Originally Posted by uds0

Yes, that is my understanding per my discussions with them. They were very careful to state that THEY do not charge any foreign transaction fee, BUT they do pass through any fees, including the 1% fee charged by VISA. Of course, they then reimburse ONLY the ATM cash withdrawal fee, if any (not the 1% ISA fee or balance inquiry or other fees). This is also consistent with my understanding that most banks and credit unions, for debit cards and most credit cards, pass through the 1% VISA fee and, because they can, many banks add their own 1-2% PURE PROFIT on top of that 1% VISA ISA fee pass-through, so that's why the magic number of 3% is so common. Any bank that charges you a 0% foreign transaction fee for VISA or MC card is eating that 1% ISA (International Service Assessment) fee charged by VISA/MC (MC may be slightly less).

I don't have the card so I can't verify, and I will double check tomorrow since I have been having lots of discussions with the main no fee banks and am only human (and over 60!) so I could possibly get the discussion results swapped.

I'll update this post with the results of tomorrow's chat with State Farm Bank.

We all need to remember that Foreign Transaction Fee has had at least several definitions. Some banks (like State Farm and even some credit unions) exclude the 1% ISA VISA fee from their use of that term. I vote for (and some banks define as) ANY amount charged above the "official" exchange rate is part of the FTF since that amount only occurs when there is a Foreign Transaction. Sadly, State Farm and some other banks also define "foreign" as anything non-State Farm, so non-State Farm ATMs in the US are defined as "foreign" ATMs - geeze!