Originally Posted by
ajnz
I don't know where you arrived from but almost all useful credit cards in everywhere I've lived have had some form of fee associated with them. In some cases you can negotiate the fees away (easier in NZ due to the relatively smaller size of banks versus say, the USA, depending on your financial relationship with the bank). I'd have to second the other posters to say that traveling internationally with a single card is somewhat risky. Even having a backup debit card would have been an inexpensive diversity approach; but picking up a second decent card should not be too expensive.
In my case I travel with (up to) 10 credit cards from 10 different banks issued in four countries. And in some obscure cases I've had to make my way through several cards until I found one which worked!
No annual fees on any non-Amex cards that I've owned (and continue to own) in the US (Capital One, Chase) and UK (First Direct, Barclays). I'm a UK Amex Platinum member, and that costs me an arm and a leg, but there are considerable perks associated with it so I stay on.
As I said, I completely agree that relying on just one card isn't the smartest idea. But to think that Kiwibank's operational policy relies on leaving some other bank to take care of me if something goes wrong would also classify as not being the smartest idea for a financial institution where confidence and trust can make or break business.