ) VISA, for years, had NO fee for foreign transactions. They stated euros and dollars on every statement.
Just received a letter saying (eff. 6/09) they are converting my Commerce Bank Platinum VISA to a TD East Rewards VISA. (TD Bank bought out Commerce some months ago.) This was touted as a much better credit card for me. Here’s how it’s better: Purchases interest rate goes from 7.24% to 14.24% and Cash Advance rate goes from 11.24% to 23.24%. Plus the Foreign Transaction Fee goes from 0% to 3%. Can you spell GREEDY? Shame on TD. I’m not agreeing to these “usery” terms and TD will also see me close my large TD Ameritrade Account too.
Maybe Charles Schwab has a good thing. Who knows if you can you have a Schwab Bank VISA without having a Schwab trading account?
June 7th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
If you want the best credit cards for zero or low foreign exchange fees, this is where I got my info. It’s got details about foreign currency fees as they related to credit, debit transactions, and even foreign ATM transactions.
Just a friendly reminder, Discover has sent out a mailer updating their foreign currency transaction fee & finance charge for their credit cards from 0% to 2% starting June 2009.
Credit unions are great – PenFed, AFCU, and the NASA FCU – 1% fees, although qualification is not always easy as they have limited membership into their credit unions.
Another interesting set of cards that offer low 1% foreign fee finance charges are department store retail cards like the Nordstrom credit card and the Macy’s/Bloomingdale’s Card. But I personally definitely would not apply for a store card just for this rate…and it’s even not all that great considering there are 0% cards out there in terms of the foreign currency fee percentage.
June 9th, 2009 at 6:00 am
Anyone has info on foreign transaction fees being waived at least in Canada?
I spoke to a rep from Bank of America who told me that I can withdraw cash from Scotia Bank in Canada without being charged and non-BOA ATM fee ($2).
Is my best bet just to withdraw some cash and avoid credit cards altogether?
Thanks in advance.
June 10th, 2009 at 12:18 am
The US federal credit card legislation curbs interest rates, not fees.
This may not help a lot of people, but BofA just verified for me that they will not be charging foreign transaction fees for foreign purchases made from the USA and paid in US dollars *IF* you use one of their *DEBIT* cards. This isn’t terribly helpful for a lot of people, but it might help a few.
June 27th, 2009 at 1:03 am
Ok I got hit with the foreign purchase fee like a lot of people. Now I would like to change to another card. The problem is I am living in Panama and do not have a U.S. address, or utility bill etc. like some cards requiere. I could apply for one here in Panama through HSBC but they require you to open up asavings account and keep a balance of 120% of the credit limit. Naw I don’t think so….. Any thought on how to get a Card when living out of country?
July 1st, 2009 at 5:56 pm
i just called Fidelity Investment Amex card service, and they told me 0% FTF for my trip in Cananda
July 6th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Citi Visa just slapped me with…. 3% ‘Foreign Transaction Fee’ for buying tickets from Air Jamaica online. They stated ‘If a merchant bills Mastercard/Visa from a foreign country, there will be a Fereign Transaction fee imposed. What’s next? If a US company uses a foreign country based sweat shop to do their billing… Bam, 3% charge! This surely makes one feel cornered and helpless… like fish being shot in a barrel. To think that I had my Capital One in my wallet to boot!
July 6th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Oralito,
This is definitely a very troubling trend in terms of foreign currency credit card charges. I recently received an email from a reader who informed me that he was charged one of those foreign transaction fees by CitiCard when he ordered extra digital phone minutes online through Skype.com while visiting relatives in East Asia. If that’s true, that is a rather disturbing trend in practice by a major credit card issuer. How are we supposed to know when any particular transaction will be assuredly free of such extraordinary penalties?
Perhaps it’s best to stick to only using the credit card offers that expressly waive those type of fees for its cardholders.
July 10th, 2009 at 2:32 am
I frequently travel to Japan and China. The Citi credit card hit me once, but only once. I am not going to give it any chance. I use traveler’s cheque wherever accepted. Some hotels (not all) in Japan give me even a better rate than Master/Visa. I also found at least one big enough bank in China can exchange my traveler’s cheque at no fees. Absolutely zero! And the rate is the same day rate. Starting from this year, I try to use my capitalone debit card to withdraw cash overseas. I don’t have much experience so far. I took 20K Yen from a CitiBank ATM in Narita airport and saw $210.22 posted to my checking account. That’s about right. Not sure if there will be any separate fee posted later. Bank of America confirms clearly the fee would be posted even I used a debit card. Before I see any surprising fee, I will stay with captialone debit card and traveler’s cheque.
July 14th, 2009 at 9:59 am
My wife and I just spent three weeks in Africa and used my CapitalOne Visa (Platinum NoHassle Miles) for many significant transactions (hotels, restaurants, etc). In the US we are almost exclusively loyal to AmEx, but cannot tolerate the international fees. Before we discovered this CapOne feature, we intended to use cash exclusively during our trip. I found the FX settlements by CapOne to be completely fair, compared to the FX rates I was monitoring during our trip. My only complaint about the whole affair is that (after 3+ years of having the card with always-low balances) CapOne suddenly lowered my credit limit by over 60% DURING our trip, without any notice. I only discovered it when I had trouble paying a hotel bill in Cape Town! Not sure whether it was the sudden heavy use, the economy, or what, but it was really poor form by CapOne, and left me with a sour experience in the end.
July 15th, 2009 at 7:54 am
that is happening to all of the major banks, Delta’s Amex, Chase, GM card(GE Money bank), has all cut my credit limit to either zero or to what i owed and GM card wanted me to pay them back in full by August 1st. I do a lot of international traveling in South Korea and Japan, which left me with just my Debit card and Company AMEX. hows that for business.
July 15th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Amen to those who said Capital One is a pain in the ass with fraud over-protection! I love the fee-free foreign transactions, but am starting to wonder if it’s worth the price.
I have had calls from their fraud dept. when in France after notifying them I’d be there demanding I verify my information, orders with merchants in the UK where I live part time denied as “possible fraud” and at least five times in the past two years, they have denied payment for my UK cable TV bill because of “possible fraud” after there’s been an established pattern (I’ve used this same outfit for TV for years and every month they charge the fee the final business day of the month).
