alanh

Note that MBNA is now owned by Bank of America, so you may see its fees mirror BofA's.

canuck_in_pa

The term and conditions when applying for a Merrill+ (MBNA) still say no fee for foreign transactions. I haven't received any letter changing that either, yet. I'll be cancelling the card they I get it.

bidhere23

I have no clue why it doesn't work also since they use the Plus network but it doesn't. Debit POS transactions do work though and you might be able to get a cash advance if you are staying at a nice hotel.

The website is www.commerceonline.com as someone pointed out. Over the last month I have tested the card in Vietnam, Hong Kong and Singapore and it works there. I live in Beijing so the ATM not working here is entirely inconvenient but they offered to cover any Western Union money transfer fees if I needed money.

bidhere23

I am referring to Commerce Bank with the following URL:

http://commerceonline.com/

They have lots of branches in NY, NJ, and FL. I would say that the interest rates on their checking accounts are pitiful. If you don't travel abroud alot then you should get an account at a place like Everbank that has a 5.5% interest t rate and only a 1% surcharge on foreign exchange. I did a rough calculation that showed if you don'withdraw more than $7000 a year abroad then it makes sense to go with a high-yield account instead.

craz

Not so 1000% for the MBNA Amtrak Guest Reward MC.

I had a problem recently where my card was compromised while overseas. They had to cancel out my old # and issued me a new one.

When I was away I received a letter contain the T&Cs and something about Transactions outside of the US. I called and inquired how that was going to affect any fees and was told that it will still be 3% etc. I said I never was charged 3% and nothing if it was in US$, the CSR forwarded me onto a Supervisior who said what the CSR told me that I was paying the 3% both on FEX and the US$. Only when he looked at my statement did he agree that I was never charged the 3% , but only the 1% that MC Intl charged and this didnt include any charges outside the US even in US$. He checked into it and told me that theres a Special agreement for some reason with the Card I have ( Amtrak MC) where by it is Only 1% for FEX and nothing extra if the charge is in US$.

So since I can either use the Points for travel on Amtrak (not in my case), or I can transfer the pts to either Hilton or Continental, I think this has to be the best Card out there!! You get better FEX rates then AMEX, pay 1% and still can get free Hotel nights or Free tkts on CO (if you are Lucky) and No Annual Fee to boot. There is a Max of Pts that one can transfer every year but since I use this card for my Intl charges other then my Hotel Bill, I dont see that being a problem.

Also it has CDW that is good all over the whole even in most Countries where Amex or Visa doesnt cover it.

themicah

CapitalOne Cash Rewards still has 0% on forex and gives 1% cash back. 0% forex + 1% cash back is almost certainly worth more than 1% forex + HH or COOP points, since those points are both worth less than 2 cents a piece in my book.

The point about car insurance is valid, however, particularly in Israel, where for some reason MC's CDW coverage applies, while both Amex and Visa exclude Israel from coverage.

rain

There are 3 parts to forex charges, like most of us here know.
-1% by visa/MC (2% by amex)
-3% by bank that issues your card (Eg, citibank, chase, etc)
-Forex fees charged. Most charge the user the interbank rate, Amex famously doesn't (which means they choose a rate more advantagous to them)


I've heard people say Cap1 not only doesn't charge the 3% fee, it actually absorbs the 1% charge by visa/mc. There were also rumours some time ago that cap1 would start raising the fees to 3%, just like the other major banks. I haven't heard anyone trustworthy verify this. I'm not getting cap1 card because they have a history of scr3wing about with customers

In addition, the post before mine, about the cap1 cashback card, that gives 1% cashback, also made me think. Maybe that's what was meant by cap1 "absorbing" the 1% fee?

I personally use M+ card when overseas. Its rates are interbank rate, with no added 3% fees (verified by their CSR or something). I've been trying to figure out if the 1% charged by visa is passed on to me, but that's been somewhat difficult. If anyone knows, could you please enlighten? Since the card also earns some reward points equivalent to 1% rebate, you can also consider it "absorbing" the 1% visa fee (if that was charged).

craz

I have that Cap1 CC, waiting for the rebate chk 1% to arrive so I can cancel the card!

Why? 1- its NOT 1% but 1/2% and 1% every month from the 3000th Dollar upwards. so you spend 2990 you get 1/2%, spend 3010 you get 1/2% on the 1st 3000 then 1% on the rest.

2- the rebate check is sent out ONLY once a year in April. When I didnt get mine I called up and was asked if I asked for it to be sent, I told them no one ever mentioned that to me, seems you need to call up the Awards desk and ask that the check be sent out otherwise NO Check.

if this is how they they do business , I dont want any part of them. Besides every time I called to speak to a CSR I was lucky if I only had to spend a 1/2 hr on Hold.

themicah

You must have a different card. The one I recommend is the Capital One No Hassle Cash Rewards Visa (currently available here.

It's 1% back on ALL purchases (none of that 0.5% garbage), and the cash back can be either applied to your account or mailed to you as a check whenever you amass more than $25 cash back. I recently applied my first rebate to my account and it showed up within about 48 hours.

bidhere23

I just got a Capital One card to augment my Commerce Bank debit/ATM card since I live abroad (and hate the 1% surchage) and my T&Cs say:

Foreign Transaction Charge: For each transaction made in a country other than the US we will assess you a finance charge as previously disclosed to you as part of hte TILA Account Disclosures or we will disclose to you if required by law. The fee will be based on the US dollar amount of the transaction.

Should I be worried?

themicah

I'm pretty sure mine said that, too. It means they could implement forex fees at any time, but they have to disclose it. It doesn't mean they are charging you anything, although you should probably call just to confirm.

szymon

I also received the notification for my MBNA Worldpoints card that they are raising the fee to 3%. I called and told the CSR that I will not be using my card anymore and if they ever reconsider charging this fee to let me know.

He put me on hold, came back and offered to switch me to the MBNA American Express card which only has a 1% fee... I agreed.

The only inconvenience with this is that Amex isn't as widely accepted overseas...

Szymon

themicah

Are you sure that the MBNA AmEx only has a 1% fee? Nobody seems to be able to get a straight answer as to whether AmEx charges an underlying 2% and MBNA charges an additional 0-1%, or whether 0-1% is the actual total fee. Also, beware that AmEx sometimes gives inferior exchange rates on purchases compared with Visa.

photog72

This may or may not help anyone. I am in Germany now. I used my BofA debit/ATM card at Deutsche Bank yesterday to withdraw 150 Euros. It came up as $190.74 on my BofA checking account. Lower than http://www.xe.com quoted. Not bad! ^

themicah

It's already been noted on the wiki that BofA doesn't charge a fee (except maybe the Visa/MC 1%) for withdrawals at ATMs owned by at Barclays (United Kingdom), BNP Paribas (France), Deutsche Bank (Germany), Santander Serfin (Mexico), Scotiabank (Canada), Westpac (Australia and New Zealand).