Thanks Travelnut for clearing that up.

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A little further clarification of some of the points above -- based on very recent changes, personal experience, and conversations with banking officials in both Belgium and in Rome. An "ATM only card" (without a Visa logo because it isn't a debit card as well) may not work in some ATM's even though the machine and your card may both have matching Cirrus or Plus signs. The reason is that a number of banks in Europe (all in Belgium, according to one official, and a number of banks in Italy) are now contracting with Visa services to handle their international ATM transactions. That means that not only do you have to have a Visa insignia on your card for it to work, but all ATM withdrawals at those banks are now also subject to the standard 1% transaction fee that Visa imposes just like on their credit card transactions.

Chase ATM has high fees. They told me 3.5% exchange fee plus $3 per transaction. That's 6.5% for $100 withdrawal (i.e., its equivalent wherever you are), 5% for $200, 4.5% for $300 (4.25% if you can withdraw $400) and most cards will top-out at around $350 per day or so in cash withdrawals.

Not a good deal despite the fact that Euro banks don't charge your account for withdrawals.

I've heard that AMEX hits you with a 2% exchange fee for credit transactions; this is better than the 3% that most credit cards will take from you (other than MBNA and Cap-1.

Mastercard only has a 1% transaction/conversion fee whether I use it as a credit card to make a purchase, or an ATM card for a cash advance, and my bank does not charge any fees at all.

The card carries a 6.9% annual interest rate, so if I use the card as an ATM card, withdraw $100.00 as a cash advance, pay the balance off when I get my statement, the interest accrued would be less than 1% over a 30 day period, or rounded off, about $1.00.

Both combined fees (the 1% Mastercard fee and the interest rate) are better than most bank cards charge just for the conversion/transation fee and ATM fees.

I would get a card that doesn't have all those fees. The 1% Mastercard fee can't be avoided, but all the other fees can. ((b))