Allow me to chime in.

I actually spoke to a CSR yesterday and asked specifically about the ATM fee. I was told ATM withdrawals from non Capital One Bank will be charged $1.50. Since Capital One Bank doesn't have any ATM overseas, international ATM withdrawals will be charged $1.50 plus whatever the other banks' ATMs charge.

I also looked up my disclosures. It's pretty much the same as craz had mentioned a couple posts earlier (extra charge for casino ATMs...etc). So I assume that's standard terms for Capital One Bank.

As for fee waiver, Capital One Bank will refund ATM fees for certain types of checking accounts (with certain amount of balance). I guess this is the part with different fee structures state by state.

I was told by Schwab that their foreign exchange fee for the ATM card is zero. I asked about the 1% VISA fee and the representative told me that Schwab had a 'special arrangement' with VISA for a zero fee. Fidelity, on the other hand, told me that VISA charges a 1% fee for ATM withdrawals, and Fidelity does not refund that fee (although both Fidelity and Schwab do, in principle, refund the fee charged by the ATM itself for the withdrawal). My own experience with this is the following: I made identical withdrawals in Brazil using the Schwab and Fidelity ATM cards (one after the other, at the same Banco do Brasil ATM) and each account was charged exactly the same amount in USD. Both of these identical amounts were LESS than the amount listed by xe.com for the date of posting, so it is impossible to determine if 1% was, or was not, charged by VISA. There was no separate item for a foreign exchange fee listed by either Fidelity or Schwab. So, for now, the temporary conclusion is that these two card issuers have the SAME (unknown) fee policy, despite the differences explicitly stated by their respective representatives. And, whatever those policies may be, the practical results seem equally favorable.

In post #1382 above, ajnaro provides an excellent test: he used his Schwab and his Fidelity ATM cards both, one after the other, at the same ATM machine in Brazil to withdraw identical amounts. He then says, "each account was charged exactly the same amount in USD."

Ajnaro says that the Fidelity rep told him there is a 1% VISA (the Plus system is owned by VISA) fee for foreign currency transactions, while Schwab's rep told him "that Schwab had a 'special arrangement' with VISA for a zero fee."

So, the implication is that one of these two is giving out the wrong info, intentionally or not. Otherwise, to state the obvious, the amount charged to the Fidelity account should have been 1% more than the charge to the Schwab account.

Checking the fine print at Schwab's website, at High Yield Investor Checking FAQ, there is in footnote #1 this phrase: "ATM fee rebates do not include currency exchange fees."

Nowhere there do I see a statement that Schwab has a "special arrangement with VISA for a zero fee."

All this bullies me to concluding that a 1% fee is indeed added to foreign transactions with a Schwab ATM card, and this fee is not refunded by Schwab.

As I see it, CapOne now has several different types of banking accounts, and the ATM fee policies differ with the account type.

The High Yield Money Market account, which is catagorized as a savings account, does not include any $1.50 non-CapOne ATM use fee, or so I've been told.

For the checking accounts, however, there are such fees, at least sometimes.

I hope the "ATM fee" table will reflect this by separating the CapOne savings from the checking accounts, and giving separate info for each.

News from Citigold:

"Effective August 1, 2008, the Foreign Exchange Fee will be waived for Citigold and Citi Private Bank clients whenever you use your Citibank Banking Card outside of the U.S. and Puerto Rico to get cash at an ATM or to purchase goods and services."

I don't think it's necessary to distinguish Capital One savings from checking accounts.

The way I see it is that Capital One is waiving ATM fees for accounts maintaining certain amount of balance. In Texas, that's $1000 for checking accounts. Other states and other products may have different thresholds.

In terms of savings accounts, if you don't want to be charged with monthly fee, you have to maintain a higher level of daily balance (compared to checkings) anyway. Plus I would say hardly anyone uses savings accounts for frequent ATM withdrawals. One can only do 3-6 withdrawals (via checks, ATM..etc) max per months (I am not even sure if you get ATM/debit cards for savings/ money market accounts). The Money Market accounts you refer to require either $2500 or $5000 min balance; for regular savings, $300 (in TX).

I agree with themicah. Unless we have enough samples of products from different states, it's hard to have a comprehensive (or definite) list of Capital One on debit/ATM fees.

Best we can do is to give everybody the headsup that non-CapOne ATM withdrawals may not be free, depending on the account types. Consult with your local branch for potential fees. My Texas, craz's NY and yours (? state) experiences can be listed as examples.

The bottom line is everyone should know how and what their banks are charging. The FT Wiki is just a compilation of experiences and one should use it as a guideline.

The selling point is their no FX fee/rate. I would think most people use CapOne credit cards instead of ATM/debit cards since the rates of their banking products are not as attractive. CapOne doesn't have enough branches/ATMs in every state either.

What! Ughgh, Citi cannot get thier act straight -- they keep chaging up these % fees for intl transactions. I posted in some other thread or this one I think about this. I cannot even keep track of how many times they have changed this.

So this is good. I gather no 1% fee for CitiGold Debit or ATM transactions in foreign currency or anything outside of US?

