I spent a weekend in Montreal recently with some friends. Some notes:

• I charged my rental car to my Citi AA card (for the CDW coverage) and gas to my Citi Dividend Rewards Card (for the 5% cash back). Both charged a rate that was roughly interbank, and then tacked on 3% in "finance charges" at the end of the statement cycle.
  • Note that Citi Dividend Rewards Card is still good to use for gas purchases overseas--I got my 5% back, which more than made up for the 3% forex fee.
• I made two ATM withdrawals in CAD using my Umbrellabank.com Visa ATM card, which normally gives me a rate approximately 1% above the interbank rate.
  • The YUL airport ATM outside customs charged me roughly 3% above the interbank rate for the day (in addition to a disclosed CAD1.75 fee). A friend who withdrew from the same ATM using a Citi ATM card got roughly the same terrible rate. I'm going to follow that up with my bank, b/c it's unacceptable.
  • Another ATM I used two days later gave me very close to the interbank rate + 1%, as I've come to expect with Umbrellabank. Another friend who used his Commerce Bank (of NJ/NY) ATM card at that same ATM received a slightly more favorable rate (about 0.5% better).

My fiancee also recently returned from Israel, where she made purchases on an MBNA Visa, a Target Visa, and her UmbrellaBank Visa ATM/Debit card. I'll try to get ahold of her statements and compare the rates there as well.