Debit cards without forex fee and other-bank ATM fees?
 

I hear that Bank of Internet has started charging 1% on overseas ATM withdrawals using their Visa debit card. No charge accrues for withdrawals at other bank ATMs up to $8/month, since B of I has no ATMs of their own.

What debit cards are still forex-free overseas and also allow wide-ranging other-bank ATM use without fee?

Capital One has checking accounts which give you debit cards without international fees.

Maybe your local credit union or community bank might have such an account as well. Mine does not charge you to use another bank's ATM (domestic or foreign) as long as you have a $5000 balance. However you still have to pay the surcharge, but most countries don't have ATM surcharges.

Schwab High Yield Investor Checking/Savings and Interest Checking Plus refunds fees for ATM cash withdrawals only. Other fees associated with the use of the debit card are not refunded (e.g., balance inquiry, POS transactions, etc.).

FYI Ally just changed things where they will no longer refund international ATM fees.

was about to link the same.

I thought they always charged 1% in foriegn atm fees...

For those in Germany, DKB offer fee free cash withdrawls to any currency worldwide and the exchange rate is generally the same or slightly better than other providers.

ATM withdrawl
 

Which of those cards is the best for ATM withdrawals abroad? Which card also doesnt charge fees and which allows to have a postitive balance, so you dont get nailed with interest until you pay the bill (as many cards charge interest for cash withdrawal from the date you used the ATM)

Charles Schwab Bank.

What Charles Schwab card are you referring to? The old one is esentially dead. That was the whole reason the OP started this thread!

(Note: By "this thread", I meant the credit cards with no transaction fee sticky that these posts originated in.)

Moderator action
 

mith's question has been moved to this thread from another. I believe the confusion arises because mith is asking about using a credit card for ATM withdrawals, and FlyMeToTheLooneyBin's reply refers to a debit card. Both options will probably be of interest to others.

Substantial discussion of the international ATM access with a Schwab debit card is embedded within this thread. The credit card discussed in the thread title is no longer available, but the ATM program should be unaffected:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...erything.html?

Sorry. I was running late so my reply was terse. :)

As mia said, I was referring to the debit card. I didn't know we were still talking about credit cards. :)

Incorrect info regarding Capital One
 

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.

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.

TD Ameritrade has checking accounts with ATM/debit cards??

Interesting. But there's no minimum account balance?

"If you keep a higher daily balance than $2500, TD may be a good idea." May I ask why is that the case? I have a TD debit card and am planning a trip to Europe this coming summer. All the researches I've been done show that TD may charge a fee...

where did you use your TD Ameritrade card?

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.

Thanks. TD Bank doesn't serve my state... What I have is a debit card from TD Ameritrade, I called, the representative struggled to answer questions. It seems TD Ameritrade's debit doesn't offer the service that the TD Premier checking from TD banks provides.

Now I can only hope for getting a Fidelity Cash Management card...

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.

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. :D

Thanks for posting this info. I would do the same if in the same situation, i.e. use the foreign banks for ATM withdrawals.

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.

Interesting - I opened Capital One online, but I guess since there are a bunch of Capital One branches in my area (in NJ) that I couldn't get the other bank that you speak of, and got the $2 non-Capital One ATM fee.

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.

USAA Federal Savings Bank, a mostly online bank, does not charge a separate fee. Like most everyone else, they charge a 1% visa network fee.

Sounds cool! Do you have for them a normal phone number which is not a 800 number which can be called from outside the US?

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?

As best I can tell, my Fidelity Visa Debit card charges a 1% fee, which may be the Visa network fee. I know I get a pretty good exchange rate at ATM's in Canada.

I think you can open a Fidelity account in the USA as a non-resident, you might have to go to a Fidelity Investor Center and show your passport and give a USA address.

Thanks!

http://www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index...d_credit_cards
I don't understand... I see some 1% some 0% here. Both Visa and MasterCard.

Not really too sure what you mean by no forex fee debit cards. Does this mean using your debit card as an ATM card and withdrawing cash abroad in local currency and not being dinged with fees?

If so, Bank of America comes to mind with the Global ATM Alliance.

You can use your BofA debit card to withdraw cash from your BofA bank account at Global ATM Alliance members (Scotiabank in Canada, Deutsche Bank in Germany, PNB Paribas in France, Westpac in Australia, etc.) and you get local currency at the day's exchange rate with no fees or ATM surcharges.

Moderator action
 

Trev's question has been appended to an ongoing discussion of the same topic. Reviewing the preceding posts should provide some useful leads.

Yes exactly that's what I'm looking for. Also a fee free account attached to the card would look nice. I heard that Bank of America opens accounts for non residents quite easily.

Well, if you happen to be a country resident of any of those Global ATM Alliance banks, you can just open an account at those banks and reciprocally, just withdraw USD at any BofA ATM in the US from your bank account.

A US resident who has a BofA account can withdraw CAD from Scotiabank ATMs in Canada.
Likewise, a Canadian resident who has a Scotiabank account can withdraw USD from BofA ATMs in the US.

Wait... Bank of America checking account is $9 per month. Or free if I do only online banking? If I understand correctly. Is it a good bank to deal with? Or do you have another recommendation as well?

http://flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php...d_credit_cards
BofA also charges 3% for foreign point of sale transactions? Not cool.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_...Holders.5B2.5D
The 1% - 3% International Transaction Fee/Foreign Currency Fee - not waived under the Global ATM Alliance.

Still confused.

Do they have USD accounts? They only have euro accounts - correct?

I've got a local credit union that refunds all charges for ATM's and forex. I've used it abroad and gotten refuned at the end of the month as long as I do 10 debit purchases, 1 direct deposit, and 1 bill payment a month. Which is no problem. Plus 1.75% interest on balance and no fees. So I would check out some local creit unions. I'm sure they don't see that much in forex fees normally. :)