Travelnut

Yes, time for a retraction from me - I read this post:
"...Author: Christina
Date: 04/26/2005, 01:55 pm
well, coincidentally, I just received in the mail yesterday a notice about changes in terms for my MBNA AAA Visa card. I read the section on foreign transactions, afraid <b>they had misled me about my card not being raised</b> -- and, luckily, the percentage was listed as only one percent total for my card (on top of that VISA exchange rate thing being either a whole rate or some govt-mandated rate)...&quot;

I mistook the bold statement to mean they had misquoted before and now it was going to go up to the higher %. I'm sorry, I really need to recheck instead of relying on this aging brain.

workerbee

Re: foreign transaction fees, I was on the phone for 45 minutes today with Capital One because I wanted once again, clarification re these fees. My daughter will be in London for 10 weeks so I plan to see my $ floating on the Thames. My new customer agreement that came with her card (which is really my card and she is an add on) says &quot;for each transaction made in a country other than the U.S., or U. S. Territories, we will assess you a finance charge as previously disclosed to you as part of your TILA account disclosures or as we will disclose to you if required by applicable law. The fee will be based on the U.S. dollar amount of the transaction&quot;. I never got an answer what the TILA agreement was with my account. The girl said there is no other fee on my account except 1% and said unless I receive a change in terms agreement letter none would be charged. I don't believe her and will call again tomorrow. Sorry about the length of this reply. Hope everyone takes the warning-I think all of the banks are going to go to this position. We also bank with B/A and will use Barclays in London as part of the Global Alliance group B/A works with.

Christina

hi, workerbee, I got that same statement from Capitol One for my MC through them. It was confusing to me as I didn't know what a TILA agreement even was and I thought it sounded sneaky as instead of just saying what it was, it referred you to some other thing.

I think I called them also to ask what the heck that meant and to verify there was no increase, which they said, just as to you.

Unlike you, I believe them, though. Why don't you believe them? I don't think any single person on all these threads on Fodors (and I know there are getting to be a lot of them lately and they can be overload, I bore myself sometimes reading my own) has ever said they were getting an increase on their Capitol One card.

I am skeptical also, just like you, and am suspicious they might in the future since MBNA has, but for now, I truly believe they have not and that's all they are going to tell you. Even if they do 6-12 months from now make that mgt. decision, no phone clerk is going to know about that or tell you, do you think?

workerbee

Re: Capital One
Response to Christina
I don't believe that they will NOT raise the rate (and bless them if they don't) because the girl could only reply &quot;your card does not show a rate increase and you won't have one until you receive a letter of notification&quot;. I called again the next day and got the same answer. I agree, the person on the phone is not going to know so I think that is their standard answer for now because there is no other. My response to the last lady was-Cap One ought to not raise the fees and they would get a lot of new customers. For now I don't have an extra charge but I don't think they printed that Customer Agreement with that paragraph for nothing. It is a wait and see game.

ParrotMom

Has anybody used theSUM ATM card in Europe... we just got it through out credit union.

alscroggins

I called Capital One today - I was considering getting the card for a trip later this year.

I was told that no fee is charged at this time, but they plan to notify customers of a change in the future. I asked what the change would be, and the rep didn't know. I asked when the change would occur, and she didn't know that either. Not very helpful.

Chele60

With all the confusion surrounding credit card purchase, I bit the bullet and charged my tickets to the Alhambra using my Capitol One Visa. I just received the bill a couple of weeks ago and 1.) the exchange rate was quite favorable, and 2.) there was only a 1% conversion fee. Hopefully this will continue to be the case through Sept/Oct!

As to the ATM being a credit card question? My ATM card can be used as either a debit or credit card. It has the VISA logo on it. I've never had any problems using it as a credit card here in the US. (Some will ask if I prefer using it as debit or credit, most just use it as credit.) I'm not sure if this will hold true overseas and I'm not all that anxious to find out. I will be taking my ATM card with me, but strictly to be used in ATMS while there.

china_cat

I don't know if its an accurate information source, but the following USA today article talked about this issue, and lists some of the big credit card policies:http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/...ard-fees_x.htm

The thing I found remarkable (and annoying!) is that many of these cards will charge the 2-3% for a foreign transaction even if it is in US dollars! So when that Italian restaurant insists on charging you in dollars &quot;for your convenience&quot;, not only are you paying for their bad exchange rate, you may STILL be paying 3% to your issuing bank!

erical77

Just an update...

We used our BOA debit card to get cash. The exchange rate seemed pretty good, but were charged $5 each time we took out cash (only did it 4-5 times). We even used a Deutche Bank and were still charged.. Oh well.

For credit card purchases we used a credit union Visa card. Through my work, I was able to join a credit union two weeks before we left and got a credit card. It looks as though we were not charged any fees and the exchange rate was good.

