Beth

one nifty thing about Amex... rather than getting a cash advance, you can go to the Amex office and cash a regular check. So if you were looking for some other way to get cash, you can carry one or two personal checks from your regular domestic bank. You get whatever retail exchange rate American Express is offering that day (you write the check out in dollars).

Richard

i just called milegae plus visa -- sometime between this morning and 4pm, they 'suspended' their conversion fee. they said they are reviewing whether it is 'too high or too low' ( I say too high)

John

Maybe all these calls they are getting are making an impact. Keep them up!

pam

In case anyone has any doubt about banks and their fees, read this (dtd 4/22): <BR>Headline: PNC Bank Corp.'s record Q1 earnings jump on fees <BR>Overall fee revenue rose across all of PNC's main business lines, including regional and national consumer banking, private banking, asset management, mortgage banking and secured lending.

Helen

Cheryl, if indeed anyone can stand another posting, here's another 2 cents worth (2 percent's worth?) I was pretty confused before my trip (got back Monday), but decided to rely on ATMs for cash, CCs for purchases, and TCs for just in case. As I mentioned on another post, the TCs were a lot less trouble than people make them out to be. Admittedly I had a good deal, since they came from the AAA for no fee, and Amex was charging the ususal 2% above the Interbank rate (well, actually 2.08%, if the OANDA web site is accurate.) I had no trouble using them instead of cash, except at an ethnic restaurant which asked us to use a credit card instead. There was no further charge for cashing them. (I can see that this would be more of a hassle if one needed TCs in more than one currency.) Many establishments showed the familiar decal on their window or door. As to the ATMs, I had none of the feared problems using them. I checked my account balance last night, and see that my withdrawals were converted at<BR>the Interbank rate plus 2.4 percent by my bank (Citibank), with no additional charges imposed by the foreign banks whose ATMs I used. As to CC rates, well, those remain to be seen, I'll come back and squawk if Chase and MBNA behave badly. Hope this helps. Try to keep it in perspective, and have a fun trip.

cheryl

I can't believe the number of responses that this question generated. Or all of the people who immediately called their own banks. I think this shows that most of us are concerned about saving small amounts in order to be able to travel more frequently! <BR> <BR>You may be interested in knowing that I sent a message about these new CC fees to the Boston news reporter who handles consumer issues. They sent me a message saying that they may do a segment on these new fees. They also suggested that I forward the message to my congressman, which I did. Even though I know nothing will come of it, at least I feel better having taken some action. <BR> <BR>Thanks to all who have responded.

Scott

Interestingly, the person I talked to at my credit card company also said she "just got a memo" on foreign purchase surcharges. This was for a BP (British Petroleum) Visa. For now, she told me, there are no extra charges for purchases made overseas, but there "may be a 2% charge instituted some time in the future." I'm assuming there will be no extra charges when I go to London and Paris next month...