Actually the NW WorldPerks credit card is a US Bank product. MBNA only offers foreign airline credit cards at the moment (e.g., Aer Lingus, Lufthansa, etc.).

There are several Commerce Banks out there, but if you're talking about this one, I believe they charge a per-transaction withdrawal fee for ATM use, but I don't know for sure about using the card for point-of-sale transactions.

Is this in print ? If its just a CSR response, dont take it at face value as their customer service gives me wrong answers all the time.

They may not add anything for themselves, but that means you will stay pay the 1% that VISA is charging them for the currency conversion. There is no way to avoid that if you are using a CC abroad.

Is anyone out there naive enough to believe Capital One won't follow suit with the other megabanks and also charge the 3% fee? I know I'm not! :rolleyes:

Most people don't travel internationally as much as we FlyerTalkers do, and most people don't pay attention to all the fine print in their cardholder agreement as much as we do. :)

They have never padded a profit for themselves on FOREX (Citi, AMEX, and most everyone else always has), so no good reason to believe they will suddenly start now. They may or may not, who knows.

You're right, that has to be the business model. MBNA expects to get more revenue from the ignorant or casual international travelers than they lose from the rest.

But I wouldn't be so sure. The latter groups, including many FTs like me, will ditch MBNA right away. From my viewpoint, in six months time MBNA has gone from providing good benefits (UA miles via Amtrak) at a low cost to providing few benefits at a high cost. And the folks likely to leave include many who were in the target group for those other financial products I mentioned.

just found out that my BMW Visa only charges the 1% Visa fee
the card is a freebie, and earns points toward BMW buy/lease
added reward options if you pay $50/year

http://fs.bmwusa.com/BMWFSPulp/CRCAR...rdBenefits.htm

I was hopeful (naive??) that my credit union-affiliated MBNA Visa card would somehow not see the fee increase, but lo and behold, the letter came in the mail today -- same bad deal as the other MBNA cards mentioned.

So I guess I am cancelling it and shopping for a new card. :(

We have a MBNA American Express card affiliated with NAIC and they have only the 1% charge ith no additional charge. Talk to CS and they say they don't have any plans on a increase.

My high school credit union is keeping the fee at the 1% Visa charge...so they do exist.

An MBNA rep told me that all of their AMEX cards would remain at 1% total, with the 1% being charged by AMEX. Their Platinum card, with a cash rebate of 1.5% - 2% (at a spending level of around $10,000 year) seems like a good deal the first year. After that there will be a high annual fee and fewer points earned per dollar spent, but it's a good deal for one year.

That's good to hear, though coming from MBNA I wouldn't believe it 100%. ;)

The biggest problem with the MBNA Amex is that Amex seems to be accepted at even fewer locations abroad than it is here in the US. So you'd still need a Visa/MasterCard or cash for purchases at some merchants.

That depends on the country. In Israel, Amex is accepted anywhere that Visa or MC is.