I just received my Bank of America PLATINUM DEBIT CARD. There are two other B of A debit cards available but are of a lesser god. This Platinum debit card is issued to Premier cardholders (customers that have a premier checking account.) I quote from the Schedule of • ATM Fees and Dollar Limits on Transactions Supplement to Your Check Card/ATM Card Agreement • that I received (form FO3-A675-5) with my check card:
Withdrawal, balance and balance inquiry at a non-Bank of America ATM located in a foreign country, each ....$5.00* (*These fees do not apply to Private and Premier cardholders.) It seems that implied is that there exist Bank of America ATMs in foreign countries. I don't think there are but there is the Global Alliance of banks (as mentioned some Fedorites' messages) that may be used to avoid the B of America exchange fee. It seems that janisf may be correct that the exchange must be used in the home country of the Bank. Deutche Bank inside Germany. Today I am going to the nearby Deutch Bank to take out $100 to see what fees pop up on line and what the exchange rate will be.
I live in Rome and my B of A account specialist in the US said that the waved fee is the International Fee.
Now there may be some Italian banks that are in the Global Alliance so I will take $100 bucks from one of them: CARIPLO, BANCA NAZIONALE del LAVORO, BANCA ANTONIANA POPOLARE VENETA, CASSA di RISPARMIO di PADOVA e ROVIGO and DEUTSCHE BANK???.
I will report back the results in about a week or so.
I do have a debit card from a little bank in the US- BEACON FEDERAL in East Syracuse. I have used it and it cost me only $1 per transaction (Beacon's charge) and not international or any other fee. The exchange rate is the one that approximates what I see live on Bloomberg that day along with all the other live stock quotes. Someone mentioned that the best deal is achieved by using a debit card from a small bank and I think that may be the solution.
p.s. If B of A is charging all these fees, than the US should not bail it out and let the damn B of A go into bankruptcy. The FDIC will take care of my deposits.

The Bank of America defines relevant Global Alliance banks this way:

"international banking" tab at:
http://locators.bankofamerica.com/lo...catorAction.do

There is NO bank in Italy listed here.

Additional comment for general information: be careful of getting Debit cards or Credit cards from small banks or credit unions for use in Italy (and some other countries). Use of these cards can be blocked due to higher occurrences of fraud. This is the case for our credit union issued Visa credit card.

This C-U website has such a notice (not our C-U but same notice):
http://www.americaneagle.org/htm/abo...outside_us.htm

The wikipedia.org website has some new good updated news.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_ATM_Alliance

I went to the Deutsche Bank and the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro today at noon and withdrew 100 Euro from each bank. According to my account on line at Bank of America, the amount deducted for each withdrawal was 128.12 dollars. The Bloomberg rate on TV was about 127.70. That's a $ .41 difference which is about .35%, not even 1%. No fee charges are posted as of this writing. When the transaction clears, I will report if any fee charges have be made. So far so good. I am keeping my acct executive informed so that the any new good news can be put on the B of A website: http://bankofamerica.via.infonow.net...tLoadAction.do

and the wikipedia website with its new news is definitely worth reading. The good info is toward the bottom of the page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_ATM_Alliance

It looks very good that currency changing in Italy may be made at a fair rate of exchange without fees. Let the Uncle Sam bail out the banks, not us.

DT

I just spoke to two different reps at Bank of America re: using their ATM card in Italy. The first said I could use it at Deutschebank with a $5 per transaction fee plus 1% of total withdrawn. The second said I could use it at any ATM that's part of Cirrus. However, my card doesn't have a Cirrus logo on the back. She said that didn't matter. It would matter to me if the card didn't work, and I didn't bring my cash because I thought I'd be doing ATM withdrawals. Has anyone used a BofA ATM card that does not have a Cirrus, Star, Visa or Mastercard logo--just an ATM card, not a check card--in Italy successfully? If so, at which banking institutions? Thanks for your help. I depart a week from Sunday, on 4/19.

Out of interest, does anyone outside the US have difficulty finding ATMs to use when on holiday?

ATM cards usually have network logos on them, mine certainly does. Just not sure what this stuff about B of A is really asking, as Cirrus isn't some network that only is used by debit cards, nor is it normal for ATM cards not to list their networks on them. Mine always have (and I only have an ATM card, not a debit card). An ATM card has to be using some international banking network, and I think there are only a couple out there.

I had a BoA ATM card, and I did use it out of the country (always looked for the Cirrus logo - logo was not on my card). I'm not with BB&T, and my ATM card also works at all Cirrus ATMs. There are other networks (ie, Star, etc), but Cirrus seems to be in most countries in Europe... I never had a problem finding a bank, and they usually had ATMs....