Dec 29, 2013, 6:37 am
Last edit by: seawolf
Google Doc - Debit Cards Available with no Fees
Please refer to the Google doc and update as needed for the most comprehensive list of debit cards and their charges (or lack thereof)
Visa Exchange Rates
MasterCard Exchange Rates
Please refer to the Google doc and update as needed for the most comprehensive list of debit cards and their charges (or lack thereof)
Visa Exchange Rates
MasterCard Exchange Rates
Debit cards without forex fee and other-bank ATM fees?
Jan 19, 2012, 1:57 pm
#16
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: HaMerkaz/Exit 145
Programs: UA, LY, BA, AA
Posts: 13,167
I have used TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwab Bank, and Fidelity Cash Management abroad and all three give the same exact exchange rate for ATM use with no fees whatsoever. There are reports of Fidelity charging a 1% foreign transaction fee but I have never been charged this. My experience is only with ATM use and not with visa debit at a merchant.
All 3 are great choices with no minimum balance.
All 3 are great choices with no minimum balance.
Jan 19, 2012, 2:51 pm
#17
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,958
Jan 19, 2012, 3:04 pm
#18
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: HaMerkaz/Exit 145
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Posts: 13,167
May 26, 2012, 8:09 pm
#19
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: MSP
Posts: 376
Capital One charges know foreign transaction fee when withdrawing from a foreign ATM. HOWEVER, they do charge the same $2 fee that they always charge when using a non-Capital One ATM. This is the same as TD Bank, for example. TD, however, waives the non-TD ATM fee in some cases. There are a bunch of accounts, that coupled with a minimum daily balance of $2500 will waive the non-TD ATM fee. These accounts are free.
Ally refunds all ATM fees within the USA. Outside the USA, they do not refund the fee AND charge a 1% foreign transaction fee.
I believe Charles Schwabb is the only bank left that will allow you to withdraw for no fee at all on any account. If you keep a higher daily balance than $2500, TD may be a good idea.
Ally refunds all ATM fees within the USA. Outside the USA, they do not refund the fee AND charge a 1% foreign transaction fee.
I believe Charles Schwabb is the only bank left that will allow you to withdraw for no fee at all on any account. If you keep a higher daily balance than $2500, TD may be a good idea.
May 26, 2012, 8:11 pm
#20
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: MSP
Posts: 376
I have used TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwab Bank, and Fidelity Cash Management abroad and all three give the same exact exchange rate for ATM use with no fees whatsoever. There are reports of Fidelity charging a 1% foreign transaction fee but I have never been charged this. My experience is only with ATM use and not with visa debit at a merchant.
All 3 are great choices with no minimum balance.
All 3 are great choices with no minimum balance.
May 27, 2012, 4:43 pm
#21
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: HaMerkaz/Exit 145
Programs: UA, LY, BA, AA
Posts: 13,167
As long as you maintain a minimum daily balance of $2500, then the monthly maintenance fee ($25) is waived, the non-TD ATM fee is waived, and ATM fees charged by other institutions are refunded.
May 29, 2012, 9:06 pm
#22
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: MSP
Posts: 376
http://tdbank.com/personal/checking....te=NJ&city=477 - a TD Premier account (http://tdbank.com/personal/CheckingDetails.html)
As long as you maintain a minimum daily balance of $2500, then the monthly maintenance fee ($25) is waived, the non-TD ATM fee is waived, and ATM fees charged by other institutions are refunded.
As long as you maintain a minimum daily balance of $2500, then the monthly maintenance fee ($25) is waived, the non-TD ATM fee is waived, and ATM fees charged by other institutions are refunded.
Now I can only hope for getting a Fidelity Cash Management card...
May 30, 2012, 1:06 am
#23
Moderator: Manufactured Spending
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 6,580
However, Capital One Bank (USA), N.A., which is the online bank, does not charge for using an outside ATM and rebates surcharges up to $25 a month, both domestic and international. You cannot open this account if Capital One has brick-and-mortar branches in your area.
The two are separate banks with separate FDIC coverage, owned by the same bank holding company.
