Wrong. It's not the best deal around. The best deal around are the many banks that charge no fee of their own AND rebate ATM-owner fees for just about any ATM anywhere in the world.

Please, please please read the wiki.

micah, youre on the money. i found a local bank, G. Fla. that charges no ATM feed nationwide and refunds any no owned ones worldwide. thanks everybody. add that to my cap one c.c. and i think i am set.

As a general rule (admittedly has exceptions): big bank bad--little bank (relatively) good. Credit Union best. :)

Things to be careful about small banks and credit unions:

• Make sure they use an ATM network that exists outside North America. Most ATM cards these days have Plus or Cirrus, which are global. But you'll still occasionally find a local bank that issues ATM cards that only work on domestic networks like Star and NYCE.
• Note that "no ATM fees nationwide" doesn't necessarily mean "no fees worldwide." Many local banks pass on the Visa/MC 1% vig for foreign currency withdrawals. 1% isn't a very big deal, and is much better than the 3%+ many big banks charge. But there are some banks out there that still eat the 1% fee, too. See the wiki.
• Bring a second ATM card as a backup. Although local banks and credit unions often have great personal service at their actual locations, very few of them have 24hour hotlines you can call collect from overseas if you have a problem (card is lost/stolen/doesn't work). I typically travel with a couple ATM cards (at least one Plus and one Cirrus) and a few credit cards (at least one Visa, one MC and one Amex) just in case something doesn't work. I use the low/no-fee cards whenever possible, but keep some higher-fee cards with good customer service as backup.

Check out HSBC Premier if you qualify.

This may be the exception many are looking for.

I have been using my netbank.com debit card for years at ATMS and purchases. They don't have fees for themselves and only rarely have I found international ATMs trying to charge a fee like US ATMs, I think it was only once in Brussels where I said no way, and went next door to an ATM that didn't charge fees.

Works great, can manage account online and they have international access numbers for most countries, though I've never used them.

I don't think they charge a fee, except for what Visa international charges the 1% above wholesale, which is much better than any other way of exchanging money.

Actually, I don't think Visa keeps most of the 1%. Instead it is mostly split between the card issuing bank and the owner of the ATM.

Just another way to take the card user for a ride and blame it on somebody else. :td:

I use my Bank of America debit card. I check with the bank to see who they are partnered with overseas and then use those machines. I have not been charged a fee as long as I use the partnered banks. Example....in Australia, Westpac is partnered with BofA and I can pull money out with no fees at all, no exchange fees......nothing. It is great.

Not my experience. BofA charged me $5 on debit withdrawals from China Construction and Deutche Bank last year. That's when I finally closed an acct that I had open for over 20 years. Completely feed up with BofA. Horrendously bad customer service, their online operation is a very bad joke, and they change their T&Cs every few months so that they can sneak in unexpected charges.

My local bank reimburses all fees if I maintain a minimum and only charges 1% forex if I drop below the minimum.

I think that some time ago I was charged a fee for using what appeared to be a Barclays ATM with my BofA card, but unfortunately I never queried it properly, thinking that the location (which I don't even recall now) was some kind of exception.

Other than that, over the last few years, I've not had a problem using a BofA ATM card at Westpac, Deutschebank, or Barclays machines.
Nor have I had a problem using a Barclay ATM card at Westpac or BofA ATM's.

On the other hand, I discovered that Westpac doesn't participate in the Global ATM Alliance quite the same way when it comes to their own customers, when I withdrew a bunch of cash over successive days in the US.
They did waive one fee (the flat AUD foreign ATM fee), but hit me with two separate other percentage-based fees that worked out to be substantially more than the fee they did waive.

When I called to complain the phone agent just didn't get it, saying that "Well, Australia's a different country from the others" (Um, yes, they're all different.). The whole idea of having an alliance should be for common rules to be applied between participants.
(Westpac's email response was a bit more reasonable, but still gave no apologies for the difference in fee application. I was given what amounted to a one-time exception and they refunded the fees which amounted to about AUD50 or so, so I was glad for that. At least now I know not to use that card outside of Australia again!)

