SusanDK,

I have multiple foreign and American friends who have US SSN's from citizenship and/or time in the US as students and they all have US-based cards instead of International $ cards for just the reasons you lay out. Not only are the rewards typically worse, but you still get *crushed* on the currency exchange. If you have any family, friends or relatives in the US I would use your SSN and their address to apply for a US card, and then sign up for online payments/billing etc. This is what I did in my years abroad as well. My opinion has not changed for the last ten years-- US credit card products are generally better than non-US simply because of competition, with the UK being the only country that comes close.

You might want to consider the MBNA Quantum Mastercard as a backup as well; when I travel abroad now I don't even use my Platinum, just my Quantum.

Erlftex