They are always very apologetic and even refunded a $128 charge for calling them from France (the French system declined to accept the call collect option Capital One offers) but it’s becoming a headache. At a certain time, one has to say time is money and move on and I am getting perilously close to that as with a global economy and internet purchasing and patterns being established if they STILL can’t understand I’m in the UK a lot and have standing orders there for TV etc etc then maybe it’s time to move on and just pay the stupid 3%.
July 31st, 2009 at 6:46 pm
John:
Although you do no live in the US at the moment, all you need is any friends US Address and their telephone number. Thats it; Card in the US are more reliable than in Panama; if you ever have a dispute with a merchant or stolen card; the banks in Panama will not help you, you will be stuck with the charges, that is why they want a deposit of 120% to guarantee ther funds. I am going to go with capital one.
lets see if they dont get greedy.
August 2nd, 2009 at 11:54 pm
After reading this article, and the comments, I got my USAA card out of storage, and plan to use it for our three week trip to Italy. 1% is not as good as zero, but they’re the best around as far as customer service. I like the other cards for the FF miles and other benefits, but 3% is outrageous! I recommend them to anyone who can qualify for their credit card.
August 11th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Not a few of you seem to be confusing whether or not the card carries a fee on the one hand and what exhange rate it offers on the other. I recently checked with Bank of America. They have no “fee” but the exchange rate they quote is %5 higher than what I see on Yahoo financial.
If I am correct–and please correct me if I am not–b anks which charge “no fee” really do charge a fee by padding the exchange rate in their own favor. Five per cent is pretty hefty.
August 11th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
You are not correct as far as I know….the fee (*annual fee) has nothing to do with whether they add a charge to convert foreign currency or not. That’s totally separate and paying a high fee each year doesn’t save you a penny on that foreign currency add-on. In fact the cards with the highest annual fees also seem to have the highest currency conversion fees, too.
What all the banks we have checked do regardless of if they charge an annual fee for the card or not is go by an official foreign conversion rate from Visa/Master Card and THEN those who add a fee add a percentage to that, thus say the Visa/Master fee is 1% and the bank adds 3% of their own, the total you’d pay would be 4% but the bank does NOT add 5% or anything additional and they do not advertise no fees. ONLY Capital One does advertise NO fee for foreign currency conversion so they merely pass on the 1% but add zero of their own.
I have never seen anyone else say no expensive annual fees have anything to do with the currency exchange charges which is why I suspect you are confusing two different fees. Stick with Capital one!
August 31st, 2009 at 5:36 pm
I got a HSBC Premier World Master card, which has no preset spending limit, 1% cash back, no foreign exchange fee and charges the published forex rate. Every issue I had was dealt with fast and professionally (even a rental car accident insurance reimbursement). I find American Express costumer service usually the best, but for foreign purchases of which I have a lot as we travel plenty and have a kid in school in Europe, I use only this card and I can very much recommend it!
August 31st, 2009 at 11:45 pm
I got Foreign Transaction Fee charged by BANK OF AMERICA.
I used my credit card to buy the VOIP Service from rebtel.com
Even though this company has charged me the service in DOLLARS, how can BANK OF AMERICA charge me the FTF on this…?
You won’t believe this but, I bought the same service from REBTEL.com during the month of January 2009, on that transaction BANK OF AMERICA did not charge any FTF.
THEN WHY NOW…?
I Made this purchase on 8/24/09…and they applied 3% of Transaction FEE on my Purchase….i.e $0.30 on $10.00 Purchase.
Please do let me know, if you find out any solution to this.
September 1st, 2009 at 5:26 am
Ahem…Doris, what you failed to mention is that to even qualify for an HSBC Premier Mastercard one needs $100,000+ in associated HSBC accounts, thus while the foreign transaction fee is indeed not applied, to have to give $100,000 to the bank to “qualify” lets me (and I am betting many many others) out. I got the cash but it’s elsewhere making me more in interest etc, so while I’d get a transaction fee free card the cost of lower interest etc for leaving it parked at HSBC would far outweigh any benefits. You must be one of their customers.
Jinal, a lot of banks just started this fee in the past few months. I’m betting it was tucked quietly away in those “new terms” they send us all and which for the most part we don’t bother to read!
September 18th, 2009 at 1:31 am
ENOUGH!!! Let’s call our senators and representatives -and Obama, and ask for regulation. Just bought an item using paypal -a U.S. -based company to buy an item in U.S. dollars and I still got the Citibank MasterCard Foreign Transaction Fee.
Next we’ll be buying an item (say a Sony TV receiver) at the corner store and be charged for buying from a foreign based company.
Ridiculous. The only way to force this money-addicts (and they still asking for millions from the tax payers to rescue them from their profit-seeking stupidities that almost broght the market to a collapse) is to get goverment involved and regulate the fees they can charge.
Better yet: don’t just call your senator-rep-WhiteHouse, also WRITE them and demand regulation.
Concurrent option: let’s organize and bring a law suit over them (Banks) to refund this Foreign Transaction Fee.
Ugh!!! Turn out you don’t need to be overseas to be charged with a Foreign Transaction Fee…
September 20th, 2009 at 7:36 am
Instead of more regulations, just look at the list: Capital One wants your business. It is obvious that most of the others are mired in GREED and do not. i find the “big NY banks:” the absolute worst for any services and do all I can to avoid Citi and Chase which are what I hear complaints about on fees, returned cheques, overdrafts etc etc, almost every day. The only reason I can’t use a small bank for my cards is that many go thru the big guys to handle it, then even if YOUR bank doesn’t charge, the billing agency does, so you get stuck. I do also use one Midwest bank which refunds fees…last time we were in England and France, they gave back $84 in ATM fees and charges, and THAT’s customer service but we do have all our accounts there and they know us personally even with 65+ offices in 5 states. Big is not better!
September 28th, 2009 at 1:16 am
Based on this post and the feedback, I decided to apply for Capital One. Here is the first line on their website:
Capital One has suspended online credit card applications.
September 30th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Hey fellow travelers. Here’s what I found out the hard way.
I’m currently in Canada for several weeks. We’ve used our CCs in the past overseas with no fees. So I started using my AAA Visa card here for everything. It wasn’t until a conversation with my brother-in-law did he mention the fees. So I used online banking and sure enough, there were fees for every transaction. No need to mention I was upset.
So he said they started using their debit card and incurred no fees (his trip was last year). So I change to using my debit card, which is with Bank of America through Visa. But I go online and check that and THEY are charging me transaction fees, MORE than my Visa CC.
