Originally Posted by
themicah
A friend of mine has a theory that the only reason CapOne doesn't charge forex fees is that they are too incompetent to implement the change.
Given my own experiences with their customer service (20+ minute call to try to add my wife to my account, then no card shows up in the mail), I'd say that theory may hold water.
Anyway, I still use them when I go overseas as my main card. Luckily I haven't needed customer service (and I carry backup cards with fees just in case).
When leaving SJO last week, I used my Crap1 to pay the Exit Tax the actual charge was 26.23 while it was 26 in cash, factor in the 1 1/4 rebate and it was 25.90. Was short on cash.
Surprise Surprise was that Crap1 hit me for a $5 fee for a cash advance, seems that the Tax is paid is collected by a Bank and therefore got picked up as a Cash Advance.
However once I finally got thru to a CSR and explained that I paid the Exit Tax and there wasnt a sign tellling me that a Bank was handling everything and that no money was exchanged or changed hands, she issued me a refund for the $5 fee^
So as bad as they may be its still my #1 CC when traveling outside the US, as long as they dont start Ripping us with the Forex fees. With the charges are in US$ (of which I had 2 in SJO) I use my SPG Amex as most CCs will add a Forex fee even thou the charge is US$ if its outside the US