Originally Posted by
dko3tgk
There's no need for this thread to be so long. If you are a US citizen, the answer is Schwab. Period.
Schwab Visa
-No Annual Fee
-No foreign transaction fees (0%)
-2% back into your investmestment account, (which can be electronically transferred to Schwab Checking = cash), on all purchases.
-Competitive exchange rates that basically mirror the actual rate with no additional fees.
-Visa, so its accepted most places (as opposed to Amex or Discover which has less overall usage internationally)
Schwab Checking/ATM
-No minimum balance and still earns interest (currently .75% APY)
-Refunds on all ATM fees domestic and international
-No foreign exchange fees (0%)
-Competitive exchange rates that basically mirror the actual rate with no additional fees.
-Visa/Plus network, so access to alot of ATM's worldwide.
Unless you actually have a product that beats this, please stop flooding this thread with misleading and unecessary information.
Everybody claims to have a better product but there is always some catch, like being a Citigold or HSBC premier customer, or BOA having a limited network of free ATM's. 112 pages of thread, and I haven't really seen any combo of ATM and CC that beats Schwab, and essentially this is repeated over and over again. If you have an international ATM/CC combo better than Schwab, read the posts then tell us why its better. Don't just post something that's not better and make the thread longer.
I just get frustrated when the useful information in a thread gets lost to overposting which leads to more overposting. In the end the answer is the same but people looking for answers can't find it anymore.
Ok, I'll bite.
The Schwab debit card is great. As I posted earlier you can do slightly better sometimes by doing a cash advance at the counter vs an ATM withdrawal because of the way currency rates for conversion are calculated.
What you haven't figured in is that Visa (also MC) assess a 1% fee on foreign currency transactions which is on top of whatever fee the issuing bank assesses. There are only two banks that I know of that rebate that fee resulting in no currency transaction fee at all and the only one that earns points is Barclay's. So when you're charging in a foreign currency your net rebate with Schwab is 1% (2% less the 1% forex fee) vs 1 mi/$ with Barclays.
I guess it depends on how you value your rebate. Cash is simple and easily spent, but a penny a point is not a bad rate for Lufthansa miles.
My take would be if you travel internationally only moderately then go Schwab but if you travel a lot and you already have a strong relationship with LH then you might consider the Barclay's.
Since LH provides better access to availability than say UA (which blocks using Starnet) and opens seats at 365 days rather than 330 M&M miles get access to much better availability. The downside is that redemption levels are higher as are fees.
Still if you like traveling F you're going to do a lot better charging $150k on Barclay's than on Schwab since you can't buy an F ticket for $1,500 (which is your net rebate in forex).