Are there any Wells Fargo PMA customers here that have used their ATM overseas? Did the withdraw really comes through at *actual* exchange rate (i.e. without the 3% forex surcharge) and waived non-Wells ATM fee?

I know what the account fine prints says... I'm looking for real life collaborating evidence :D

Credit card newbie
 

Hello all,i'm actually new to the forums. So i am very sorry if this question has been asked before.

Im sorry to kind of delve into this thread but it's very long and i honestly only read about 30 pages of content. A lot of these 0% transaction and low transaction cards seem to be for people with very good credit, though im not sure. I am working abroad after just finishing university and i just have one credit card and have had it for 2 years now(haven't been late on payments) and I'm wondering how good of credit do you have to have to be accepted into these 0% or 1 % fee foreign transaction fees?

If anyone can recommend me a kind of intro card id much appreciate it.

There's no hard and fast rules. You can use sites like creditkarma.com and creditsesame.com to get estimates of your FICO score. If you are in the 700s you should have a good shot at any. If you worry about getting denied, Capital One cards might be your best bet, as they all have no FOREX fees and run the gamut from low-end to "high"-end cards. For issuers like AMEX and banks like Chase and Citi, most of their no FOREX cards are rewards cards with higher annual fees and entry requirements.

Good luck and welcome to FT!

I don't think that cards without a foreign exchange require better credit then others - it is just a perk of the card. The Citi Premier Pass card doesn't have a foreign exchange fee - there are bonuses out there and I believe waiver of the first year fee. You get thank you points which can be used for flights and you still get your regular miles on those flights. If you bank at citibank there are more ways to get thank you points.

I've used my CIBC Visa for years in all my international traveling. It gives you 1% cash back and no foreign transaction fees and no annual fee. It's a Canadian Dollar CC. Check out cibc.com.

thank you all so much, i sincerely appreciate it and i cannot wait to become part of this community.

BEWARE OF BARCLAYS WEBSITE when using Global Access partner cards

For those of you who have Bank of America cards please beware that some of the ATMs listed on the Barclays website are not in fact fee-free Barclays-owned ATMs. I used one yesterday at Marble Arch, London that turned out to be owned by "Rafael's Bank" dba Thomas Cook. Today I see a $5 ATM fee from BofA :mad: Probably should have stopped when I saw that the machine didn't have the Barclays logo but was tired of walking around after finding that the machine first Barclays branch was out of order. :mad:

Needless to say I have never encountered this problem with any other Global Alliance partners including Banco Santander (Mexico) or Westpac (Australia and NZ) where ATMs are always in service and always fee-free. Also true for BofA in the USA.

I think good advice for UK-bound travelers is take a few minutes when you arrive at LHR (or LGW) to stop by a Barclays ATM so that you don't have to find yourself stranded and needing cash later and at the mercy of Barclays shoddy website and network.

My advice for anyone who travels, either in the US or abroad, is to get a totally fee-free checking account, with ATM card, from Schwab Bank. They'll even reimburse ATM fees charged by other banks, without limit. You can use any ATM, anywhere at anytime. No limitations, no worries! Well, not quite. You have to avoid so-called dynamic conversion, when the other bank converts your withdrawal to US dollars at an inflated exchange rate. If this happens, press something like 'I do not accept the exchange rate' or abort the transaction and try another bank.

Bank of Internet adding 1% forex charge
 

I have the debit card from Bank of Internet, which had 0% forex charges, and they've given notice that as of Sept. 1, 2011, they'll make it 1%. The way it really worked is that I think they reported the charge with 1% as Visa converted it, and reimbursed anything left over after dividing the dollar amount by 5, calling it the ATM fee reimbursement. This spring I could have one €200 withdrawal counted as $290.30, and they reimbursed $0.30 as the fee, and a few days later the same € were $289.80, and they reimbursed $4.80. Sometimes you actually got better than the interbank exchange rate. I guess this means the charge will be what Visa shows, and they won't have the "fee reimbursement."

I also have an ING Direct account. With their sale to Capital One, not sure if I can expect it to have 0% forex in the future.

the capital one no hassle rewards platinum card has zero forex fees

Just wondering if there's any credit card with zero or close to zero forex - which *also* covers car rental collision/damage?

If your CapOne card is a Visa Signature, you get the usual Visa Signature (secondary) coverage. I also use PenFed Amex which has (secondary) coverage. But read the fine print carefully to see what this covers in each case, and look out for excluded countries (Visa Sig has a few, but none for PenFed Amex). Neither CapOne cards nor PenFed Amex has forex fees.

Recently I've been using PenFed Amex for rental cars overseas -- the Penfed Amex booking tool/concierge has been excellent finding rates a good deal lower than I could find elsewhere.

I've never heard of ANY credit card without a handful of country exclusions for auto rental coverage. Yet I just looked at PenFed's T&C's on their website and it looks like it truly is worldwide. I wonder how they have worldwide coverage when Amex's own cards exclude Australia, Ireland, Italy, Israel, Jamaica and New Zealand?

The PenFed Amex is issued directly by PenFed but uses the Amex network and provides a subset of Amex travel arrangement services through an agreement with Amex; the insurance for PenFed Amex is from AXA, a truly global insurance company.

I wouldn't say "truly global", but which has a presence in many worldwide markets. ;)