the aruba florin has been pegged to USD for so many years at 1.79 florins per $ that there is no scope to outwit local shops or market traders on exchange rates. bring a pocket calculator with u to help u convert quickly to determine if something is good value. an easy-to-remember conversion is 9 florins for $5.

ian. :)

wiki help needed
 

Several folks have made anonymous edits to the wiki lately that are unconfirmed or unsubstantiated.

Can anybody confirm any of the following:

• Union Bank of California: What ATM network do they use (the person who added it said MC/Star, but Star isn't an international network--it should either be Plus or Cirrus)? Also, can anyone confirm that they charge 0% + $5/transaction and not 1% + $5/transaction?
• HSBC: Someone added that fees are rising from 1% to 3% in November. Will there still be the $1/transaction fee for non-HSBC ATMs? Does this change apply to HSBCDirect online savings as well as regular brick-and-mortar HSBC accounts? What fees are waived for Premier accounts? All fees? Or is there still the 1%/3% (just no $1/transaction at non-HSBC ATMs)?
• Washington Mutual: Somebody edited it to say that Free Checking accounts charge 1% with no additional fee for int'l ATM withdrawals, yet as of March we had confirmed that they charged $2 to $3 per transaction in addition to the 1% for most account types. Can anyone confirm what WaMu's actual fee schedule is?

Please post your answers here or edit the wiki directly--preferably under your FT handle (not an anonymous edit) so I can PM you if your edit isn't clear.

Thanks.

I added the Fidelity ATM/debit card, with info directly from fidelity.com. It is not a bad choice if you are in a country without the BofA and Citi options as they only pass on the 1% visa fee and do not surcharge. Just ordered one myself. ^

Thanks for the update Boraxo. In the future, please consider creating a "Boraxo" account on flyerguide so we'll know who made the changes without your having to post it here.

Another unconfirmed anonymous addition was made to the wiki right after you, too: somebody reports using the ING Electric Orange ATM card in Israel and not being charged 3%. Can anybody confirm?

Did you order one for a regular brokerage account or did you open a MySmart Cash account? I always used the former, but I just opened the cash account because it reimburses ATM fees. The brokerage account will also do this, but only with a high balance requirement. The cash account has no minimum balance requirement.

In other news, I received this email from Citibank:

"Effective January 26th, 2008 we will impose a fee equal to 2% of the transaction amount (including credits or
reversals) on all ATM and/or POS Debit Card transactions (U.S. or foreign currency) that you conduct outside the 50
United States or Puerto Rico. This fee will apply to transactions made at Citibank and Non-Citibank ATMs."

I only have an ultimate savings account with citi.

Cap1 Money Market Account
 

One FW'er has reported that Citibank will start charging 2% forex fee from late Jan 08, even if you use their overseas ATMs with your Citibank debit card. I am now looking at the followings as a backup.

1) PNC bank
2) Capital One money market accounts.

For 1) I have to maintain an average monthly balance of $2500 to have ATM owner fee rebated and the $3.5/transaction waived.

For 2) Have anyone used Cap1's ATM card in Japan? Some have indicated that this card is a plain ATM card with a Plus logo. As far as I know the only ATMs in Japan that accept foreign ATM cards are Citibank's, those in post office and 7-11.

Will Citibank charge me a fee for using their ATMs with my Cap1 ATM card? This thread and others in Frommers have indicated that it is rare for foreign bank ATMs to charge a usage fee. Is this true in Japan too?

Also, will Cap1 pull 3 bureaus again for applying this kind of account?

Thanks.

Cannot confirm due to ING Electric Orange ATM locator is for USA only. If the ATM is 'ALLPOINT' then it would be free; no way to verify that ATM used was "ALLPOINT". Electric Orange ATM use is free with "ALLPOINT" or if fees are charged by ATM owner, fees are refunded to cardholder. From Electric Orange Terms of Service: "If you use your EO card to make cash withdrawals or purchases in foreign currencies ("foreign transactions") we may charge you up to 2.00% of the amount of each foreign transaction after it is converted to U.S. Dollars by MasterCard®. We reserve the right to charge additional fees at a later time and will notify you as required by law if we do so."

Thanks, but Allpoint doesn't exist outside the US and is in any event irrelevant to the question, since the Allpoint network only affects whether ATM-owner fees are imposed--not Mastercard or ING fees.