I think before this notice it was always 1% for Citigold, Citi regular was 3% after previously being 1% (Summer 06 at least).

Do keep us updated --did everyone get this notice on a printed statement or separate letter?

I just realized my FirstIB checking fee increased the international ATM withdraw fee from 1% to 3%. It's time for me to switch as this was the sole reason I had this account. From what I read e-Trade bank and Schwab bank charge only 1% VISA/Plus fee. From what I understand this is best.

I also need a card that is going to reimburse me on the ATM fee charges (i.e. Bank of America $2 fee, etc).

Is Schwab the recommended the best recommended, or should I go with eTrade bank?

Thanks!

Schwab seems to be much better regarded than eTrade for customer service, so I'd go that route. That said, I don't have either.

If going Schwab, make sure you sign up through the brokerage website for a SchwabOne with Investor Checking account rather than going through the SchwabBank site for a standalone bank account. The SchwabOne/Investor Checking has no minimums and pays a decent interest rate, while the standalone SchwabBank accounts have minimum balance requirements and pay essentially nothing in interest.

See also the thread I started at Fatwallet, which was geared more toward ATM rebates in general than foreign exchange, but should answer your questions.

To follow up on my post before about whether CapOne has gone to 1%, I asked a friend to run some tests while in Canada last week, and the results were inconclusive.

On Sunday, 8/24, she bought three CAD1.45 packs of gum at the same store on the same day with three different credit cards.

• Her CapOne Visa showed a charge of US$1.39
• Her AmEx Starwood card showed a charge of US$1.42
• Her Citi AA MC card showed a charge of US$1.38 (+ a finance charge of .04)

At first glance it appears the CapOne charge was 1% more than the underlying Citi charge. But I believe the difference was due to changes in the forex markets on the days the charges were actually processed, not to CapOne charging 1% more.

Oanda.com lists the interbank rates as follows:

DATE Interbank Rate CAD1.45 (rounded)
08/24/2008 0.95540 US$1.3853 ($1.39)
08/25/2008 0.95550 US$1.3855 ($1.39)
08/26/2008 0.95380 US$1.3830 ($1.38)
08/27/2008 0.9520 US$1.3804 ($1.38)

In fact, both the CapOne and Amex charges were posted online a day or two before the Citi charge. Therefore, assuming the CapOne and Amex charges were processed on 8/24 or 8/25, and the Citi charge was processed on 8/26 or 8/27, the one cent discrepancy makes perfect sense and CapOne is indeed 0%, Amex is 2% and Citi is 0+3% as one would expect.

Of course it should also be noted that those Interbank rates from Oanda do not tell the whole story. Actual currency markets have a fairly wide trading range that can vary by more than 1% in a single day on volatile days (and what days aren't volatile in this economy?). It's therefore not impossible that there would be a 1% or larger discrepancy even if the charges were processed on the same day, if the banks obtained different underlying rates. A year or so ago, I made a series of charges in one day in Budapest using my CapOne card, and one charge came in at well over 1% above the others. I suspect it was because it was processed at a different time. A friend with a Bloomberg checked, and the rates were particularly volatile during the days immediately after the transaction.

Bottom line: YMMV and it's very difficult to ascertain for sure the exact fee that is being assessed on your card. We'll keep trying to figure it out, though. I have another friend going to Canada in a month or two and he's going to try to split his hotel bill among a handful of different cards so we can get results with less room for rounding errors.

just back from Europe;

WaMu;took 100 CZK out in the Prague airport used a WaMu Gold Debit MC PayPass card. The charge was $6.49 (a rate of 15.40 when I could have gotten 16.50 at a change place in the city, the lousy rate is due to the Bank over there charging 1 czk) theres an extra .06 charge on the WaMu statement for *Foreign Transaction Fee so WaMu with the Gold Debit card is still taking Only 1%

Still alot better then the 14.10 rate the travelex was offering minus some other fee on top of that.

Asked if I could use a CC for the bus tkt and the Info desk said Nope. So I used the ATM only to find out I could have used my CC. so it cost me 2% or .12 cents, it would have been worse had I been taking out a large amount.

Cap1 the Card I learned to LOVE as much as I HATE,CRAP1. Checked every single charge and 1% each time over the rate via XE.com of the posting date. Since I have the 1% (1.25%) Rebate card there is really no 1% whatsoever, once I get my rebate sent to me. Got to LUV them.Beats Amexs 25 or everryones elses 3%

It was on the latest printed statement.

Does anyone know if the 2% cashback card from HSBC/Household bank still charges 1% for foreign transaction or it has increased to 3%?

From the HSBC/Household site:

"The Foreign Transaction Fee is 3% of the U.S. dollar amount on transactions made in a foreign currency."

So, the card is basically no good for foreign charges.

Cap1 HYMM comes with an ATM card, no minimum balance, no limit on the number of ATM withdrawals but a daily withdrawal limit of $500.

http://www.capitalone.com/directbank...C1_01_T_SP25HW

Withdrawals by online transfer and check are limited to a combined six per calendar month, three of which may be by check. ATM withdrawals are limited to $500 per day, with no monthly limit on how many times you use the card.