Hope that clears it up.
May 30, 2012, 5:45 am
#24
In memoriam
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 4,020
To provide current Schwab debit card info, I used mine last month many times in Asia and received both a good exchange rate and the automatic rebate of fees charged by the local banks.
Thus the $5 ATM fee, evidently instituted by Thai banks solely to take foreigners' money, is rebated by Schwab with no effort on my part.
Personally, I walk over to a Citi ATM in Bangkok to avoid the fee, Citi and, I understand, some other non-Thai banks being the only ones not charging the $5. Don't save any money 'cause Schwab would rebate the five bucks, but it makes me feel better.
Thus the $5 ATM fee, evidently instituted by Thai banks solely to take foreigners' money, is rebated by Schwab with no effort on my part.
Personally, I walk over to a Citi ATM in Bangkok to avoid the fee, Citi and, I understand, some other non-Thai banks being the only ones not charging the $5. Don't save any money 'cause Schwab would rebate the five bucks, but it makes me feel better.
May 30, 2012, 10:14 am
#25
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,763
To provide current Schwab debit card info, I used mine last month many times in Asia and received both a good exchange rate and the automatic rebate of fees charged by the local banks.
Thus the $5 ATM fee, evidently instituted by Thai banks solely to take foreigners' money, is rebated by Schwab with no effort on my part.
Personally, I walk over to a Citi ATM in Bangkok to avoid the fee, Citi and, I understand, some other non-Thai banks being the only ones not charging the $5. Don't save any money 'cause Schwab would rebate the five bucks, but it makes me feel better.
Thus the $5 ATM fee, evidently instituted by Thai banks solely to take foreigners' money, is rebated by Schwab with no effort on my part.
Personally, I walk over to a Citi ATM in Bangkok to avoid the fee, Citi and, I understand, some other non-Thai banks being the only ones not charging the $5. Don't save any money 'cause Schwab would rebate the five bucks, but it makes me feel better.
May 30, 2012, 10:45 am
#26
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,763
Saga at BNP in France and the 1% Visa withdrawal fee charged
I learned about it from an ordeal.
I had a blotched withdrawal at a BNP at Aix-en-Provence, France a few weeks ago.
The machine ate my Fidelity Cash Management Check Card and not spit out any money. A receipt came out with words about "ATM card not withdrawn", "Contact Local Branch" and no transaction printed on the 100 euro withdrawal. It was 12:36pm and the bank was closed till 2:00PM. I went in right at the re-opening of the bank and after some arguing I was able to get my card back with my passport proof in about 20 minutes - I had to as we were on a cruise and we had to return to Marseilles by 4:30pm. I was told the reason why the card was eaten was because I did not take my card from the ATM quick enough. Well, the card never popped out when the screen told me "Not to forget getting your card back" - I could see the card came to flush with the slot where there was a small indent for thumb and finger - it is so small that it probably equals to a woman's thumb nail - that is how small the area is. When I tried to pull the card out, I wasn't able to and the card quickly retracted back to the ATM.
Apparently the BNP at Aix-en-Provence has many tourists encounter similar problem as the teller eventually told me next time to use other type of machines the bank also has. The problematic one is the ONLY such type there but it was the first one you could see when you were looking for the ATMs that can do international withdrawal as each ATM is separate by some privacy panel and you would not know there is a machine until you walk along the whole curved wall.
Long story short when I logged into my Fido account, I found there were 3 line entries: A debit of $130xx as cash advance. A charge of debit card purchase of $1.30 and a credit of $130xx as cash advance reversal.
The next day the credit adjustment fell off. So my account balance was dinged by the 2 debit items. I sent a secured message to Fido to detail the event and request investigation.
We were at Livorno, Italy by then. Fido has Italy toll-free number to call but it seems most pay phones I found do not work at all. I found a net cafe with phone services but the owner told me it would not work to call toll-free. My guess is toll free does not enable him to charge me so he just does not want to offer the service. Eventually I was able to get help from a shopkeeper who called the toll-free line from his shop's landline phone. I got connected with Fido USA and the CSR saw the same thing as I did. He made a notation to my account, transferred me to the card service dept where the CSR told me the credit was in pending stage would take a few days, the debit items were authorized therefore took away the amount from account balance. He said he could not figure out the $1.30 debit card purchase item.
