Yeah, they never mentioned a word about it during the transition and many of their CSRs were confused. But ex-Schwab accounts have cardmember agreements that make no mention of an FTF (you can order a hard copy of your agreement through their website if you want to make sure) whereas BOA-originated accounts have the 3% FTF in the terms. And several of us have done foreign purchases on the new BOA branded cards without incurring any fees.

Never bothered to activate the new BoA card. As soon as the Schwab %2 deal ended, I went for the Capitalone Business Spark card with %2 Cashback and %0 forex.

Even got a $150 signup bonus from Cap1 for the Spark. Very happy with them. Now just waiting for them to bring back their Match your Miles Promo...

This is my only travel card.

I'm going to be in the UK for 12 months and will need to draw regular amounts of cash from my US account (I can't transfer it all in one lump sum because I will be receiving it on a monthly basis).

Is there a checking account with a debit card that is particularly good for this? I'm looking for something with little or no foreign exchange/conversion/withdrawal fees.

Are Schwab and Cap1 checking accounts (with their associated debit cards) my best options? Between the two, is one better than the other?

Thanks!

A third option would be State Farm Bank - they offer free checking account with no direct deposit requirement.

Citibank
 

Citibank has a presence in England. Their debit card does not have a foreign exchange fee. Also their premier pass master card doesn't have a foreign exchange fee. If you have a citigold account ($50K) then you wouldn't pay the fee for the card. So if you are near a citibank you could find out if their accounts would work for you even if you couldn't get a citigold account.

Unless you have Citigold, I believe Citibank charges a fee per transaction at non-Citibank ATMs, no?

If you do have Citigold, it's great for overseas cash withdrawals.

Schwab is also a great option without the $50k requirement of Citigold.

As for CapOne, I believe some CapOne Bank accounts may be fee free, but I'm not sure if all are. At one point CapOne Bank was a hodge podge of different regional banks that they'd acquired and had policies that varied by region. They may or may not have homogenized things by now.

Other kinds of accounts allow for no fee - at least it was the case years ago before I had citigold. You need to contact citibank to find out. I think if you had $1500 in an account it counted. I don't recall the details.

Regarding UK, there is another option: open a Bank of America account and withdraw cash at any Barclays ATM. No BofA fees or forex fee. BofA has a good online banking program for managing your US accounts.

Citibank charges 3% forex fee (but no ATM fee) to its own customers who withdraw cash from Citi ATMs in London. No fee to Citigold customers.

Citibank
 

Since when does Citibank charge a 3% FE fee? I think it is important to ask at a branch to get the correct answers. Maybe it is only citigold now. However there are also citibank branches in London. I'll ask the next time I go into my branch which might be tomorrow.

Citibank has charged non-Citigold customers a 3% FE fee for some time. Here is their FAQ about it. There may be some other account types that have fee waivers, but for new basic Citibank checking accounts that don't qualify for Citigold, you should expect to pay 3%.

Citibank
 

Wow. I stand corrected. The first time I got a checking account with citibank because i was going to europe was like 16 years ago to avoid fees. It was only later on that I became Citigold so I didn't think that benefit was Citigold. If someone were to travel short term - one could sign up to be citigold - and you have 6 months to get the $50K at the bank so you wouldn't be charged for 6 months. Then you could come back from your trip you could convert back to a regular account. I did know someone who managed to get the 50K requirement waived (maybe had $30K in investments) so that is something to negotiate after 6 months.

MUCH has changed on this topic in the last year. I suggest viewing this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...tion-fees.html

There are also conflicting reports about Citi eliminating card fee waivers for Citigold accounts effective October 2011:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...solidated.html

That might be true for new customers but rarely do they make those kinds of changes for existing customers. When I first signed on I was able to get several cards, then they changed it to choosing one card but I never had trouble having them all waived. I have had some renew since October and not gotten a fee charged. I think that they would be alienating lots of citigold customers who signed up for this reason alone. I'll have to ask at the branch.

Since much of the info in this old thread is outdated/stale I'm going to close it and have folks use the two links above for newer data. Thanks!!