I go back online and find out that as of June 2009, most major banks started charging fees for “international” use including Canada. I also find out that I can use my BOA debit card at Scotia Bank ATMs and there are no fees. So I start using the debit card at Scotia ATMs. But I check online again and THEY are STILL charging transaction fees and even higher amounts.
So my wife in the states calls everyone and here’s what we find out.
My AAA Visa CC charges 2% on all out of country transactions. My BOA debit card charges 3% transaction fees (1% + 2%). But if I use the debit card at the Scotia ATM, where there is supposed to be NO fees, there is now the 1% + 3% equaling 4% fees on withdrawals. The only thing waived by BOA at Scocia ATMs is the $5.00 ATM charge!
So it’s back to using the AAA Visa for now since they only have a 2% fee tacked on. I have an email into CapitalOne to verify the no fee in Canada policy and will check out Schwab as soon as I can.
I’ll let everyone know what happens!
October 1st, 2009 at 8:40 am
Funniest part of the your post is you act as though you were not aware Canada is a foreign country! I mean you do state, “…as of June 2009, most major banks started charging fees for “international” use including Canada…” Did you think Canada had become part of the U.S. when no one was looking?????
OK on a more helpful and a more serious note, two suggestions:
I deal with a regional bank here with local offices and they refund me ALL ATM fees and extra charges when I get cash as I travel. I just take the receipts in showing the amounts when I get back, and they credit the account. If you have the ability to use a local bank or make such an arrangement, that trumps ANY deals anyone else makes. It’s the local guys who can do this, so don’t look for any help from the folks at Chase, B of A or Citibank cause it ain’t happening.
As far as Canada, I go so often I have an account at Bank of Montreal which is nationwide in Canada. I just walk in, hand the first teller a large US cheque, have it converted (fee is like $5 for customers paid once) and then go around getting Canadian cash out of any of the Bank of Montreal’s ATMs fee-free. I also use that account for direct deposit of interest from Canadian stocks I own, so that cash is also available to me thru the ATMs fee free.
Capital One is the best deal if you go a lot, but barring that, try one of the above ideas and you can save some cash. Oh and yes, Canada is still not a U.S. state!
October 10th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
It’s one thing to travel to a foreign country and incur fees for ‘foreign transactions’, it’s another to buy something from an internet vendor who has a U.S. business presence and get charged for a foreign transaction. I recently renewed my subscription to PC Tools online and found a ‘foreign transaction fee -finance charge’ on my CitiBank Diamond Preferred card for that purchase because the purchase was processed in Ireland. I was not aware that I was buying this from Ireland nor was I aware that there was a fee if it was.
This is absolutely wrong. At the least, I should have been notified that even though PC Tools has an office if San Francisco, they would be processing the payment in Ireland. I paid for the subscription from the US with US dollars. There should not have been any currency conversion that I was responsible for.
Since there was no way to know that I was actually buying from Ireland, I don’t have any idea how I could have avoided the fee. This is so wrong!
October 11th, 2009 at 9:07 am
This is very common nowadays and is unless you use one of the few (Capital One and the others people have mentioned here, most of which require HUGE associated accounts) cards without fees this will be happening more and more. I do business with a Chicago based firm, but they use World Pay which one of THE WORST processors anywhere and they are UK-based so when I use the card there I get a fee, well I did till I change the card to Capital One. At any rate in this case, Id suggest you get with your magazine’s customer service folks, tell them this fee was unfair and ask for compensation. If I were you and as this is a subscription I’d request an extension free to make up for what you got charged. I own several newspapers and we’d willingly give that in lieu of cash refunds and that makes for happy subscribers. Try that instead of being angry at the PC Tools folks. Oh and get a Capital One card!
October 15th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
I got charged 3% with the foreign exchange fee when I open my citi bank Mastercard. I have no idea what it is until I called them. The lady at Citibank there said, “everyone does it, including my own credit card company.” A quick search on the internet reveals that they got sued a few years ago; and that it is not true that “every one does it.” Chase Credit card does not have this fee. Another “customer rep” said, “we have to charge you because that is what master card charged us.” I asked her how much does master card charge them; she does not seem to know the answer. If I understand correctly, they are not just passing on the expense to the customer but making a little money while doing that too. Pure ripping off.
October 16th, 2009 at 6:01 am
Unhappy… I am sad for you but you did not READ what was said here over & over…There IS a fee (usually 1%) which Master Card & Visa DO charge that everyone DOES pay. The different is what the bank charges ON TOP of that. Most are 2-3% additional. Also to correct, Chase DOES have this fee, so whatever made you believe they do not is wrong. They add a fee on top of the 1% just like Citibank does. ONLY Capital One and a few high-priced/high minimum cards skip this fee. The only other way around it is to use a small bank and make prior arrangements and they will (as mine does) refund it to me after I am billed for it, but that’s the exception and not the rule! Best of luck, but really, do READ all the small print!
October 17th, 2009 at 5:18 am
Nancy, Capital One as of today has online applications, but you must “pre-qualify” for a card.
October 18th, 2009 at 8:18 am
We have had our Capital One card for years and years as they used to provide private label/branded card services to TJMaxx. When that relationship ended all cardholders in good standing were offered one of their own cards, which he happily took. Getting cash back is even better than certificates for TJMaxx though that programme is back with a different credit card supplier we won’t use it because that bank (I forget is it Chase? Its one of the big ones) charges fees which we avoid just charging with Capital One’s own card.
October 31st, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Capital One DOES charge fees now!
Warning about Capital One!
For several years I used my CapOne business Visa card on overseas trips for purchases AND ATM withdrawals. Although there were limits (usually around $400 per transaction, though the limit was never posted, and the machine might not let that larger transaction go through, but wouldn’t explain why; in Moscow we had to call CapOne’s office from our docked ship to confirm we were not charged when no money came out, but only a “Thank you” from the ATM!), and a cash advance fee, which accrues from the posting date, which ranged from 8-12%, there was no foreign transaction fee, whether Turkey, Peru, Thailand, Russia, Ireland, etc.
I just got back from India and got my PERSONAL CapOne MASTERCARD statement; I had decided earlier this year to open a personal account for vacations, and so used this card for the first time for overseas purchases and ATM cash. Although the purchases had no fees and no finance charges, to my surprise, there was a $10 fee for the first ATM use, and a bit over $11 for the second! And the finance charge accruing for the averaged balance was at 22% APR, with an actual interest for the period of over 50%!
