I got Capital One's no foreign fee credit card that does not charge any fees at all for foreign transactions...neither Capital One charges anything nor Visa/Mastercard. Is that a better option than using an ATM/debit card because my bank will charge a fee for withdrawing foreign currency. I'll be traveling to Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia.
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Dukkar
Sorry, I should have clarified. I was talking about using Capital One simply as a credit card; not as an ATM card. I have the ATM/debit card from my bank.
Use a credit card if they do no give a discount for cash. A 5% discount for cash is common -- when given. Even if you debit card charges 3% currency conversion, you are still ahead 2%.
If you belong to a credit union, they will have your best deal regarding fees charged. We were in Europe last year and we never paid a fee from our CU to use our ATM or Visa Platinum!
I got a Schwab Bank credit card and debit card for the simple reason that (1) there is no transaction fee on use of the card in the US or overseas and (2) they pay 2% rebate on all purchase and have zero annual fee. The WSJ did an article on this several months ago and the conclusion was that Capital One and Schwab were the best way to go for overseas transactions. Larry
Not much help as a Canadian here but here is what I can add to the topic.
Scotia Bank does not charge withdrawal fees when you withdraw money in America from Bank of America ATM machines, Barcley's in the UK, Deutsch Bank in Germany, BNP Paribas in France and Westpac in Australia.
This is the Global ATM alliance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_ATM_Alliance
The Scotiabank website says they founded this alliance. Saves me a few dollars each trip because I always seek out these banks while away. I haven't read all the details but it looks like this is sometimes reciprocal, I haven't read all the details for other countries and their bank customers.
