Credit Cards

Sharon,
See http://flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php/Credit/Debit/ATM_Cards_and_Foreign_Exchange

Thank you for this information. I received it from my husband, and I think we need to check things out more!

Some accounts at Wells Fargo have a limited number of no fee (currency conversion or out of system ATM) per month. For most financial institutions, there is a 1% fee from the "Network" for foreign ATM usage. I understand many credit unions will rebate some number of these charges. Small local banks, those without foreign currency operations just pass the 1% fee on to you. Major banks (like Chase, WF, USBank) pay the Network in Euro, Pound, etc, then charge you 3% for their own currency conversion. I believe Bank of America works directly with some European banks (Deutsche Bank, Barkleys, et al) to just exchange fund with each other, avoiding the Network fee, but you can only use their cooperating banks.

Are you sure this has been discontinued? I'm looking at the https://www.schwab.com/ home page and it says right on there "Pay No ATM Fees - Anywhere". And, it shows a picture of the world right next to it. We have a Schwab bank account so I need to check this out.

My Ally money market account comes with a visa debit card, I used it in 2009 in Italy and paid no fees and got basically the interbank rate. For a credit card I use CapitalOne.

I just checked schwab as well and don't see where they have discontinued this. Anyone have a reliable link?

Schwab Bank still has the no fee ATM/debit card. What Schwab did was discontinue sponsoring its VISA credit card that did not impose any foreign transaction fees. Schwab offered the card through Bank of America. Now it is just a BOA card, but BOA has not informed users that it is imposing a foreign transaction fee. At least, I don't remember getting such a notice and I have a card. (I also have the debit card, too.) Capital One apparently offers credit cards without foreign transaction fees, or so I have read.

As for Ally Bank, I just checked with them regarding the fee-free debit card. They told me that even though I would pay no ATM fees, they do impose a 1% currency conversion fee on foreign withdrawals

I called the new bank, FIA about a month ago, that took over the Schwab CC. The rep. said that there are still no foreign transaction fee, associated with this card. That is different than some of their other cards and the rep. had to double check.