I called CapOne (yep, got someone from a boiler room in India), and he explained that there WERE fees for ATM use, but not for purchases. I told him this never happened to me before, and read details from my previous statements. When it was explained that this was my BUSINESS account, he said that older one didn’t charge fees, but the new MasterCard personal account did ($10 minimum per transaction, or 3%, whichever was higher), plus the additional finance charge accruing each day, even though I didn’t get my statement for weeks afterwards, and wouldn’t pay online for another two weeks (THAT alone is going to cost me ANOTHER $9, as the balance accrues each day until then!), so he had to calculate the higher amount, or else I’d get ANOTHER finance charge when I paid the posted balance off!
As someone who NEVER maintains any CC balance, and ALWAYS pays off every cent each month on ALL my cards, this infuriates me. So, next trip, I will have to use my PERSONAL CapOne card ONLY for item purchases, and my BUSINESS CapOne card for ATM use, even though the finance charge accrual is a HIGHER 24%.
I think I will pre-schedule an online payment for the amount I plan to exchange, so that it’s paid off within a day or two, to minimize the cash advance fee, and then use the internet while traveling to access my account and pay off any further ATM use when it occurs.
But, of course, if any of this fee stuff was in my agreement, it was surely buried in the finest of fine print and NOBODY ever told me the personal card was different than the business card (unless ALL new cards now have the fee and the old one is just grandfathered to be fee-less).
If someone else offered a REAL fee-free card that didn’t charge mafia-level usurious interest on cash transactions, I’d like to know about it!
November 1st, 2009 at 9:55 am
Steve, the answer is what I said here before—get a checking account with a LOCAL bank where you live and establish a relationship. Use your credit card for CREDIT ONLY, as in purchases not to get cash. I can’t imagine EVER using my credit card for a cash advances and always plan that way when I travel. I put cash in my checking account before I depart, then use the debit card at the ATMs for cash withdrawals. When I get home, I present the ATM receipts and my banker refunds all of my ATM out of system fees, thus meaning i pay NOTHING int he way of interest for cash advances as I have none. For other purchases, Capital One covers the credit card fees with their “no fee” card. I feel it’s all about planning, knowing your bank and using local banks not the “big guys” whenever possible.
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Thank you for these info’s.
Unfortunately i just learned it hard way. Longer time ago I was using it in Canada ( NIH Federal Credit Union Platinum Visa ) and was never charged for any purchase. Thinking (and knowing from before) that only charge that you should pay is if you do cash advances anywhere. Credit card companies were selling them self as: “we are the best way to spend money abroad, with best currency rate exchange and no fees “.
I guess some chage it, and some were always charging.
Got to worn other students about this too.
November 5th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Steve,
What you did is take a CASH ADVANCE from your credit card. Capital One and ALL other banks charge you exorbitant fees for this since you are taking an unsecured LOAN. if you need cash, get it from your checking or savings account with an ATM or debit card. As of this writing, Capital One, Charles Schwab and HSBC Premier do not pass through the foreign transaction fee imposed by MasterCard and Visa associations.
Yes it is “buried” in your fine print, but it all fees are disclosed in the box that has a summary of charges that is made available to you when you applied for the card. There may have been changes made to you that came in the form of junk mail or cash advance checks that had a note with a change in terms. Lesson: Always open your mail that comes from the bank, even if it looks like junk.
Here are some other low-fee options.
Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express Cards issued by FIA Card Services (the former MBNA now part of Bank of America) charges a 1% foreign CURRENCY conversion fee (all transactions not in US$). Plus you can get a 2% cash deposit reward to your Fidelity account (brokerage, cash or retirement) in the form of a $50 deposit for every $2,500 in purchases. There are other rewards available, but this is the more valuable one and has the least hassle since the reward is automatic.
The Fidelity smart cash account offers a Visa debit card issued by PNC bank which charges 1% for foreign transactions (all non-US transactions either in US$ or foreign currency) no ATM charges and automatic ATM reimbursements.
I’m sorry you learned the hard way, but we’ve all been bank sucker punched one way or another. Take this as a learning experience and make yourself a smarter consumer in the future.
November 19th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
A previous post on this thread (York, 7.10.09) mentions “one big enough bank in China” that will exchange traveler’s cheques to local currency without a fee. Does anyone know which bank this is?
Thanks!
November 20th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
It is Bank of Communication (bankcomm.com). I believe the deal between this bank and AMEX was no transaction fee until sometime like Oct of 2010. Once I was able to find this kind of information on AMEX website. But it was hidden very deep. Good luck with that.
A side note, China Construction Bank (a even bigger state-owned bank) (ccb.com) has a deal with Bank of America. I confirmed but never tried that no ATM fee will be applied if using BOA debit card to withdraw cache from CCB ATMs. I don’t know if the exchange rate will be difference to cover the transaction or they are honestly waive the charges.
November 26th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Another voice on how ludicrous it is that Citi charges 3% on US$ transactions, with companies doing business IN THE USA, but which might also have offices in other countries. I discovered this when my airline tickets from LAN.com, purchased via their USA web site, quoted in US$, ended up getting a 3% charge added onto it because the airline does business in Santiago (and their back-office happened to process the ticket there). I’ve bought a lot of tickets from LAN – always through their US web site, as it happens to offer a 3% discount for booking online – and this is the first I’ve had the credit card come in and charge 3%.
Of course I have a Capital One card and an HSBC Premier card, each of which gives free international transactions, but I thought I was safe using my Citi AAdvantage Mastercard to buy airline tickets in US$. I just went back and audited all my LAN purchases for the last year, and discovered that other bookings through the US web site had been processed in the Netherlands – fortunately I used my American Express card for that one, and although Amex will charge you for a foreign CURRENCY conversion, they certainly don’t charge you a fee on a US dollar transaction that just happened to be processed by a global company outside the US.
I asked the supervisor with Citi if I would be safe using my Citi AAdvantage card to buy American Airlines tickets – they do, after all, have call centers overseas, and when I dial them in the middle of the night, it’s usually a non-US operator who answers. She didn’t have an answer for me.
The lesson for me here is I will NEVER use my Citi card for airline tickets, internet purchases, or anything else where the entire physical transaction process is not taking place in front of me at a US point of sale. I’ll use my Amex for airline tickets and Internet transactions, and my Capital One and HSBC Premier cards for actual non-US transactions.