Upon returning to the ship I logged in Fido and did an online chat. The CSR said all items were in pending mode and he would need to do more research then send me an email on the outcome.
I did not look at my Fido account for the next 15 days because net connection was hard to find. (Did not travel with any device to minimize weight as our trip involved train and LCC flights post cruise.)
Upon return I found all transactions related to the ATM withdrawal vanished as if they never happen - this is one thing I really dont like FIDO's accounting - I would much rather to see a history of reversal so one has a record of what has been going on.
Anyway, the online chat rep did send a email - he had talked to a person at PNC bank (the bank that my cash management account is assigned to), that the credit fell off because the authorization code used by BNP was a new one, different from the ATM withdrawal authorization code - therefore it had nothing to offset and fell off. PNC rep said she could not re-instate the credit, but assured Fido the withdrawal debit would also fall off in 4 business days as well as the $1.30 "purchase" which she said was the 1% Visa foreign withdrawal fee.
This separate 1% foreign withdrawal fee would not be reimbursed by Fido based on my understanding.
I have made withdrawals in Spain at Santander bank, as well as withdrawal in Prague, Czech Republic - both banks did not charge the so-called 1% Visa foreign withdrawal fee. In fact I have used FIDO's card exclusively for all our travel needs - none of the withdrawals done in Hong Kong and Taiwan earlier this year, and none of the withdrawals done in Spain, France, Italy last year, have ever had this 1% fee shown up. None of the exchange rates used ever included such 1% fee either when comparing to historic inter-bank mean avg rates found on the web. The exchange rates come very close to the inter-bank rates with may be 0.05% to 0.1% variances sometimes in my favor.
My conclusion is, some banks now start charging the Visa connection fee of 1%. That 1% would not be reimbursed. You would not find that out until after the fact as BNP ATM never displays such a fee at any time during the process. I know now to avoid BNP and specifically avoid certain design of ATMs.
I had a blotched withdrawal at a BNP at Aix-en-Provence, France a few weeks ago.
The machine ate my Fidelity Cash Management Check Card and not spit out any money. A receipt came out with words about "ATM card not withdrawn", "Contact Local Branch" and no transaction printed on the 100 euro withdrawal. It was 12:36pm and the bank was closed till 2:00PM. I went in right at the re-opening of the bank and after some arguing I was able to get my card back with my passport proof in about 20 minutes - I had to as we were on a cruise and we had to return to Marseilles by 4:30pm. I was told the reason why the card was eaten was because I did not take my card from the ATM quick enough. Well, the card never popped out when the screen told me "Not to forget getting your card back" - I could see the card came to flush with the slot where there was a small indent for thumb and finger - it is so small that it probably equals to a woman's thumb nail - that is how small the area is. When I tried to pull the card out, I wasn't able to and the card quickly retracted back to the ATM.
Apparently the BNP at Aix-en-Provence has many tourists encounter similar problem as the teller eventually told me next time to use other type of machines the bank also has. The problematic one is the ONLY such type there but it was the first one you could see when you were looking for the ATMs that can do international withdrawal as each ATM is separate by some privacy panel and you would not know there is a machine until you walk along the whole curved wall.
Long story short when I logged into my Fido account, I found there were 3 line entries: A debit of $130xx as cash advance. A charge of debit card purchase of $1.30 and a credit of $130xx as cash advance reversal.
The next day the credit adjustment fell off. So my account balance was dinged by the 2 debit items. I sent a secured message to Fido to detail the event and request investigation.
We were at Livorno, Italy by then. Fido has Italy toll-free number to call but it seems most pay phones I found do not work at all. I found a net cafe with phone services but the owner told me it would not work to call toll-free. My guess is toll free does not enable him to charge me so he just does not want to offer the service. Eventually I was able to get help from a shopkeeper who called the toll-free line from his shop's landline phone. I got connected with Fido USA and the CSR saw the same thing as I did. He made a notation to my account, transferred me to the card service dept where the CSR told me the credit was in pending stage would take a few days, the debit items were authorized therefore took away the amount from account balance. He said he could not figure out the $1.30 debit card purchase item.