We did have a citibank credit card that we were told charged 3%. Well, to my stupidity, we forgot to cancel a hotel reservation in Venice and the charge posted yesterday to that credit card and included an additional 3% conversion fee based on the USD amount. (On a side note, I emailed the hotel and they are refunding us for that one night's charge - thank god!).

nattag

Hi. I have been constantly reading and re-reading this thread because I will be leaving for London and Paris in two weeks and I really want to save money where possible. I spent an hour on the phone last night calling all of my credit card companies and discovered that department store cards (Nordstrom Visa, Bloomingdale's Visa)choose to only charge the 1% Visa/Mastercard fee. After discovering this I decided that I will only be using this card during my travels. I hope this helps those who still need help. I wanted to pitch in a little since I spend most of my time mooching off everyone's great advice!

crckwc

On my most recent Chase Platinum Master Card statement, my Great Britain transactions were charged 3% on the converted US$ amount. In addition, the exchange rate ($1.92) was much higher than I have seen published. While I'm not happy about the cost of charging overseas, still the card at present has 0% interest, so I can stretch the cost of my trip over a few months.

Bouvs

If you are on the East Coast and have some cash handy, Commerce Bank has a great ATM deal. If you maintain a $2500 daily balance, they will reimburse you for any fees you incur when using any ATM, worldwide. You must maintain the $2500 balance each day of the cycle during which you use the ATM to be eligible for the reimbursement so you have to make sure you put enough in the account to cover what you expect to spend, plus the $2500. They even issue your ATM card on the spot.

mari5

erical77:

Short answer and for sure:

USAA charges only the 1% charged by the credit card Co....the bank charges
0%. And this was just a few weeks ago,and appeared on my bill last week, just as they stated.

I didn't read all the long responses, but someone might have mentioned USAA. It's just as simple as can be. you asked for credit card conversion, nothing else...and
the bottom line is that USAA charges
0 %.!!!

Lovejoy

And if you have a free USAA checking account they never charge for ATM withdrawals anywhere in the world,and will reimburse you for up to 10 withdrawals per month for fees charged by the ATM owner.
So no need to keep a minimum daily balance of $2500 in some account.

arewethereyet

Our trip is in July, and I never even thought of this as an issue until I was reading the money saving letters in Frommer's Budget Travel. One reader mentioned Capital One as having only the 1% conversion fee. As I get about 5 offers per week in the mail from them, I started opening them and looking at them seriously. I got an offer for a prime rate platinum card with no annual fee, and more incredibly, no cash advance fee (I have a $7,000 limit on cash advances). Interest does accrue immediately, but only at prime. I'm going to test this out before I go, but it appears that I'll be able to take cash advances with no charge from this card and I'll just pay the balance immediately when I get home so I'll have minimal finance charges.

galapas

I am travelling to Italy in a few weeks and I am trying to find out Bank of America's official position on using a Deutsche Bank atm in Italy. Will there be a fee because it is not in Germany, or is it exempt from fees because it is a member of the &quot;Global Alliance&quot;. Has anyone had any personal experience with this, either in country or via discussions with Bank of America.

yeadonite

Citibank now uses a line called Purchases*Finance Charge*Foreign Transaction. They said that they us the WSJ rate and than add 3% on top of that, and put it in a separate line. Be prepared!

MaureenB

I understand your frustration-- getting an answer to this question is like swimming in quicksand!

But, I know my BellCo credit union does not add any fees for either my ATM/debit card or my credit card. It's worth it opening an account just for that reason. We used our cards in Europe this June, and no extra fees over the 1% were added on the Visa credit card. The ATM/debit card added no fees at all.

If you don't have Bellco in your town, I've heard other credit unions do the same.

Good luck! It's worth saving the additional fees in IMHO.

Patrick

galapas, we used a number of Deutsche Banks in Italy using our BofA ATM cards and never had a fee.

As I mentioned way up above, our only problem was when we got to Rome, where our ATM only card had worked at the same Deutsche Bank before, this time it didn't. Seems Deutsche Bank had very recently switched to Visa services for doing their ATM withdrawals and as a result our ATM only cards would not work. If you have an ATM/debit card you will be fine, however.

JennyP

I have a BOFA ATM/debit card that I was planning on using in Italy, but after reading the messages on this post, I'm not sure what to do. I've read some posts where some weren't charged a fee if they used a Deutsche Bank and some said they were.

Doe anyone have any updated info on this?

Or would the safest thing for me to do is just open up a credit union account and use that for traveling. I checked with the credit union and they said they don't charge a fee and the only fees that would be charged is from the foreign bank.

Does anyone know if the banks in Italy charge a fee