December 3rd, 2009 at 4:46 am
I have a Capital One card.
The good :
There’s no foreign transaction fee. A review of foreign transactions made in Europe this summer shows that the exchange rates they charged were very close (within 0.5%) of the currency exchange rates on Yahoo finance, so I don’t see any gouging by giving a bad exchange rate.
The bad :
1. Their fraud detection is a hassle. They call typically twice a month with fraud alerts, even when purchases are inside my normal pattern.
2. I signed up for automatic statement payment. It just kicked in. As a result, they drew the balance for this month’s balance from my checking account twice: once for a payment I made online, and once for the auto payment. They refused to reverse the charge, but will instead mail me a paper check in “up to 30 days” for only the positive balance at the time.
Summary: Cap One has the lowest cost for foreign charges, but they have a high hassle factor.
For cash overseas I use my Fidelity ATM. No fees, and they reimburse all ATM charges. Exchange rates are within 1% of the currency exchange rates on Yahoo finance.
December 3rd, 2009 at 9:16 am
Jon is right on with the hassle…I live in both US and UK and have my Sky TV at my UK home on the card and half the time it’s bounced and I got to get it turned back on! You CAN save some hassles if you call every 45 days with “travel notifications” as they update and then it says you will be away!
As far as direct debiting anything…why would you? Sorry, maybe it’s my age but a paper cheque is all I EVER use to pay the credit cards just for reasons you mentioned…also I want to SEE the bill and LOOK at it in paper and check things off BEFORE I write my cheque. That gives me, not the card the advantage of making sure it’s correct before I pay! Cancel that paperless garbage, get a paper bill and write a paper cheque. 44 cents is your total cost additional monthly, but it beats errors you spend months getting fixed —if ever!!!! Paper folks paper!!!!
December 4th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
There was some discussion of cost of bank transfers. I rented an apartment in Rome and had to send x thousand dollars to a Rome bank account from my US TDbank account. Had to go to the bank, help guide them thru the process and got charged $35. The poor recipient had an extra $100 deducted somewhere along the line, too. I’ve since found XOOM.com, a CA-based company backed by trustworthy investors. You can send up to $3K for $5 dollars. In a test, funds reached the above-mentioned bank in about 36 hours. Give XOOM a try.
December 17th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
Australians Watch out when paying travel companies, who you think are Australain companies but are really only branches of ones that operate overseas. all fares must now be shown in australian dollars and paid in australian dollars but this is the catch -they dont bank it into an australian bank account but send directly it to their overseas bank – no mention is made of this on their web sites – your credit card provider charges you 3% overseas transaction costs . several cruise companies in australia do this, particularly ones that are US or British based companies
January 4th, 2010 at 11:42 am
American Express has a foreign transaction fee of 2.7% and is accepted in quite a few places here in Germany.
January 10th, 2010 at 1:19 am
Fidelity mySmart Cash account/ATM/Visa Debit card is issued by PNC Bank and it charges 1% on foreign transactions. This 1% is included in the exchange rate, so appears that there is no fee, but it’s there.
I learned the hard way from my Fidelity Rewards Amex (issued by FIA Card Services) that even though I called ahead to tell them I was overseas, my $1700 hotel charge was denied because they shut down my card. Of course, they mailed me a letter to my house which served as notice. AARGH. They said it was because it was a new account. I say it was a mis-communication and break down in their system. My smaller purchases prior to the large charge did not have this problem (all under $100). The advice they gave me was to call for pre-approval. WHAT?!? However, I will do so in the future to avoid hassles.
January 22nd, 2010 at 11:34 am
Ditto comments about Capitalone’s high hassle factor. I just got the Capitalone card with no foreign transaction fees and already they have suspended my account because a foreign company I used the card with sought authorization for a trivial amount (less than $20). Capitalone’s card is not worth the zero foreign transaction fees because of this overzealous monitoring, in my opinion.
January 22nd, 2010 at 7:45 pm
Oh if you buy enough, often enough or travel often enough it’s WAY worth it. One $20 transaction maybe not but $1200 in hotel rooms in the UK and you’d change that tune really fast!
January 26th, 2010 at 12:25 am
I also found Capitalone’s Fraud Dept (this is the dept you have to contact to resolve restrictions on your account) to have a rather flippant attitude towards their customers. Their attitude is kind of like, “Hey, we don’t care what happened to your account. It’s your problem, not ours.”
January 28th, 2010 at 2:54 am
Does anyone have any info on which bank would be best for atm withdrawals? I live overseas, and I’d like to gvoid atm and foreign fees, and get a good currency conversion rate. Citibank charges 3% on every withdrawal, and I’m leaning toward switching to a Capital One bank account, but if the atm card is as much hassle as the credit card appears to be, it might not be worth the effort.
January 28th, 2010 at 9:16 am
Do you mean ATM withdrawals from chequing or as loans against thecard itself (cash advances)? There are major differences.
January 28th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
I don’t trust CapitalOne. There are way too many horror stories about their credit cards. They issue you a credit card but don’t tell the 3 reporting agencies what your limit is. Therefore if you want to move to another bank’s VISA or MC, because of CapitalOne’s unfair billing practices, you will be denied by the new bank because you have too much credit line open.
As for an ATM Card, we use Bank of America’s. You can withdraw local cash in Europe, Asia or North America in Barclay’s (mostly UK), BNP Paribas (mostly France), Deutsche Bank (mostly Germany), Santander Serfin (Mexico), ScotiaBank (Canada), Westpac (mostly Australia & New Zealand) and China Construction Bank (China) ATMs with NO TRANSACTION FEES and favorable wholesale exchange rates. We use them all the time and are very satisfied. You can find Barclay’s and Paribas ATMs in other European countries too. Get a list from them. B of A is in many states in the US. Just open a checking/savings account and ask for a “VISA Debit Card”. Then call their fraud dept. and tell them where and when you’ll be out of the country, otherwise your card gets frozen after the first transaction. Beware too, the “toll free 800 number” usually will not work from Europe. Ask for their “local” number with regular area code and call “collect” from Europe if you lose your card or have a problem with it. Sometimes they have a “no toll” European phone number too.
Other banks have global alliances also.
