I don't think anyone WANTS do so, but until recently the fees were hidden as transaction fees and only recently were banks required to disclose the actual fes they charge.

If you are in their lending area of NY, NJ, CT, PA, DE, MD, DC, VA, FL then apply for this card with 0% forex:

http://bank.commerceonline.com/perso...PlatinumCC.cfm

My history with Wells is quite short (just had a PMA checking account - together with a brokerage account and 2 IRAs with them since this March). My combined balance in the PMA relationship is around 100k.

I have tried over the phone and my local Wells branch, and still couldn't get the Visa Signature card. The banker told me by pulling up my account she could only see an offer for the Platinum card. She said she couldn't just invite me for the Visa Signature card on the spot. She said the criteria are
1. annual income of 100k.
2. long history with Wells showing high spending.

I only qualify for #1, so she asks me to apply for a Visa Platinum first and "keep spending a lot" (her own words) for the next 6 months. She says this might trigger the invitation. Even though I have Visa Signature cards from other issuers, Wells won't take those into account.

In the end I find this to be too much hassle since the Wells rewards program isn't that attractive at all. I end up applying for a Cap One Platinum cashback card and got it in 1 week. I will continue my pattern of using the Citi PP Elite + Citi Diamond + Citi Professional in the US, and use the new CapOne card when travelling abroad.

I'm about to go to Canada (Vancouver) for a few days, and I will be spending a substantial amount of money.

I have a BofA Platinum debit card that I can use at ScotiaBank ATM's for (I believe) no ATM fee and no forex fee (right?).

I also have a Capital One Platinum Mastercard, which I also believe charges no forex fee.

Given a choice between paying for something with cash from an ATM or with the Cap 1 card, which will get me a better exchange rate?

Or are any of my no-forex assumptions incorrect?

thanks...

-huge

They should be close, assuming you can actually find an ATM that will give you free withdrawals from BoA. Keep in mind that exchange rates can also fluctuate intraday, which makes it even harder to know exactly which payment method is ideal at any one time (on a particularly volatile USD/Hungarian Forint day in March, I had the exchange rates on purchases made on the same day vary by over 1% on my Cap1 statement). But I'd try to do most of my spending with the Cap1 card, because you don't have to worry about ending up with unspent CAD cash.

You might find the wiki that goes with this thread helpful:

http://flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php...reign_Exchange

Using the Scotiabank ATM will get around the $5 foreign ATM fee, but you'll still pay the 1% forex fee.

I did the runaround with wells as well and finally got an application for the Visa Signature Card. In the end, I decided not to apply for it because they do not have a great rewards program and it was $70 or $90 a year and they wouldn't waive it (I am also a PMA)

Pretty sure it won't be hard to find such an ATM - ScotiaBanks are common in Vancouver. Also pretty sure I've never seen single day fluctuations in the rate when I've been in Canada before, and I'm enough of a nerd to do the division when I get my statement ... but then things might be different between Canada and Hungary.

Thanks for the reply.

Are you sure about that? I thought that they didn't charge the forex fee, but I've never done it before (always managed to go purely on plastic) so I'm guessing you know what you're talking about.

I'm going to need to get a pile of cash out of the ATM this time though - I'm playing in a poker tournament and somehow I think that the exchange rate charged by the casino won't be exactly optimal.

After I do the math I'll report back on my results...

Thanks for the reply.

I am not sure BofA Global ATM network charges 1% forex though - I have used this feature extensively in Europe (UK & France), Canada, and most recently, in Australia and New Zealand.

In 90% of the cases, the exchange rates were highly competitive when comparing to the historical data on Forex websites. In the recent withdrawals done in Australia and New Zealand, all withdrawals done on weekdays (i.e. the banks can settle accounts immediately after close of business on the day) the rates were Lower than the avg intrabank rates I found on websites. However, on weekends, esp right before a 3-day long weekend the rate was 1.5% or more higher... It happened on 2 withdrawals done on Friday Australia time zone. But a withdrawal done on near midnight Sunday at Sydney airport (i.e. in less than 30min it would be Monday in Australia at 12:00AM), there was no extra padding.

The real drawback is that you may wound up having more foreign currency cash on hand than you would like, when using cash versus using credit card for the most part of the trip.

http://www.indexcreditcards.com/inte...ansactionfees/

Good link, but that survey is weak compared to the one we've put together based on this thread:

http://flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php...reign_Exchange

Can I use my BofA card for free at any ATM's in Prague?

Saw Barclays in Madrid and Segovia. I was curious if there would be a fee or not by using my BofA ATM card. Hmmm..

I'm pretty sure BofA's rules state that it's only free at the above banks in the specific countries listed.