One way to get money with no charge is to have a Citibank account in the US. If you go to the Citibank ATM in Rome or Florence, you will get your money, a good exchange and no fees. I have used this method in Spain, Paris, and Mexico. The only problem is you have to find the bank during banking hours.

eddiB, the Citibank ATMs are accessible outside of banking hours -- you just need to insert your card to get in. I bank with Citibank and I like the fact that their foreign branches are usually located quite centrally (Bond Street in London, Champs-Elysees in Paris, etc.).

I heard from this forum that their credit cards are not competitive for foreign purchases though because of the fees.

Capital One does not charge a fee but Visa charges 1%.

I phoned both my Visa and Mastercard companies before we left for our trip on 7 May. Visa said they charge a 2% fee and Mastercard charges 1%. We just returned from our trip and used our Mastercard.

Do not get travelers checks. Use your ATM card. We took some US $ and wanted to convert them to Pounds. Went to the NatWest Bank in Edinburgh and they wouldn't do it unless you were a NatWest customer! Decided to just use the ATM card and put the $ back in the bank when we returned. ATM's are easy and everything else is either a pain or there's a fee. My bank charged me $3 for each ATM transaction so try to get enough money to last you several days at a time.

While we are ranting,

Why should a bank charge anything for an "out of network" use of an ATM?

It's not as if they are maintaining the ATM.

All that happens is an electronic message that debits your account.

How is this different from using one of their ATMs?

I'm not trying to be facetious, but the reason banks (or anyone) charges anything is because they can. If consumers were more informed, the banks would find they couldn't get away with it.

Although it is true that the banks have to build and operate the ATM networks (and they cost $millions), it is equally true that they save $billions in labor and overhead by not having human tellers handling things. I think they make enough money by having me do their data entry for them, so I won't pay transaction fees anywhere, as a matter of principle.

I have learned a lot on this thread and am grateful for everyone participating. I live in NYC and am currently using Bank One Visa (platinum card). Their foreign transactions fees are too high!!! I want to switch to MBNA or Capital One VISA (or Mastercard). Can anyone tell me how to apply?? Also, do MBNA or Capital One charge any annual fee? Do they cover all car rental insurances (like collision/theft/damage)? THANK YOU!!

Thanks to this thread, I checked with my credit union and GM Master Card about the "hidden" conversion fee when travelling aboard, and both said that they don't have any. Now, the ATM host machine might charge me a fee, which I guess I'll find out in a week.

When we used our ATM cards in Spain, my credit union card carried no fees. Bank of America charge $1.50. (Now, if we had gone to Bank of America branches in Spain we could have avoided the fee, but who wants to spend extra time just to get money!)

AnneO has the straight story on credit card fees. You can go to their websites and fill out an application online or contact them for an application.

http://www.mbna.com/index_main.html
http://capitolone.com/indexa.php

- Sharon

Currency exchanges are business services. An earlier exchange system simply charged a flat fee. A small charge incurred a large/standard fee. Today the % system seems most reasonable. I use comparisons of fees in my classes to illustrate ideas. The difference between a one percent fee and a two percent fee is how much? Banks are now charging fees for carrying accounts. Patrons carrying large balances have this fee waived. The bank has a balance number it uses to determine when it can cover its costs by lending that account balance. Remember when AX suggested keeping a TC in your billfold as a safety bit? What did they do with that float? Costing credit losses is expensive. Many of the extra fees that we complain of are caused by illegal use of the 'magic credit card'. If everyone paid all their bills, CC charges could fall to less than 1%.

I agree that USAA is the way to go!
I have been a member of USAA for nearly 35 years and their service and products are great!
All V and MC charge 1% and many banks add additional 1 -2% (Citi AA MC has a 3% fee) for conversions as has been mentioned.
ATMs are great if your bank has low/no fees and gives favorable exchange rates. Bank One charges $1.25 per w/d and the currrency exchange rates are pretty good (I think USAA may be a tad better).
Travelers' checks can be a ripoff if fee based and the exchange rates on those are often unfavorable.
M

>If everyone paid all their bills, CC charges could fall to less than 1%. <

And if the banks sopped flooding the mails with "pre approved" credit cards, they would be even lower.

Capitol One charges no fees. I was in France in May. They only exchanged at the going rate.