Good advice
 

Good advice. Two years ago my 19 year son headed off to Europe with his ATM card and one back-up credit card. For various reasons, both "failed" for a day or two. It took many phone calls to get both working. Luckily, he was with people he could borrow cash from...otherwise...yikes!

Also, don't forget to call the card companies and let them know you'll be abroad...it's not cool when they suddenly stop it cause you've never used it in Prague before :)

I keep a Nordstrom's Visa with associated cards for both sons for emergency back-up...they know they are responsible for the charges. It's has a 1% foreign exchange fee. Not the worst by a long shot. Also, it's easier than sending them money to give them permission to use it for a "gift."

While this is being preached by banks and by many financial writers, as well as individuals, I have a hard time to believe this is in fact a good practice or even necessity.

I have read a fair amount of stories about how people dlilgently called their banks with their travel plans, and only get their cards declined aboard, ATM or CCs, after a few days of usage.

OTOH, over our decades or more foreign travel, we never call to inform any of our banks or card issuers about our travel plan. Not a single time we ever encountered a decline of our cards. When using ATM cards, we tend to make a big withdrawal upon arrival, esp in countries where ATM has a domestic and an international network, such as Japan. Usually just a couple ATM withdrawals were sufficient for the trip. May be that is why we never encounter issue with ATM cards. I have no explanation on CCs - we used to charge everything until the ugly 3% rule made it be known. Now we generally use cash when travel aboard. (we hardly buy anything material, not even "souvenirs" - quited that habit years ago.) Last Sept in Paris, small restaurants had a hard time to take our US-issued CC because they had to find another machine to process it. These days you cannot even use your US-issued CC to pay unmanned toll booth or buy gas because they only accept the chip-inbedded CC which is the standard in EU.

This year we had a 42 days trip to NZ and Australia from late March to early May. We used Westpac ATMs at least a half doz times with our BofA card. No withdrawal fee ever showed up. Though I found out that if you made withdrawal on a Friday, when the transaction obviously cannot be "fully" finished until the next Monday, the exchange rate was like 1+ % higher than it would be, when compared it to the mean rate published by many sites that provide such info. Otherwise, when it is done in a day such that there is one business day after your withdrawal (so the transaction would be completed 100% between banks), the exchange rate is highly competitive.

I can testify BofA does not charge any fee on withdrawals made on Barclay's machines, even the standing alone ones at railroad stations. However, I avoided using the Travelux machines at LHR, though on Barclays' website it said those are Barclays machines as well.

I have yet to try China.

Necessity, no. Good practice, yes. Most of us have a few minutes to spare - and how could it possibly hurt to make the call?

Credit card companies are quite vigilant these days. I got 3 calls from Capital One when I charged $3k worth of airline tickets on orbitz. I am happy that they are vigilant because it means I am less likely to have my cards used for fraudulent purposes. They have also thanked me when I call in advance of foreign travel.

One thing that should be reiterated is that one should NEVER use DEBIT cards as suggested by the the title. Rather, get yourself a non-debit ATM card. It can be used to get money at the exact same ATMs worldwide, but cannot be used for purchases like a visa/mc debit card. This will save you a lot of grief if the card is ever lost or stolen.

Just say NO to visa and mc debit cards. :)

I'm looking for a Plus backup to my 2 Cirrus cards. I found that Capital One has a high yield MM account that issues a Plus ATM card with no ATM or forex fees (according to their CSR). The only downside I can find is that ATM withdrawals are limited to $500 per day which I think is OK since this wouldn't be my primary card and only used in case I can't use the other 2. I don't need or really want another checking account. Do you see any other possible downside that I might be missing? Thanks.

"ATM withdrawals are limited to $500 per day, with no monthly limit on how many times you use the card. "

The "no monthly limit on how many times you can use the card" thing sounds strange to me. I was under the impression most money market accounts were restricted by some sort of governmental regulation to six outgoing transfers or withdrawals per month. But maybe this account is different.