That's a very useful table in that Wiki but they should put in the annual fee charges.

Those are likely to be more significant than the 2 or 3% in forex fees those cards may impose from transactions in a given year.

You have a good point. The problem is that annual fees vary tremendously within a given card issuer's offerings, which would require making the table far more complex. It gets even more complex when you start trying to figure in APRs for people who carry balances or minimum balances for the bank accounts we list.

We've therefore kept the page focused purely on the foreign exchange transaction fees imposed by the card issuers, ignoring annual fees, rewards, interest rates and other account features that should figure into your decision of which card to use. Trying to include all that information would simply be too great a task (we have a hard enough time keeping up with the constant changes to forex fees).

edited to add: Also, annual fee information is readily available elsewhere, while information about forex fees is sometimes very hard to get (the card issuers themselves often get it wrong when you call to ask). That's ultimately the reason we started the wiki.

So last week people were making wiki changes saying Citi was raising fees for its banking customers. This week they're making changes saying BofA is raising fees for both banking and credit card customers (credit cards to 4% fee?).

The changes were made with a username this time, but not one that exists on FT that I can PM.

Does anyone with a BofA account know about these changes?

BOFA BOFA BOFA as of January 3, 2008
 

I just registered on this forum since I will be doing some travelling and here's what I got from Bofa CSR. I contacted three bofa reps (2 times on the phone and one time by email) and got 3 different answers. It's so strange, no one at bofa can get the right answer. Here are the three answers I got.

1. 2% fee for ATM withdrawls with NO access fees. 4% fee for debit card and credit card purchases. I asked her about access fees at non bofa atm's and she said there were none?!

2. 3% fee for both ATM withdrawls, debit, and credit purchases. $5 access fee for most non Bofa atm's. $0.00 access fees for Bofa atms and a list of other banks which I will list in a moment.

3. Per my understanding of the email reply, 1% fee for ATM cash withdrawls with either a $5 access fee or $0.00 acess fee. 3% fee for credit or debit or pos purchase sales.

I quote in part the email reply:

"Please note, that the International ATM fee is $5.00. This fee is
assessed for each withdrawal, transfer or balance inquiry performed at a
non-Bank of America ATM or non-Global ATM Alliance bank located in a
foreign country.

An International Transaction Fee of 1% is charged for each cash
withdrawal made with a Bank of America Check Card in a foreign country.
The fee will appear as a separate transaction posted on the same date as
the purchase transaction.

Customers receive an additional 3% Foreign Currency Conversion
Adjustment for Check Card point-of-sale purchases made in a currency
other than U.S. dollars. The fee is assessed to help recover costs of
processing the currency exchange for Check Card purchases. The 3%
Foreign Currency Conversion Adjustment is applied to the converted U.S.
dollar purchase amount and is posted to your account on the same date as
the purchase transaction. The fee appears on transaction history and the
statement as a separate transaction following the purchase.

For your reference, while traveling outside the United States, you can
avoid the $5.00 access fee and the transaction fees by using an ATM at
the following banks in these locations:

- Barclays - United Kingdom
- China Construction Bank - China
- Deutsche Bank - Germany
- Scotiabank - Canada
- BNP Paribas - France
- Westpac - Australia and New Zealand
- Santander Serfin ? Mexico."

SO...WHICH OF THE THREE ANSWERS IS CORRECT?

Bofa changes on 01-02-2008
 

I made the changes, but I have changed it back to before. With three different answers from three bofa reps, I am GUESSING the most logical is the 3% for credit/debit/pos sales, and 1% for atm withdrawals (plus $5 international atm fee for non bofa and non global alliance atm's).

I agree that this seems most likely, and it seems consistent with what people have reported to be their experiences in the past. Thanks for posting the details here, and let us know if your actual experience differs from this.

CapitalOne Referral IDs are a Secret
 

I just discovered another peculiar thing about CapitalOne cards. My daughter is planning some overseas travel, so I recommended that she get a Cap1 card for its low forex fees.

I noticed on the application that there is a place where she can enter a friend's (my) Referral ID, which probably pays maybe $25 to the friend. I don't know my referral number, so I searched the Cap1 site for it. I found this text:
How strange, that they want you to refer your friends but then take away the incentive to do so. :td:

have enough of crap1
 

as if my previous story of crap1 locking my card abroad is not enough, today I found out that they have rejected my recent online payment thus making me late. I scheduled my payment 15 days ahead of the due date and my payment account has 50x of the amount needed to pay. Crap1 rejected the payment and imposed both a late fee and return check fee. And of course I am expecting interest to be tagged on my recent charges. Since I don't often have internet access abroad I only discover this unfortunate incident 2 days after due date (today).

I anticipate a long call and futile fight with their customer disservice department when I return home.

If the check really did return, how come it is cap1's problem? Your bank that rejected the check seems to be the problem then.

The problem is that my bank has sufficient funds to cover the payment and it has no trace of that payment at all. I have used it to pay Crap1 multiple times, all without a hitch. If you overdrafts your banking account, at least you see the charge and a reverse in your account history. In my case it looked as if nothing has really happened. The rejected online payment happened at the same time my card was locked from using it abroad. I suspect it has something to do with it.

As expected when I sent a secure msg to Crap1 asking what really happened, they replied with a canned msg about the different kinds of payments they could accept!!

You sound like cap1 didn't even submit the check. I haven't sent a check to pay for a creditcard since 199x.

I suspect that CapOne referral codes aren't for referrals from other customers, but referrals from CapOne marketing efforts (junk mailers, newspaper ads, etc.).

Finally Found Official Citibank Change - January 26 and 2%!!
 

https://web.da-us.citibank.com/popup...agreement.html

Scroll down to the "Amendments to Client Manual for Consumer Accounts Effective July 15, 2007 ("Client Manual")":

Interesting. The way I read it is:

• Until January 26, 2008, it's 0% for Citi-owned ATMs and at other ATMs it's $1.50 + 1% for Citigold/Private/Int'lPersonal/GlobalExecutive customers or 3% for other customers.
• After January 26, 2008, it's 1% for Citigold/Private/Int'lPersonal/GlobalExecutive customers and 2% for other customers at all ATMs + an extra $1.50/transaction at non-Citi ATMs.

Does that seem right?

This addendum only applies to outside of USA/Puerto Rico ATM w/ds as no where has there been an addendum to the no-fee at USA Citibank, 7-11 Money Pass, and other partnered network providers.

I need to qualify the no-fee part though ... the $1.50 charge is only applicable to a certain subset of US States. California Citi accouts charge this whereas MD (which is my home branch) allows for up to 5 no-fee per use ATM w/ds per month.