Debit Card Fees

I use a podunk bank and a podunk credit union. Neither one would have the guts to try a trick like that.

I know nothing about banking, but can't see what the cost difference would be except for a suprananosecond of electricity and the cost of an extra glob of ink on the statement.

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

I'm with Steve on Schwab bank, but what about credit cards...for international use?

I've got one reply to my own question.

USAA charges 1% on ATM, debit purchases and/or credit card purchases.

We use a debit card through a credit union and it charges a 1% fee per transaction and reimburses any fees charged by the machine used. We also use CapitalOne credit card which has no fees attached to it for international use. It works for us.

Similar to the Schwab card, I have debit cards from Fidelity that I use for cash withdrawals abroad. It has either a 1% or zero conversion fee and no withdrawal fees. My regular bank (Wells Fargo) charges 3% + $5 per withdrawal which is why they have lost almost all my business.

For regular purchases, I use a Capitol One card since I do not like debit cards.

i just switched to Cap 1 to avoid this very thing (used to have a Chase account). Using aCapital One debit, you're charged no conversion rate. You're only charged a non-network ATM fee if you withdraw cash, and that's $1.50 each time.

Thanks Henry,

It also shows that Wachovia charges $5 plus 3% for ATM withdrawals. When I was at the bank, there was some confusion about that.

Arnold,

I'm expecting to transistion away from Wachovia now that they're part of Wells Fargo.

We have the Cap One credit card for travel but want to have something reasonable (don't really expect free) for ATM transactions.

I have debit cards from two small credit unions. One charges no fees at all for foreign withdrawals, one charges 1%. My credit card is Capital One - no fees.

If you use a Bank of America Debit card there is zero conversion fee and zero terminal fee as long as you use a correspondent bank's machine in Europe. You will need to check with BofA about who their correspondent is in a particular country you might visit.

In France it's BNP Paribas, in the UK it's Barclays.
For any others just call.

Bon Voyage!

I ended up moving some of my cash from a MM acct with my CA bank to a Capital One MM acct to avoid a $5 a pop ATM withdrawal fee. Turns out I am getting about 4 times more interest on the investment, so I moved the rest to Capital One.

Since there are no fees, I don't feel like I have to take the maximum withdrawal, so I'm not carrying around a lot of cash. This was especially useful when I was in 3 countries with 3 different currencies on my last trip.

I think Capital One only takes a non-network fee for withdrawals in the US. I haven't been charged for one yet.

Where the fees can get really onerous is in countries where the ATM itself has a max withdrawal limit. I remember years ago in Ecuador, the max I could withdraw from any ATM was $100 regardless of my bank's limit on the ATM card.

Joe is right about BofA. You can also use Deutsche Bank with no fees.

I recently found out about Chase's foreign transaction fees ($3 and 3%), so opened up an account at a credit union today. Our credit union only charges 1% and reimburses us for any out-of-network ATM fees. Strangely, they said that we could not use our ATM in Italy or Spain...has anyone ever heard of that? I'm thinking of opening a Cap 1 MM acct for use in Spain and Italy, just not sure if I have enough time...I leave in 25 days.

You can withdraw funds from a Deutsche Bank in Germany with no ATM fees, however, there are fees for Deutsche Bank in Italy.

Cindy, I have used my Visa debit card (from a credit union) all over northern Spain with no problems.

Cindy,

The only thing I can think of regarding Spain and Italy is a bank blocking it because the level of fraud has made it unprofitable to offer the service. It seems there would be plenty of other countries higher on the list (but maybe those are just the Western Europe ones) to block.

25 days is plenty. After checking several credit union options, I opened an account with USAA yesterday and I'm leaving the 18th - that's cutting it close. Hopefully, I'll have my card, PIN and money transfered to the account in time.

Figure about 5 business days to get the card. Hopefully, they will have an option to set your own pin (so you don't have to wait for that too), and won't hold the funds you transfer to them too long.

I've asked those questions of USAA and am waiting for answers. I want to avoid having my travel money in limbo between two accounts when I leave.

When traveling in Ireland and the UK, I used my HSBC debit card and had no fees at all. Not even currency conversion fees.

We used Bank of America and there international partner alliance to avoid international fees:

Use your ATM card or check card within our Global ATM Alliance in the countries shown with no fees.

* Barclays (United Kingdom)
* BNP Paribas (France)
* China Construction Bank (China)
* Deutsche Bank (Germany)
* Santander Serfin (Mexico)
* Scotiabank (Canada)
* Westpac (Australia and New Zealand)

OH... and make sure you call your bank or financial institution before you leave the country and tell them about your trip. If international charges start showing up they might lock down your account.

Brad,

You are absolutely correct. I called our credit union...Los Angeles Police Federal CU...and found out that Spain and Italy were blocked (along with many others we aren't visiting) due to high levels of fraud. I did a little more research and found that our CU isn't the only one that does this...a fact that offers me little comfort.

O'well...on to the Capital One site.

Don't be too hard on the financial institutions. By law they eat the money lost to fraud (so you don't have to). The bigger banks make it up by charging big fees but the small places have to choose other options (like blocking countries).

Steve's example showed some options for blocked countries. Maybe others CU's offer some options too.