We noted on the wiki the information you quote: that ING says they charge up to 2% (presumably in addition to the 1% MC fee for a total conversion charge of 3%). An anonymous editor said on the wiki the other day that (s)he had used an Electric Orange card to withdraw cash in Israel and was not charged the extra 2%. I'm asking if somebody else who has actually used their Electric Orange ATM card outside the US can confirm whether or not this is actually true. What was the amount and date of the withdrawal? What was the conversion rate? Was there a line-item conversion fee in addition to the withdrawal in your account history? We need details, folks!

I have not yet received the email but that is a big disappointment as Citi has convenient ATMs in many major European cities including London and Paris. Citi just reported a 56% profit drop so I guess they need to increase revenues any way they can :(

Since 2% is too much for me to stomach - and I really don't want to open any more bank accounts - I am probably going to go with Fidelity (1% with no per-use surcharge) in places where BofA partners are unavailable. Schwab has a similar option.

For those who don't want to open new bank or broker accounts which might have minimum deposit requirements and other hassles, another good option is paypal which charges $1 + 1%, though effectively you are paying 2% on a $100 withdrawal. But there is no minimum balance (mine is currently zero ;) ) no monthly fees and easy to transfer money once you have set it up.

Final note: Although it isn't a foreign country to US nationals, Hawaii has few if any surcharge-free ATMs and the big US banks do not have a presence there. As discussed in the Hawaii forum, the best option (for those who don't get ATM fees reimbursed) is to use your debit card to get cash at Safeway. Or simply charge everything except tips, which is what we did :cool:

Cap1 was the best for me too, until this past summer. Now I understand why some people call them Crap1. They sent just one renewal card for a joint account, and that lead to countless mis-steps on their part, including closing the account and opening up a new one to try to get the 2nd card sent, holds that kept reappearing on the new card even after they were removed, and the "available balance" always showing up as zero (even though they said we could still use the card). Each call in involved at least a 30min hold time before talking to anyone, and most if not all were to the India call center. We were traveling abroad and I called the general toll-free line and also stayed on hold for 45 min waiting for their fraud dept to make sure they would not refuse charges from those foreign countries (they are suppose to type in notes w/ countries/dates to allow charges from). I did this for my backup card too. Of course, when we tried to use the Crap1 card abroad, all the charges were declined. The other card was fine, and we had travellers checks too. Cancelled the Crap1 card on our return. So what if they have no fees abroad if you can't depend on being able to use the card?

I have never been declined using CapOne cards abroad, from charging expensive hotels to gas station to metro tix. Of course, I always call ahead of time with a list of countries I am visiting and the trip dates (though I hear this doesn't work for everyone).

Now I did get 2 calls from the fraud dept. after charging $3k worth of tix from Orbitz, but that's another matter :) and they didn't decline the charges, just verified.

With cap1 I really think you get what you pay for.

When the card works, it's great (zero fees and now 1.25% cash back on all purchases). But when it doesn't work, their customer service is just plain horrible. I called a week or two ago to add mrsmicah to my account. That phone call took 20 minutes to accomplish something that should have been do-able online in under 5 minutes (like it is with Citi, Amex, etc.). The Indian call center rep kept putting me on hold for no apparent reason and insisted on reading an incredibly long script detailing what the additional cardholder can and can't do.

When I travel I primarily use my Cap1, but I always keep a Citi and Amex card handy as backups.

Mexico card?
 

Is CapitalOne the best card for Mexico too? I assume it can be used as an ATM card & charge card. What's a good backup card for MX?

I keep an account in the online bank Bank Direct exclusively for ATMs abroad. They don't charge any fees -0%. They claim that for non-US transactions they won't reimburse any fees from foreign ATMs (they reimburse up to 4 per statement cycle for domestic use), but they did the last time I used them. They also have a Visa debit card, but have just recently started passing along the 1%.

I originally got an account for the bonus AA miles. My acct. also earns AA miles, but the interest is so low it's not worth keeping for that.

If you're talking about CapOne credit cards, it's an excellent card for credit card purchases (subject to the above discussion about how bad their customer service is), but it's not a good option for use at the ATM (I've never seen a credit card from any company that was a good option for ATM use).

If you're talking about CapOne debit cards (linked to their money market or other bank products), that's a decent option at the ATM.

Please see the guide to cards and foreign exchange that we've been putting together on the flyerguide wiki to summarize this massive thread. It should answer all your questions