fyi, my schwab visa still charges no fee and all my charges for this upcoming trip - the rates are better than whats on xe.com.

I disagree. Many, many hotels and resorts advertise their rates in US$, then convert them into local currency for billing and charge your card in local currency. I recently stayed at two of Francis Ford Coppola's resorts in Guatemala and Belize, for example, and all deposit costs were advertised in US$, but billed in Belize dollars, costing me approximately 5% more than the advertised price once they had converted US$ to BZ$ and then my credit card converted back (including the 3% Citi charge, since I didn't realize I would be charged in BZ$).

I have a Bank Direct online checking with interest account (AA miles for opening and on interest - thanks FT!) and it has the best deal out of all my cards and banks (I don't have a Capital One) - the ATM fee is only for whatever the foreign ATM fee is (they reimburse up to 4 for US transactions), and their Visa debit card just passes along the Visa 1 percent. If I wanted another CC I would get the Fidelity MBNA, but I don't.

I'm imagining that foreign ATM fees aren't going to be over $10 US, so at worst I would be charged 1 percent for $100. Oh, that's not right. That would be 10 %! I wouldn't get just $100, but I wouldn't get $1000 either, which would get it down to 1%. Maybe not such a good deal. But my other ATM card (Chase) charges $3 plus 3%, which just seems exorbitant.

Can someone tell me the range of ATM fees I might encounter?

I have never seen an owner-imposed ATM fee in continental Europe, the UK, China, Hong Kong, or Israel. The only place I've ever seen such fees outside the USA was in Canada, and it was CAD1.75, I believe, and my bank (umbrellabank.com) reimbursed me for it after I requested the reimbursement.

If that's the case, it IS a good deal.

Both of the popular new Juniper cards - US Airways and Midwest Airlines - follow the typical 1+2% method.

I use SPG Amex as my primary and my credit union's debit card as my backup while abroad.

I figure I'm still coming out a smidge ahead buying Starpoints for 2 cents, and my credit union debit card doesn't seem to pass through any charges that I can tell (vs. that day's interbank rates). I also get three free ATM hits per month worldwide with the debit card, which is plenty unless I'm hitting a lot of different countries.

Just returned from China and used the citi ATM at the PVG AIRPORT TO GET CASH. When I returned, I found out that there is a surcharge of $5, or 1%, on my statement. The exhange rate is about 0.7% less than the official exchange rate as listed on the Asia Wall street Journal.

Call to Citibank, the lady answered cannot give me an answer. talked to a supervisor: It is Citi new policy to charge 1% on all foreign aTM transactions. If you use a non-Citi ATM, there will be another $5 to 7 surcharge per transaction.

Bank of America has a better exchange rate than Citi and they do not charge the extra 1% on their own aTM machines.

the moral of the story is ; stop using an citi credit card and ATM oversea.

Actually, you're buying SPG points at 3 cents. If you used the Capitol One 1% cashback card, you're in effect gaining an additional 1% of charges on top of the no conversion fee. However, I can also see not wanting to have yet another credit card to keep track of.

I guess I'm also leery of using AMEX for foreign transactions given the class action lawsuit (from which I got all of 3 cents). For some countries, they apparently had terrible conversions, and I don't want to waste the time calling up customer service to dispute the conversion rate. In this case, I think the class action lawsuit settlement probably had the opposite effect of what AMEX hoped for--I'm now very unlikely to use them for overseas transactions except under special circumstances.

Bank of America has informed me that they no longer waive the forex fees for Premier Banking Customers, so it's back to the Harvard Alumni Association MasterCard.

QL

The free ride on the Fidelity Investments Rewards MC has come to an end. Just got a notice that, effective June 30, 2006, a 3% 'transaction fee" will be added to all foreign transactions.

Capital One MasterCard still has 0% foreign currency transaction fees.

Which particular CapitalOne MC do you have? If you wouldn't mind, please add this info to the wiki:

http://www.flyertalk.com/wiki/index....hange#The_List

Otherwise, let me know the details by PM and I'll do it for you.

For all of you that want to test out you card for foreign fee transactions before your next trip, try:

www.allofmp3.com

Buy $10 worth of downloadable MP3s (the current minimum), the bill is in Rubles so you can check your credit card bill online after 2 days to see if there is an extra charge......(BTW, allofmp3.com is the cheapest place on the net to get songs and it's very reliable, so it's at least a good investment for the ole' Ipod.)

I recently did this with my MBNA Amtrak MC only to find out that it's now 3%.

Other websites on the net are rumoring this is going to change this year. So the Capitol One card will lose this advantage soon.