Best ATM Cards

Check with your local credit unions. My local credit union card charges nothing.

Nancy has a good idea. My credit union charges $1 per transaction at foreign ATMs. Call around and ask about foreign ATM transaction fees before you decide on a particular credit union.

This website lists a few: http://flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php/Credit/Debit/ATM_Cards_and_Foreign_Exchange None look very promising. Local credit unions might have what you are looking for, but bank and credit union staff are woefully ignorant of foreign exchange details. Good luck.

It's true that local credit union and bank staff may not know a lot about foreign exchange matters. In my area of central Illinois, the banks understandably don't do a lot of foreign commerce. My own credit union didn't even realize you could use their ATM cards in other countries the first two times I did it. But that doesn't mean that they are bad choices for a travel account. My credit union account offers online banking, as does my backup online bank account with Ally. It's simple for me to transfer money between the two accounts if I need to without the assistance of employees at either place. Local banks here do not order foreign cash, so I ordered a couple hundred dollars worth of euro from Wells Fargo online. No problem.

I have a TD Bank checking account and it charges no foreign transaction fees when using the debit card in an ATM, or at point-of-sale (using it like a credit card). I also have a sufficient balance that I upgraded to a checking account where TDBank will not charge an ATM fee at any ATM, and also will refund any fees charged by the other bank. But it didn't seem like the foreign banks charged any ATM fees. So, just keep in mind, when asking the banks questions, there are often two different fees - a foreign transaction fee (or a "conversion" fee) which is a percent of the transaction, and then the ATM fees of a few dollars that many people are familiar with in the US. TD Bank charged neither.

We had a Washington Mutal card which charged nothing or almost nothing until Chase took them over. Chase charges. If you have a BofA ATM card, you can use their Global Alliance partner ATMs in some EU countries at no charge. It's Barclays' in England, PNB Paribas in France (hard to find them in the rural areas), Duetchebank in Germany and I believe that they have one in Italy now. Best of all, we switched to Schwab last year and now have a Schwab debit/ATM card from the Charles Schwab Bank. At least until now, they reverse all ATM fees at the end of the month. This they have actually done including our trip to Spain and France last year. It looks like Fidelity brokerage is ramping up to do the same thing. Also, the Visa feature on the Schwab card works better than most ATM cards. You are not limited to your daily withdraw limit here in the U.S. You are only limited to what you have in your checking account. We used our card to pay large hotel bills last year. Worked fine. However, it's two-edged sword. If you lose your card or its stolen, the finder or thief can easily wipe out your checking account. Finally, note that Visa has begun charging 3% on foreign purchases. We saw this last year as well when I used my Chase Visa card for a purchase. Again, the Schwab Visa feature doesn't do this.

Thanks for everyone's response. It doesn't sound like there are a lot of good options out there, other than what we already have. I think I may just take our Paypal Business Debit with as an emergency card. They do charge 1% on ATM withdrawals and purchases (but I get the 1% back on purchases). At least it will be there just in case and its linked to our checking, should anything bad happen and we need extra $.

On my trip last month, I used a Schwab Visa Debit card with a $1500 daily ATM limit. I used it every day while there. No fees were charged.

Correction: I had a $1000 daily limit. Schwab doesn't like me THAT much.

I use Schwab's Visa Debit card, too, even at home. Reimbursed for any ATM fees, 0% on currency conversion, $1000 limit, can access their web site to check acct activity - best I've found.

I used capitol one on line banking debit card with no fees and my back up card was from my local credit union with 1% fee. this was just to get cash. I had 2 different capitol one credit cards I used for purchases all with no fees.

Thanks for the info on Schwab! I'll have to remember that for next trip since we leave too soon to apply now.

What about a second Capital One account? Maybe a checking account? By the way, my Capital One limit is $600/day. They raised it awhile back. Check with them. Anyway, I hardly every take the maximum, since there are no fees, I like having smaller sums to carry around. Just remember that Cap One is usually offline in the wee hours of Sunday morning - which is late morning/early afternoon in Europe.

Another recommendation for the Charles Schwab Bank ATM card. While the daily limit is $1,000, it can be raised to $4,000+. Also, Schwab issued two cards with a unique number on each for my spouse and myself. If one card is lost, stolen, corrupted, etc., the other card can still safely function after having alerted Schwab. Other worthwhile features noted in above responses.