my wife cut out a comment in a magazine today for me (us)....free overseas ATM transaction for those with an account at Commerce Bank....they are in a limited number of states but you can open an account on line i believe....

they have a free checking a/c for one year and then require a $100 min balance be maintained...

check it out...

ttt

i heard back from them this AM via e mail and they are sending the forms for me to open an account

Bob, I've found a number of places that do this. My current account with E*Trade Bank does this. Remember that one of the problems is that institutions change their rules regularly. You may remember that I opened an account with HBSC previously until they started charging the 3% conversion fee.

Two things to look at : charges for ATM use, and whether and how much of a foreign conversion rate is charged.

I find the HSBC rule curious, because I have an HSBC account here in Hong Kong. When I travel to the US and elsewhere, and use ATMs to withdraw funds (either at HSBC branches or others), HSBC does <u>not</u> charge me any fees. However, I have an account at Chase NYC which does charge those fees when I use my ATM card for withdrawals outside of the US (which is why I only use it in the US now). It seems that US banks (and it seems the branches of non-US banks) may be taking a bit of an advantage of you all.

I'm currently in Bangkok and have been using a CapitalOne ATM. I have used it here for 3 months in about 4 different banks ATMs and have been charged no fees from the Thai banks nor CapitalOne. In addition, I have been using a CapitalOne visa card as well and have not had any fees on this card as well (CapitalOne even eats the 1% visa fee). My exchange rates on both cards have been better by a few tenths of a baht than those posted for that day and time on Bangkok bank's website.

I'm very satisfied with CapitalOne.

Calling the female James Bond......Bobby has posted, attack

Kolohe in paradise

Aloha!