FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Charles Schwab checking account just for foreign travel?
Old Jan 6, 2023 | 9:09 am
  #74  
moondog
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Community Builder
Community Influencer
All eyes on you!
25 Years on Site
 
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Shanghai
Posts: 46,219
Originally Posted by pstm91
I work for a Wall St. Broker/Dealer and am able to follow current rates. I wish I had a recent specific example for you, but my experiences were from several months ago. I just remember looking at my Schwab statement a few days after I made a withdrawal as I was curious and noticing it was substantially off (in Schwab's favor) from what the rate at the time was (at that time I was in Romania). I just happened to see this thread the other day and it reminded me of that time, so I wanted to see if others had experienced the same thing. While it's great they will reimburse the fees, I feel like they are just making up for it with their rates.
I used to have the Morgan Stanley Premier Wealth Management debit card, which also reimbursed fees globally, and I never had any issues with the exchange rates.
How far from the middle rate was it? I used to keep track of my withdrawals on an xls, but got bored with the project because the data never really changed.

ETA: I see you mentioned that you were in Romania. Since the RON/USD rate is rather volatile, analysis can be a little tricky (compared to currencies that are more closely aligned with USD), but if you had ~5 data points over the course of a month, you'd probably get a decent approximation of the actual markup.

Last edited by moondog; Jan 6, 2023 at 10:06 am
moondog is offline