What type of Capital One account?

Susan, I believe the account you are interested in is the High Yield Money Market Account. I just opened one myself, but have not received the ATM card yet. I would be interested in hearing from anyone now using this card.

My regular old Capital One credit card (no special features) has no extra fees for conversion when making a purchase in another country. It isn't an ATM card.

I'm looking for an account that I can put money into and withdraw from with an ATM card. All the places I'm staying in Europe are requesting cash.

How did you put money into the account if there was not a local bank?

This is an online account. Just go to the Capitol One website, open an account, and you can transfer money from your local bank to your money market account. You will use your money market ATM card just like your local ATM card.

Hi,

I opened a money market account online to use the ATM card on a trip to the UK. The card worked great!

In the UK I just put the card into the machine, PIN, and out came the money. Here, in the USA, you probably need to select the type of account .. just remember to select "Savings."

Cheers.

I have the Capital One Rewards Money Market account and like it a lot. It pay about 4.5% cash on the mopnthly balance, gives Travel Reward points on the balance, allows checkwriting and gives you an ATM card with no foreign currency exchange fee and, at least at the ATMs I used in Spain and Portugal, no off system fee. You can open an account online .

Glad someone started this topic. I looked at the Capital One website a few days ago and had a couple of questions for those using the MMF and ATM card. In one place, the terms say there's a maximum of 6 withdrawls in any calendar month but then say $500 per day in another place. What's your experience - is there really a 6 withdrawl limit? It also says no Capital One fees but other bank may charge fees. Are the foreign banks charging fees?

For our recent trip, I opened a Capital One Credit Card account and a Schwab One Bank account w/ATM card. my ATM withdrawals and credit card transactions very closely tracked with the daily currency exchange rates. Schwab makes no ATM charge and reiumburses you for ATM fees charged by the issuing bank. Use of both was pretty much flawless and satisfactory. Schwab is easy to use, no limits on the number of daily withdrawals and caps daily withdrawals at $2000 per day. I never needed that much but took out 500 Euros (about $775) several times to pay lodging bills in cash.

My 2 cents...

I guess I've always thought of Schwab as an investment company only, not so much a bank. Do you have exisiting accounts with them? I just wonder about opening an account with them, depositing 10 or 15 thousand and then withdrawing it within a month. Would it still be free if I'm just using them for a short period of time?

I believe that their banking is and can be completely independent of their investment side. Schwab has very good and responsive customer service... I would suggest giving them a call and direct your questions to them. In my own case I do have an investment account with Schwab, but the presence of that account has/had nothing to do with the banking relationship.

Like Etrade - Schwab has a banking side - independent from the brokerage services (as the poster above mentioned). You may want to call or walk into a schwab office and ask to make sure your getting what you need. They may have "service" fees for accounts under a certain size but that could be just on the brokerage side. Try the same with CapOne - call and tell them you want a checking with ATM that wont charge fees in travel. Etrade also reimbursed the ATM fees long ago, so you may want to compare with schwab. The customer service is probably better at schwab and you always get a domestic call center for support if you pref that (I have accoutns at both).
One more side note - most ATMs in europe always need to be set to CHECKING as primary (not savings as a previous poster mentioned). But perhaps this is for cards that have access to both Check/Savings.

Susan & Monte - the way I understand it with Schwab is that you must open both an Investment account and a Bank account. Having said that you do not have to use the account and either account (the investment or the checking) can have a 0 balance without penalty. The accounts are also linked so money goes back and forth. As poster above stated, the customer service people are great and will help you set it up the right way. I have had this for myself and my daughter for almost a year. She was in France for the year and it was a great account for her to use. I plan to continue using it as it is also just a good idea financially - i.e. interest bearing, no fees, reimbursement of other bank ATM fees, etc.

FYI on the Capital One account.
Withdrawals by online transfer or checks are limited to 6 per month. No limit on ATM withdrawals but there is a $500.00 per day maximum.

Thank you Nancy and Tom for your great feedback on the Capital One and Schwab ATM cards.

I am traveling to Italy in October and had the same questions. I ended up opening a Schwab High Yield Account for this purpose. It is really easy to do on their website and you can either transfer funds online or mail them a check. And yes their customer service is excellent. I have a RothIRA with them and I also didn't know that they had a bank side.

THank you everyone for all the information. I need to do more homework and see what to do. I happen to have a Charles Schwab not far from home so I think I'll go and talk with them. Sounds like Capital One is also a good choice..way better than my Wells Fargo. I'd rather buy more gelato than pay fees!

I'm happy with my Capital One ATM card linked with money market fund .. for Europe use.

To use it in my local bank, I need to pay a fee, but in the UK ATMs (only used the ones associated with banks), there was no fee. So, until my next trip, it won't be getting much use, if any, but the interest % is much better than current local rates, so I'm using it to "grow" funds to use on the next trip.

The Schwab posts are interesting and informative to read. It looks to add a benefit boost of Cap One, to have fees returned on both sides of the pond. If I get a Christmas bonus, I think I'll be reading some more about it.

And if you have access to a in-person location to ask questions, that's good, too. The Cap One online use is convenient, but sometimes I just want to be able to walk in and ask a question to a person.