Hope this helps. Rich…
January 28th, 2010 at 4:59 pm
Richard I shall politely but firmly disagree about Capital One not being honest about credit limits and dealings. They are way too over cautious on the security I will grant but even when I had to call to get the “hold” off my account from France (after telling them I would be in France) in April they paid for the call and it was straightened out within 15 minutes. They have never caused me one bit of trouble with any credit reporting agency nor any caused denials on further cards I have applied for elsewhere. Perhaps you are near your limit, or don’t pay on time or some such which is not mentioned by you, but as a pay on time person here who stays within my limits I have never ever had an issue caused by them save for the craziness with their security which is more aggravation than an actual problem.
As far as ATMs use a local bank and NOT one of the big guys…tell them you want some fee rebates. Our local bank refunds EVERY Penny of ALL of our ATM fees, charges and transaction fees when we return. We just hand them the receipts, they total it up and issue a credit. Thus it costs us ZERO to use ATMs in Europe, Canada and elsewhere and we are not restricted to this or that bank’s machines—we can go anywhere. Get set up with a local bank in your area, let them know you want this and it can be arranged. All we had to do was ASK.
January 28th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
As for bank accounts, you may be best off with a brokerage type account. Fidelity offers a MySmartCash account with a PNC issued Visa debit card. It has a 1% foreign transaction fee and reimbursement of all ATM fees. Charles Schwab Bank offers a Visa debit card with reimbursement of all ATM fees and zero foreign transaction fees.
HSBC Premier offers no foreign transaction fees (not sure about ATM fees) but requires a large balance of $50 to $100K+ in the US to get an account. However, mortgages may be included, so it could meet your needs.
A local bank or credit union may no longer be a bargain for foreign transaction fees in the past as they have been passing through the Visa and MasterCard association foreign transaction fees. My local credit union continues to reimburse all ATM fees, but it now passes a 3% “Visa International association fee”.
The key is to check with the bank by looking for printed disclosures. Unfortunately it is often not enough just to ask someone, because they may or may not know.
January 28th, 2010 at 10:26 pm
Thanks for being polite, Ted.
Never had a CapitolOne card. Only know their bad reputation by reading things, like this thread (RE: Steve, Jon, etc.), and my friend’s personal experience when he was denied a new charge card because CapitalOne entered “no limit” on his credit record. I’m sure CapitolOne must have thought him a good risk if they gave him no limit. It took months to get that removed even after he cancelled his CapitalOne VISA card. CapitalOne does it, I believe, so you can’t do business with anyone else. Another person I know, called CapitalOne before they went to Europe, told them the dates and countries (just 2) and had their VISA card denied over there. Yes they called CapitalOne collect and got it straightened out and two days later had it happen again. The next year they traveled, same thing happened. Seems you had the same type problem – so it’s not an occasional glitch evidently. I think it’s done intentionally – but that just my honest opinion.
So what friendly bank do you deal with that is willing to reimburse you all the other bank’s ATM fees plus the typical 3% foreign transaction charge?
Rich…
January 29th, 2010 at 7:22 am
Richard….
Thanks for the comments. I do think some folks over-dramatize and perhaps your friend is on the list. We did a cruise starting in Ft Lauderdale, then stopping in Bermuda, then Scotland, Ireland, France then a week in the UK and then crossing back to NY and driving home…and only had the single problem with Capital One in France I mentioned before. I do keep my card listed as on vacation but only because I go so often. I live in both UK and US and also have satellite TV in the UK so need to have a way for the programming to get charged and thus always put a note on the calendar as they need a call every 60 days or else you can run into the great security wall. It’s a pain BUT considering the savings worth it though aggravating.
As far as banks, I use Old National (offices in Indiana Illinois Kentucky & Ohio) and they really do care about good customers. I note that I do all my business there — mortgage, cards, debit, cheques, savings, business banking and they also run my business charge cards which we accept — and I have never overdrawn nor had any account problems. Their managers do have a lot of latitude and yes they refund it all…last UK trip almost $90. I am sure a lot of banks would do the same were the customer a money-maker at the end of the day but to just open a small account and expect such service likely would get a laugh and not much help. Remember these days every bank looks at the total customer and not just one account. Just choose someone local or regional (where are you?) and avoid the Chase, B of A, etc like the plague. Also, don’t forget the health of the bank is a lot to do with it as you can get some help from a healthy bank, but likely laughed at when you try this at one that’s on the “troubled” list where they need every penny in fees they can manage!
January 29th, 2010 at 8:39 pm
Europe is transitioning to a new type of credit card that has an embedded “smart chip.” Unfortunately, when American visitors use their traditional magnetic tape credit cards sometimes their card is rejected. I’ve read that if the merchant follows the credit card machine’s instructions there shouldn’t be a problem. Does anyone have any real-world experience with this in Europe?
January 30th, 2010 at 10:07 am
YES! Many experiences John…all I do is when I hand over my card say right then “I’m from the States and we do not use chip-and-PIN” which is what the new system is. They always smile, enter it manually and I have never had one problem or rejection. If you don’t say it then you might but my partner always forgets and his cards have never been rejected either. I’m not saying at some obscure village in France it won’t ever happen, but we have been in UK, Ireland, France and elsewhere int he past 12-18 months several times and never had an issue. By the way they are already seeing that these chip-and-PIN cards in the UK at least can be cloned so they may be phased back out or replaced again…stay tuned as it seems the criminals are often faster than the banks and credit card firms, at least in England from stories in the Financial Times, The Times and on BBC News.
January 30th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
Lots of interesting posts here. Some of you may be interested to know that First Republic Bank (which is now owned by Bank of America) has a checking account that will refund any ATM fees charged by any bank worldwide. There is a minimum balance requirement of I believe $3,000 to avoid a monthly service charge. I’m not sure if they charge a fee on international transactions; I’ll have to look into that.
January 31st, 2010 at 6:47 am
I just moved to Madrid for three years and trying to get my head around managing finances. I’ve had to get a Spanish ID and in the process of getting a Spanish bank account. My problem is trying to figure out an elegant solution for transfering US dollars from my account in the US to my bank in Spain and making the conversion to Euros. I would be moving thousands of euros each month to pay house rent, utilities, etc. I am paid by my company for all of this (in dollars) so am left to my own for the problems of converting everything. Would appreciate any advice if someone else has an idea. I’ve thought about hitting the ATM(cashpoint) each day but I that’s just not a practical solution for the amount of money I will need to move.