Upon returning to the ship I logged in Fido and did an online chat. The CSR said all items were in pending mode and he would need to do more research then send me an email on the outcome.
I did not look at my Fido account for the next 15 days because net connection was hard to find. (Did not travel with any device to minimize weight as our trip involved train and LCC flights post cruise.)
Upon return I found all transactions related to the ATM withdrawal vanished as if they never happen - this is one thing I really dont like FIDO's accounting - I would much rather to see a history of reversal so one has a record of what has been going on.
Anyway, the online chat rep did send a email - he had talked to a person at PNC bank (the bank that my cash management account is assigned to), that the credit fell off because the authorization code used by BNP was a new one, different from the ATM withdrawal authorization code - therefore it had nothing to offset and fell off. PNC rep said she could not re-instate the credit, but assured Fido the withdrawal debit would also fall off in 4 business days as well as the $1.30 "purchase" which she said was the 1% Visa foreign withdrawal fee.
This separate 1% foreign withdrawal fee would not be reimbursed by Fido based on my understanding.
I have made withdrawals in Spain at Santander bank, as well as withdrawal in Prague, Czech Republic - both banks did not charge the so-called 1% Visa foreign withdrawal fee. In fact I have used FIDO's card exclusively for all our travel needs - none of the withdrawals done in Hong Kong and Taiwan earlier this year, and none of the withdrawals done in Spain, France, Italy last year, have ever had this 1% fee shown up. None of the exchange rates used ever included such 1% fee either when comparing to historic inter-bank mean avg rates found on the web. The exchange rates come very close to the inter-bank rates with may be 0.05% to 0.1% variances sometimes in my favor.
My conclusion is, some banks now start charging the Visa connection fee of 1%. That 1% would not be reimbursed. You would not find that out until after the fact as BNP ATM never displays such a fee at any time during the process. I know now to avoid BNP and specifically avoid certain design of ATMs.
May 30, 2012, 12:17 pm
#27
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: HaMerkaz/Exit 145
Programs: UA, LY, BA, AA
Posts: 13,167
It seems like you are referring to Capital One, N.A., which is the brick-and-mortar bank found in NYC, New Orleans, and a few other cities. They charge $2 for outside ATM usage.
However, Capital One Bank (USA), N.A., which is the online bank, does not charge for using an outside ATM and rebates surcharges up to $25 a month, both domestic and international. You cannot open this account if Capital One has brick-and-mortar branches in your area.
The two are separate banks with separate FDIC coverage, owned by the same bank holding company.
Hope that clears it up.
However, Capital One Bank (USA), N.A., which is the online bank, does not charge for using an outside ATM and rebates surcharges up to $25 a month, both domestic and international. You cannot open this account if Capital One has brick-and-mortar branches in your area.
The two are separate banks with separate FDIC coverage, owned by the same bank holding company.
Hope that clears it up.
May 30, 2012, 3:40 pm
#28
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 64
because I am non US resident I will call them which one opens an account for non US residents when I travel there.
So far:
Capital One - no fees
Everbank - though they say they charge 1% VISA fee + 0.8% foreign exchange fee
Charles Schwab - no fees
Is the above correct so far? Any other contestants?
Pls. no credit card deals in this thread. As I am a non US person sure I can't apply to those.
So far:
Capital One - no fees
Everbank - though they say they charge 1% VISA fee + 0.8% foreign exchange fee
Charles Schwab - no fees
Is the above correct so far? Any other contestants?
Pls. no credit card deals in this thread. As I am a non US person sure I can't apply to those.
Last edited by mia; May 30, 2012 at 6:07 pm
May 30, 2012, 5:17 pm
#30
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 64
Or an e-mail address? They want me to register on their site but I don't want. Thanks!
MasterCard network also charges a 1% fee? Like CapitalOne?