Just to follow up on the CapitalOne discussion a couple of pages back - I used a CapitalOne MasterCard extensively in Switzerland the first half of June and just received my billing statement.

Each transaction shows the exchange rate used, and in each case the exchange rate on my billing statement is essentially identical to a fraction of a per cent to the interbank rate for that date provided by OandA.com.

It probably helped that the dollar was slowly rising angainst the Swiss Franc in the first half of June. So in a couple of cases the rate applied is actually slightly better than the best interbank rate (from OandA) for that day (example, a transaction on 6/12 poster at $ 0.8092307/SF. The best interday rate was $0.81070). Note that his means that even the MasterCard 1% fee is not passed on to me.

It also appears that the exchange rates are applied in real time at whatever moment that they are determined. No two transactions in the billing statement have the same rate applied.

Works for me. But my favorite feature of this card is this Sorry - I have no info about how to get this grace period. It was part of the original card offer a few years back.

I have a checking account and ATM card with Citibank. I was in Germany this spring and withdrew cash from my checking account at three different Citibank branches in three different cities in Southwestern Germany. When my Citibank statment arrived, I noted I was charged a 1% foreign transaction fee on one of the three withdrawals. I called Citibank and asked them why I had the fee on the one withdrawal (thinking it was an error) I was told there is a 1% fee on all foreign withdrawals at Citibank using their ATM card and that I would see the bill for the two transactions for which there was not an intial 1% fee. After two more billing cycles I have yet to be billed a 1% fee for the other two withdrawels. Go figure.

low fee charge card of overseas use
 

USAA Bank in San Antonio, Texas still charges only a 1% transaction fee on foreign purchases using their Mastercard. (one of a very small number of banks) They also have a Mastercard account that pays a 1% rebate. It is a great customer oriented company. One does not have to be a present or former military person to use their services.

USAA is indeed a good company to deal with, especially compared with the other banks around, but, I do not believe that a non-military related person can get the 1% rebate card, although anyone can get a non-rebate card from USAA.

If anyone has info to the contrary, I would love to know more.

Open an account with Bank of America. You'll be able to use your BofA ATM card at BNP Paribas in France with no ATM fees. I believe only the 1% conversion fee applies. I was happy w/ my experiences using the BofA check card at ATMs in Germany (Deutsche Bank). ^

Hey thank you for the info. I do have an account with BOA. i guess i'll use Citi as a backup :)

afang, you are welcome. :)

There's more (timely) information in Sunday's NY Times about currency conversion in foreign countries.

Yes, but there's something seriously wrong with the numbers used in their examples. £49.26 for $100 is a much higher exchange rate (or fee) than 2.03 per cent.

My experience also in Chile and Argentina.

TO RECAP, IME: I use my USA Citibank ATM card once or twice a month down here.
(1) There is no per use ATM fee charged by Citibank or the other banks no matter whose ATM machine one uses.
(2) Exchange rate is the same no matter whose ATM machine one uses and is usually a little better than 1% of the real time xe.com quote. This charge is bundled into the withdrawal total that shows up on your statement.
(3) The new "FOREIGN FEE" is a separate line item in your statement that is exactly 1% of the USD total of the withdrawal charge.

All of that true of Brazil too. But there is a wrinkle: the total USD withdrawal amount printed by the ATM is broken into two components on the statement, so that a total printed withdrawal of $99.99 shows up as a withdrawal of $99.00 plus a foreign fee of $0.99. I really don't know if this foreign fee is new or if it was always there, but was formerly bundled together with the withdrawal total.

The "FOREIGN FEE" started in April thus making the total hit for exchanging dollars around 2%. IME previously and even now, the 1% exchange was never broken out separately and always bundled as a single line item withdrawal on my statement. What happens now is the total near 2% charge shows up immediately as one item but then around two days later is broken out into the withdrawal with 1% bundled in and the "FOREIGN FEE."

I have an an ATM card linked to a BofA Savings Account (not a checking account). When I was in London recently I used the card to withdraw local currency from a Barclays Bank ATM. BofA also advertises that there are no ATM fees when using a Barclays Bank ATM (similar to BNP Paribas in France and other cooperating banks in Mexico, New Zealand/Australia, and a think a couple more--check BofA web site for details). I WAS charged an ATM transaction fee at Barclays. It took several calls to BofA (the time was hardly worth the few dollars charge but, hey, thats why we belong to flyertalk) and as near as I can tell the fee waiver applies to ATM linked BofA checking accounts but not savings accounts.

For your reference:

Citibank Aadvantage American Express: 3% total foreign transaction fee
MBNA Rewards ASCE American Express: 1% total foreign transaction fee

The latter one surprised me.

I have the Sony Visa card now run by Chase.

Also used my SkyMiles Amex.

So for my trip to Italy last month, the statements have come in.

The Sony Visa breaks out the exchange rate used and then gives a lump sum they've added on. It works out to like 2.9% above the dollar amount after the Euro x exchange rate calculation. That is, they're not adding percentage points directly to the exchange rate they use (presumably the published wholesale rate), they add 2.9-3% to the dollar amount AFTER conversion from Euros to dollars.

So for the transactions, they used 1.2733 and 1.2787 on two different dates but after the 3% they added, the actual exchange rate worked out to 1.31xx.

That seems almost as high as retail exchanges.

The Amex doesn't break it out. They give you a Euro amount and the corresponding dollar amount. It works out to 1.30xx for the same dates so assuming they used the same interbank wholesale rates, in this case, Amex is better than the Sony Visa.

Also drew money out of my eTrade account using their platinum VISA debit cards at ATMs. Those were very close to the daily wholesale rates published on x-rates.com.

A couple of cards I didn't use is an MBNA Visa/Mastercard because I'd heard MBNA was also imposing 2-3% and if I'm paying the higher rate, I might as well get some reward benefits, which the MBNA cards I have don't offer.

Also I have a credit union VISA which I haven't used for years. Probably will offer the best rates but no rewards.

Oh well, on my $600 hotel bill, the Sony Visa tacked on about $18 in additional fees. Probably not worth it but if you have a rewards card, you might as well accumulate those rewards.