The Pentagon Federal Credit Union Visa card gives a net 1/4% profit on foreign transactions. Anyone can join the credit union. If you have no military connection, you can join by first joining the military family support organization, whose name I have fogotten.

CapitalOne Cash Rewards gives a net 1% profit on foreign transactions. And the National Military Family Association has a fee involved to join ($20/1yr, $50/3yr, $300/life). At $20/yr, you'd have to charge at least $1600/yr overseas to break even vs. a card that charges a 1% forex vig ($1600 = $20 / (1% + 0.25%)). You'd have to charge $24,000 overseas over the life of the card to justify the $300/life membership.

As far as I know, you only have to be eligible to join a credit union when you join. In other words, if you were to join the military family support association you could then join the Pentagon Credit Union. Once you are a PCU member I doubt anyone would care if you continued to be a family ...'n member.

This is correct, you only need a 1-year membership in the National Military Families Assn. in order to join PenFed and qualify for the credit card.

I received offer of Mastercard from HSBC which also has 1% rate for foreign exchange.

per the latest post at http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/mess...&newest=1#last the 1% foreign transaction fee will go away.

I have edited the Wiki to reflect this pending change. I have also noted that you can withdraw cash for free with a Citi ATM card at 5000+ 7-11 stores in the U.S. ^

Looks like I will be getting a paypal debit card as hell will freeze over before I'll pay a 3% ATM fee to Citi or any other bank. The pre-trip money transfer to paypal will be a minor hassle, but nicely offset by the interest paid on my balance.

I would wait for confirmation till you modify the wiki.

As of 10/09, no change yet. Used a non-Citi ATM (Banco de Chile) which hasn't seemed to matter as even Chilean Citi ATMs show up as non-Citi ATMs on my statement. Got better than 1% from the historical xe.com mid-market rate for that day and the fee still gets seperated a day or so later after immediately showing up real time on my online statement.

Citi reps have given out erroneous info the past so I would wait for further REAL WORLD confirmation.

I called CitiBusiness Banking to ask this same question yesterday, and I got a rep who told me she had just read an annoucement on this. She went and found it and read it to me. The way she read it, it was fairly confusing, and this is what I got out of it:

It said that starting Dec 02 2006 or so, Blue Citibank ATM cards would have no fee when used at Citibank ATMs overseas, but 3% fee when used at other banks' ATMs. According to her, Gold ATM cards would remain the same, which would not make sense since they're 1% at Citi ATMs.

I called CitiGold customer service the day before and they were not aware of any changes on foreign currency transaction fees.

it does seem a bit early, especially with how banks are completely befuddled when it comes to this fee (but still charge it!)

btw, i believe paypal charges 2.5%...here is the info straight from the horse's mouth:

If your transaction involves a currency conversion, it will be completed at a retail foreign exchange rate determined by PayPal, which is adjusted regularly based on market conditions. This exchange rate includes a 2.5% spread above the wholesale exchange rate at which PayPal obtains foreign currency, and the spread is retained by PayPal. The specific exchange rate that applies to your multiple currency transaction will be displayed at the time of the transaction.

according to FatWallet post, it is going to be 3% for a non-citi atm. considering there are only 10 in colombia for example, i am not sure this is anything worth celebrating (how much $$ is it going to cost to taxi a taxi to the atm? and the aggravation on top of that?)

What I question about this claim is that IME, in deep South America, Citi has NEVER distinguished between Citi and non-Citi ATMs. In my most recent experiences of the past two years in Argentina and Chile, even when I use Citi ATMs, they always show up as Non-Citi ATM transactions on my statement. As a foreigner, I also know for a fact that Chile and Argentina Citibanks are for almost all consumer purposes separate, not the same or a part of Citibank North America operations in any form. For them to make this distinction in a month's time is unbelievable (to me).

I speculate that there is truth maybe mixed in with misinfo here and that the change might be related to POS transactions (MC/debit card) and not ATM cash transactions.

Of course, who really knows?

i agree with you in that they don't draw a distinction now. however, it makes sense (to me) that they would draw a distinction in the future.

i don't see why they should be charging 1% when you are depositing and withdrawing at citi. for all intents and purposes, instead of visa/mc doing the conversion, they themselves are. i know you are saying that citibank chile is a seperate entity than citibank usa, but then again the former is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the latter. i also know that they may still be paying the 1% despite it being citi-to-citi, but may not passing it on as a courtesy to the customer.

Attracted to the lack of foreign fees on credit card charges, I applied for a Capital One Card. I have had nothing but problems applying for a card at Capital One. First off they can only process an application and get a card to you within 3 to 4 weeks of making an application. They claim there is no way to accelerate the process.

Capital One sent my 73 year old mother a solicitation offering free 10,000 miles in year one and another 10,000 in year two. She lives on social security only and is often the target of sub prime lenders and credit card companies. I figured that I would apply for myself assuming my good credit score and nice income with little debt service would make an attractive client for them. Not at Capital One.

During the phone "interview" the Cap One Rep had to leave the phone three times. At times the absence was up to 5 minutes. I got the impression they wanted me to hang up and go away. After all was done on the call I was told a review process would commence of my application. I called up 4 days latter and Cap One could not find my application either under my name or ss number. They claimed it had not been key puched into there system yet. Of course that did not make sense as the information had been taken over the phone by the Capital One Rep. I can only assume that Capital One was not serious about my business with them or that I was "not qualified" as I am not a sub prime prospect for them. What a time waster this Capital One was.

Did you apply online? I had no trouble getting a Capital One card, and don't believe I'm sub-prime (salary, mortgage, high credit score). By the way, there's another nice perk if you need it-- Capital One doesn't charge balance transfer fees.