srs507

Schwab's debit card is not chip-and-PIN by the way. Heck, they don't offer a chip at all on their debit card.

sandiegofun

I see visa logos on almost every ATM I use internationally. Occasionally there isn't one but it is pretty rare.

levander

@sandiego - thank for the info... It is hard to believe these machines take Visa, but don't have the Visa logo on them... It's kind of like, what's the point of the Visa logo?

@srs - When I talked to Schwab, twice, I mentioned the chip and pin thing several times. But it's not like everybody knows what you mean when you say chip and pin... It's possible they just heard pin, and were like, "oh yeah, we got those..." I don't know.

Mountain Trader

Schwab debit cards are not chip and pin but nor do they charge forex fees. Further, they reimbuse separately stated fees charged by ATM owner.

Alcibiades

some employees think they have discovered certain nuances, but in reality they are guessing

Alcibiades

they may not assess a FOREX fee of their own, but they pass along any small (0.8 to 1%) conversion fee that the networks assess the transaction

gj83

Capital One 360 (formerly ING Direct) doesn't charge Forex anymore.

They don't charge an ATM fee on their end, but don't reimburse for the other side like Schwab and others do.

It's a mastercard though

SammySpade

I try to find a machine with the logo but I've used an ATM a few times with my Fidelity card that didn't have the Visa logo and been reimbursed. I've generally assumed that if the machine accepts Visa, I'll be reimbursed, but maybe I'm wrong. Never had any problems with the Fidelity card and haven't had trouble finding an ATM with the Visa logo in Asia, Europe or S.A.

FYI Schwab does a hard pull, Fidelity does not.

levander

Alcibiades, do you have a Fidelity debit card and have seen this fee be charged?

The fee you mention is the one everyone who has the card say they never see get charged. They compare published currency exchange rates with what they see for transactions on the Fidelity debit card, and they say they have not been charged.

Jethro95

I just took my Schwab debit card to London and Paris and it worked everywhere with no fees whatsoever.

cotr

Ive been researching this myself, and it appears that Fidelity has documented a fee that they usually dont charge. It looks like the highest documented fee has been around .2%.

I would love to know the question to this. I need to kick Citi to the curb.

trying to charge me $26 for a book of checks...

Alcibiades

Where have people documented this ?

I have read the Fidelity has said that they charge a 1% fee, but I never used it myself. Just a backup. I always used Capital One b/c they definitely do not charge any FOREX fee of their own, and they definitively have stated that they do not pass along fees assessed by networks and absorb it. If that pass along fee is almost always a low 0.2% and never 1%, it is probably easier to simply use Fidelity.

Capital One DOES NOT absorb the ATM fee. 1% of $600 amounts to $6, so it seemed to make sense since Capital One charged just a $1 or $1.50 ATM fee, or something like that. If one was withdrawing just 40 or 100 Euro, then it would not make sense.

cotr

http://romsdeals.com/2013/05/08/fide...rnational-use/

There was another guy that had both Schwab and Fidelity and pulled the same amount of cash at the ATM at the same time (no FTF).

If you get the Fidelity Amex, that charges 1% FTF but rebates 2%. So, for your foreign purchases, you just get back 1%.

tsmith12

Fwiw, I've used Schwab ATM card all over Europe and Asia and never had any issues.

celetheo

The Visa PLUS logo means that the ATM is connected to Visa's interbank network built specifically for cash withdrawals across banks, i.e. a person using a Fidelity card at a non-Fidelity ATM. It actually isn't the same thing, from a technological standpoint, as a merchant accepting a Visa card when you buy something.

My guess is Fidelity filters all ATM withdrawals in their system by Visa PLUS (or whatever data line comes out from a Visa PLUS ATM transaction) then reimburses those lines. Why Fidelity may not be charging accurately is the transactional data is messy or the filter is too broad, or maybe both. My problem here is that Fidelity is probably trying to fix this issue, whereas Charles Schwab refunds all fees outright (maybe by checking withdrawal amounts outside of normal increments, e.g. $20 or whatever it is).

That'd be my guess.