February 1st, 2010 at 5:15 am
Chris. I also lived overseas and I frequently took out over the counter “cash advances” from my debit card. I put “cash advances” in quotes because when you use a debit card (and this is the ONLY reason to have a debit card) in this manner, you are withdrawing funds from your checking account in the US. Then you could have the bank deposit the proceeds into your Euro account. You’ll have to visit the branch to do this, of course, but an OTC advance limit is typically higher than an ATM limit. You should call your bank to see what the advance limit is on your debit card before attempting this and you’ll need to clarify that they are telling you the advance limit, which should be separate from the ATM withdrawal and purchase limits. You may even be able to have them increase it if necessary.
Years ago, this type of transaction was totally free and a way (although time consuming) to avoid ATM fees. Now most banks have a set fee like $3 or so to do a “signature-based” withdrawal. You still won’t avoid any foreign transaction or forex fees imposed by your bank for using a Visa or MasterCard debit card in this manner.
Another possibility is to use PayPal. I use this to transfer funds to/from a Japanese bank account. You may need to setup a Paypal.es account in conjunction with a US Paypal.com account. There are fees on transfers, but it is likely less than those imposed by your US bank.
If you have the funds, this may be where a Citibank or HSBC Premier type account for expats may be in order. However, I cannot advise you on any of these features.
February 1st, 2010 at 12:26 pm
Ted, thanks for the reply. From what I was reading on the Internet it seemed like this was a commonplace problem.
February 11th, 2010 at 4:49 pm
I also was charged this rip off fee using my CitiCard with a company in Montreal (I live in the US) for an event in DC. I completed the ransaciton in dc. I am going to cancel this card and get a Schwab Visa. I’m fed up with this sort of practice.
February 12th, 2010 at 9:57 am
You might also try calling the company and asking for a refund on that service charge but I’d be willing to bet somewhere in the small print nobody ever reads they told you where the card was being processed thru….
February 13th, 2010 at 3:09 am
Upon a transfer to Southeast Asia, my CapitalOne card was being declined regularly. I routinely called them to advise them of my situation, but it didn’t seem to work. This became very frustrating especially when I am standing at the counter of a hotel trying to check in, but must call CapitalOne again to straighten it out. One time I even called them immediately before making a large purchase to make sure there wouldn’t be an issue. They assured me there wouldn’t be a problem. When I went to make the transaction minutes later, CapitalOne declined the transaction. I have written to CapitalOne numerous times without receiving a response. I never carry a balance, pay interest, but enjoy the benefits of travel miles. In the end, the frustration and the added costs of international calls to CapitalOne, it just hasn’t been worth having the card. Hope this helps someone else out there.
February 13th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
I am a full time student with good credit. I have an American Express card which I pay off each month. Capital One declined to issue me a card. I wanted to card so I wouldn’t have to pay foreign exchange fees. Capital One is to hard to get. They must be clamping down on people.
February 14th, 2010 at 9:45 am
That’s only the half of it with Capital One.
I applied for their Platinum MasterCard in August of 2008 in a search for a card that doesn’t charge foreign currency transaction fees. They gave me an initial $2,000 limit on all purchases but they also offered 2% back on groceries and gas. Six months after making about $1,700 in average monthly purchases, I called to ask for a credit increase and was denied. Six months after that I asked again, and this time was told “The profitability of your account at your current purchase rate” did not allow them to increase my credit limit. Then I was told that the only way for me to get a credit limit increase was to keep charging and paying at least the minimum balance on time.
The customer service rep implied that if I started carrying a balance and made regular payments (not paying off the entire balance), then I’d be more likely to get a credit limit increase. To me that screams that Capital One refuses to extend me more credit because I pay off my bill every month and I use it outside the US routinely. It’s strictly a profit thing.
I really don’t sweat the Capital One thing because in February 2009 I opened Schwab Bank Invest First Visa account. It was the smartest thing I ever did. Zero foreign currency transaction fees, competitive exchange rate, Zero annual fee of course, but they also reimburse me 2% of every transaction, every month. Lately I’ve been getting $140 back a month from the previous month’s purchases. Customer service is great and the only complaint that I have about them is that they don’t sync daily with Quicken software.
The other thing to watch out for when traveling is being charged in USD vs. the currency of the country you’re traveling in. I spell this out in great detail at my website for Expats in Poland, but this is a really sneaky way of credit card processing companies to add an extra 3.5% or more to your bill for no additional service. It ought to be criminal.
February 15th, 2010 at 12:37 am
Is it tre that Bank of America doesn’t charge Foreign Transaction Fee if you use one of their alliance bank’s ATM? I think they don’t charge the ATM fee but they still charge the FTF. Anyone with experience?
February 15th, 2010 at 7:00 am
Save Cash I think you are 100% right but I also feel that is as it SHOULD be. The banks ARE in business for profit and if your account or mine or anyone’s is NOT profitable, why would they want it? There’s no such thing as a free lunch and instead of bailing out the banks, I’d way rather pay a fee or two here and there. A smart consumer shops for her/his best deal, but to be upset that a bank says the truth — that it appears to them you are not a profitable customer so no more credit — is not wrong it’s the fact that business runs on profits not losses. As far as a Schwab Bank card last I checked here they wanted a huge balance to give one of those, but maybe that’s changed. Also I’m old fashioned so would not dream of using Quicken when I have a paper checkbook and a pen!
February 16th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
I have read all the posts with great interest as I am due to relocate to HK soon and need to access my US bank funds off and on. I bank with TD and they said I cant even fax them a request to wire funds from my own account and HSBC wanted the 100K deposit before they would consider me as a global premier customer( no matter that I have premier status in my country of origin). I have being toying with the idea of getting a Capitial One card but then noticed a reader ED D mentioned his Xoom.com experience. I had initially thought of using Xoom but was wondering about their security and privacy. Anyone have any other information about this company?
February 17th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
I recently received a foreign transaction fee with Bank of America visa for purchasing hotel rooms with last minute travel (a US company) because they apparently process their payments in Israel!! I attempted to dispute this charge without any result as it is a fee listed within my terms of agreement. I also looked for the entire last minute travel website and my bill to see if it was anywhere listed that I may incur a foreign transaction fee as their billing department works internationally and that information was no where to be found. SO basically you can use a US company which charges in US dollars and with out knowing it get slapped days later with a 3% fee as that US company processed the claim outside the US. There is no way to truly avoid this fee and no way to dispute it.
