I followed your link, but could only find info on a "NEW" Farm Bureau Bank MasterCard. It APPEARS that the Visa card is no longer offered to new customers on this web site. (There was a note in the fine print about the MasterCard to the effect that points previously earned by current Visa Card holders are NOT transferrable to the NEW MasterCard Program.) I wouldn't count on (without checking) the NEW MasterCard to have no foreign exchange transaction fees added.

Thanks for the heads-up. This is really not a good thing as the FBB Visa was a great value. If they try to "flip" me to the Mastercard, I'll be looking for a new card myself.

Bob

I was also surprised about one poster's claim about AMEX being the best for foreign exchange. It is the worst in my own experience. MBNA is the best among my deck of cards. Now Amtrak MBNA card is of limited utility. An alternative appears to MBNA Merrill + visa. Does anyone has experience with the M+ for foreign exchange?

Is MBNA UK the same as far as foreign exchanges?

Seems to me Virgin had a co-branded card.

MBNA Fidelity
 

My vote goes to the MBNA Fidelity card, with 1.5% cash rebate. Fidelity also has a debit card with PNC (no rebate) and an American Express Gold card (no rebate and 2% surchage), both of which are inferior to the MBNA card. Diners Club was formerly my card of choice, but I now use it only for auto rental when foreign exchange is involved.

IMHO a Citibank Debit card is #1 followed by Capital 1 or MBNA........no fees and the rates are excellent.

Citibank AAdvantage Debit MC has always had very low cost, though even using Citi's "branded" ATM's overseas, they impose a fee of $1.50 for using the ATM.

BofA has a Platinum Visa Debit card that works well. At the branch in HK recently, there was no commission or fees for currency exchanges which were done at the rate quoted in the WSJ that morning.

The vanilla no-miles Citibank Debit card, as far as I know, never has any charges for use at a Citibank ATM anywhere. That goes both for charges by the home Citibank branch or the other Citibank branch, whether US or foreign. In fact, I can't recall ever being charged by my US home Citibank branch for withdrawals anywhere in the world at any ATM owned by anyone. The other ATM may charge, of course, but outside of the US this seems rare to me. In some countries (Canada, Chile ...) the ATM says it may (or even will) charge, but there is no explicit indication of this in the debit and the exchange rate seems very close to the published rate.

now the FBB mastercard charges 2%

Foreign Country Transactions: 2% of the U.S. Dollar amount

I've been very happy with the State Farm Bank Platinum Rewards Visa:

http://www.statefarm.com/bank/classic.asp

The 1% that Visa charges gets rolled into the exchange rate, and there is no additional charge beyond that. The card offers 1% "State Farm Dollars" rebate. These can be spent on any State Farm insurance product or simply deposited into a State Farm Bank Checking or Savings account. I also use them for my regular banking as they have great accounts with low/no fees and free internet banking.

Maybe not quite as good as the Fidelity card that someone else mentioned, but you don't need to have a brokerage account to use your rewards.

I agree - have used the Citi ATM card in London, Marbella and elsewhere without any problems, and the rate is fine (and no surcharge if you use a Citi machine).

DO NOT, however, use a Citi AAdvantage MC overseas as they have just implemented a 3% "finance charge" on top of the the mastercard interbank rate. Talk about big time rip-off!

Instead, you might consider the Capital One VISA or MC which are generally easy to obtain and use the interbank rate (so you pay the MC/VISA 1% fee, but no additional markup).

Best MILEAGE Earning Card
 

Title says it, we've had a lot of options presented, but this being milesbuzz, what do you think is the best US-based miles-earning card for foreign transactions?

Looks like AA is out...

Now that MBNA is out, looks to me like there aren't any that are worth the 3 cents per mile you pay for the currency exchange. Maybe some of you will pay 3 cents. Not me.

If you want AA miles, and are willing to pay for them, the best option might be the Starwood AMEX. With this card the total charge is supposed to be 2%, as opposed to the total of 3% charged by the Citi Visa. Also, $20,000 in purchases transfers to 25,000 miles. But, practice shows that AMEX uses a less favorable base exchange rate than MC, even though this is not in the formal terms. So the AMEX 2% may turn out to be less advantageous than the Citi 3%.

Another possibility would be MBNA's no-fee (with total 1% exchange surcharge) mileage cards. I know they have Lufthansa (Star Alliance), and Gold Points (also transfer to AA, but at a very unfavorable rate), as well as others.

no more MC 1% fee
 

Here’s a new angle to this. MC is apparently dropping its 1% foreign currency surcharge. Citibank has already announced that it will raise its own surcharge from 2% to 3% to grab the fee that used to go to MC. In phone call to MBNA, I was told that they have no plans to institute a 1% fee, or any other fee, on foreign charges. That means that the difference between MBNA and Citibank just went up to a full 3%, or 4.5% if you use MBNA’s Fidelity rebate card. It’s hard to see any justification for using a Citibank card abroad under these circumstances. Even if you want miles from a particular airline, there are much cheaper ways to get them.