Originally Posted by
ESpen36
But this plan doesn't work quite so well outside the USA. I find that many, many vendors (even grocery stores) overseas will not accept anything other than Visa/MC. During my recent 10-day trip to the Caribbean, only the rental car company easily accepted AMEX with no hassles. So I had to use Citi almost exclusively for those ten days. I suppose it matters where you travel. I imagine AMEX costs more for merchants to process...
Using any Citi card overseas incurs a 3% foreign fee. For me, 3 cents is more than an AA mile is worth. The AMEX overseas fee is 2%, but they use their own less favorable exchange rates. For this reason, I use the Capital One VISA overseas (except at Starwood hotels, where double Starpoints is the rule). Capital One gives a 1% cash rebate and charges zero foreign fees (not even the 1% VISA fee is passed along).