Originally Posted by
guanix
The debit card itself is issued by PNC Bank NA (Visa prefix 4251), and this doesn’t depend on my program bank. PNC sets the policies for the debit card together with Fidelity. My daily ATM withdrawal limit is $500 and my authorization limit is $10,000. It is possible to view these limits and the available amounts on fidelity.com; I hadn’t heard anything about a daily ATM transaction limit. Behind the scenes, when I use my debit card, Fidelity makes transfers between PNC and the program banks to settle up.
Finally, the debit card is “administered” by BNY Mellon Investment Servicing. I am not sure what practical implications this has, but I believe that when I call the phone number on the back of the card, someone who works for BNY will answer my call.
This explains it why I made a test $20 ATM withdrawal at local PNC bank prior to a long trip last year, to my surprise, the PNC ATM did not display the usual message of the ATM usage fee. I dont remember the authorization limit but I was told that in case I needed more cash than the $500 I could go into a bank for Cash Advance transaction and there would be no fee. Never need to use this function so I could not tell if it is true.
Because Fido does not own a bank, its arrangement with the banks on various functions seem awfully complicated. I have found this being a very annoying factor when your ATM card was "eaten" by a foreign bank's machine and your withdrawal got debited then credited because of that, but later the credit would fall off, leaving you a net "loss" situation because you did not get any money. It would take a few communications to get this resolved.
This happened to me at a BNP at Aix-en-Provence during a port of call on a cruise. At first I saw there was a credit to offset the debit when I checked online I thought everything was fine then. On the next day I checked the account and now saw the credit disappeared! At least I had the foresight to print out the account activity the day before, that showed the credit.
Long story short, it took a phone call now in Italy, using the toll fee number Fido had, and then got patched to a very rude rep who handled the ATM card (obviously not Fido rep), an online chat with Fido rep, and an email to follow up, to eventually got a non-secured email response to the email address on file, to explain why the credit fell off "because the bank did not use the authorization code to process the credit" - which is insane because everything was generated WITHOUT any human intervention - when the card was "eaten", the slip spit out showed the withdrawal / reversal.
Since then I try to use Schwab's card most of the time and avoid Fido's which is served as a back up only. At Seoul, the ATM at a bank in the airport arrival hall apparently ran out of money - it debited my card but no money spit out. It took 20 min for the bank to get its manager from the bigger branch located in another area of the airport to come, and after taking photocopy of my passport and the card, they gave me the Won. I cannot imagine if they did not resolve the matter on the spot, how much a nightmare would be, dealing with Fidelity.
Schwab reps are far more friendly and details oriented than Fido ATM reps who are very lack of geographic knowledge when I called in to give Travel Notice.