February 18th, 2010 at 7:16 am
Sarah I would disagree…. I would call the firm who sold you that room, demand a supervisor and remind them that lack of full disclosure is illegal and request a refund of the 3% and that they disclose the situation. If you are declined, a good place to go would be your stats’s attorney general’s fraud/consumer office. If we just sit by and allow stuff like this it will only get worse. Also, to you and Anj my comment is know your bank and use a smaller local bank and not a big one. The small folks will do a lot that the “big guys” like TD won’t because their local managers have little or no latitude in charges. My local bankers have full ability to excuse or reverse charges and usually do. I’m middle class by the way not a millionaire, so they just do it to be nice —not because I have a lot of money there because I don’t.
February 18th, 2010 at 8:07 am
Ted: If you open a Schwab brokerage account with an investor checking account there is no minimum balance requirement. If you open a stand alone brokerage account there is a $1000 minimum or $100/month direct deposit requirement.
Sarah: As you’ve learned there’s little recourse and you may never know if your transaction is deemed international because of someone’s processing company. The Visa and MC associations created this foreign transaction fee a few years ago and nearly all banks and credit unions pass the charge to you.
It’s been mentioned before here that Amex and Discover do not charge for foreign transactions processed in USD. They do charge for foreign currency transactions.
Discover charges 2%, most Amex issued Amex cards charge 2.7%.
Since you are a BofA card holder, you may wish to switch to the Schwab First Visa or Fidelity Rewards Amex which are both issued by FIA Card Services, which is a BofA company. Both offer 2% rewards on all purchases. The Fidelity Rewards Amex charges a 1% foreign currency transaction fee, but at least with the 2% reward, you are still ahead.
February 18th, 2010 at 9:59 am
The problem with that askmrlee is that I have a wonderful brokerage account elsewhere and I WAS a Schwab customer some years ago. They messed my account up so bad and hit me with this or that fee I felt was silly for a “discount broker” that I left them. I was only their customer in the first place because they bought a Midwest broker whose customer I had been. They also do not make markets in many of the foreign stocks I hold and as that’s well over 50% of my portfolio there’s no way I could change if I wanted to. I find Capital One does fine if you stay ahead of them on possible “security holds” and my local bank refunds the other ATM etc fees I get when I travel, so I’m fine. It appears sadly that others have problems.
February 18th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
Rich, re your comment on April 14, 2009 :
The average market rate on that date (interbank rate) on the date of your transaction was 1.323 , euro to dollar. Thus, you should have been charged $18.13, or very close to it (using the extreme value it hit during the day it would have been $18.23). In effect you were charged a fee of $1.39, but that was hidden in the exchange rate. In effect, you were charged a fee of over 7% !
So much for Capital One’s widely advertised “no transaction fee”.
How do I know that the rates I am using in these calculations are not for $1M and over ?
Whenever I am in a foreign country I buy in local currency which I obtain from ATM’s in that country. I use a VISA debit card fro my credit union. My CU states that they charge a 1% transfer tax which is separately itemized on my monthly statement. Now,
I checked the transfer rates I got and they are within the daily variation.
February 19th, 2010 at 2:30 am
Capital One is not worth it, in my opinion, at least with regard to foreign transactions.
February 20th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
John Mack I strongly disagree…..they do have their quirks with regard to over-security but basically I find the limits (I have had my limit raised several times), the lack of add-on fees etc well worth the effort, frustrating as it sometimes is. Remember that time is money and money is time meaning sometimes you have to spend a bit of time to save cash. If you have cash to spend and don’t care then you’d be right, but for those of us with ime to make a call or 3 and stay ahead of the curve, Capital One is a good deal.
February 26th, 2010 at 2:12 am
Ted,
I have to agree with you about using lsmall local banks. If you establish a relationship, not necessarily a large balance, regional banks have managers that can waive many fees. They want to maintain a good relationship with you so you will use them as your “TOTAL” bank (mortgage, credit cards, checking, savings, investments).
I have the Charles Schwab card and have never had any problems with extra fees for foreign transactions. I also have found their currency conversion rates very competitive with the forex rates of the day.
I have thought of getting a Capital One card but am worried about the DENIALS for overseas transactions. I travel extensively, especially in Asia, and would not want my card refused if I had made prior arrangements with Capital One to record my travel itinerary. I do not mind organizing things ahead of time because I feel that is responsible behavior. I also appreciate the level of credit card fraud that is prevalent today and know that measures have to be taken to contain it. I just feel that if there is prior notification to the credit card company there is no reason for repeateddenials for authorized charges. I pay all my credit card balances off in full each month and never carry a balance. So I imagine I am not a very “profitable” customer even though I charge over $2400 a month on credit cards.
I appreciate the heads up about OLD NATIONAL BANK. I have a house Indiana and have seen this bank around but never used it. I may give then a second look.
February 26th, 2010 at 11:06 am
Kevin
Good points….As far as Capital One I had an issue this week when they knew I was in the UK, but it took one call and they e-mailed an apology and acknowledged that I was there. They also let the charge go thru before I called so I did not have a denial on the spot, just a red flag between they and I the merchant never knew about. I do agree 150% they are w ay way too overzealous on the security crap though.
As far as Old National, you don’t say where in Indiana and their service does vary, but in the central area (Indianapolis, etc) I find them to be delightful, though they entered this area rather late and are very attuned to the boutique bank style and customers using them whereas I am told in the more rural areas they are less-accommodating though I do have some connections if you need and will say what area you are in. They never say no…and only rarely wince when I ask for this or that out-of-the-ordinary thing so they are pretty used to me waltzing in with a pocket full of Euro or Canadian money I need changed but again that’s downtown Indianapolis!
March 13th, 2010 at 12:51 am
I have a Capital One card that’s used exclusively for travel overseas and to Mexico. We’ve never had any issue using our card. Last time I forgot to call and let them know we’d be in MX, and we didn’t have any problems at all. The no foreign transaction fee is the only reason I have this card. The exchange rate I’ve received is always better than the Casa de Cambias.
March 14th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
Thanks so much for this – I have been living abroad for almost 2 years and stupidly didn’t realize that I had these fees added, until I received my March bill and it was spelled out for me. I had a Chase card before but am switching now to Capital One.
March 18th, 2010 at 8:38 pm
Kirsty,
Capital One isn’t all sweetness and light just because it has no foreign transaction fees. You most probably are going to be spending a lot time on the phone with Capital One to straighten out their overzealous monitoring and restrictions of your account.