xyz123

We're having quite a discussion on another bulletin board regarding credit cards. Many of the people postying there had a visa card originally issued by Charles Schwab and then bought out or sold to FIA, the remnant of MBNA which now belongs to Bank of America. This card gave a 2% cash rebate on all purchases, no annual fee and no foreign transaction fee. FIA announced about a month and a half ago that as of 31 October 2011, the card would be replaced by the Bank of America cash rewards card which offers a 1% rebate on all purchases and up to certain limits, 2% on groceries and 3% on petro or maybe vice vera, I don't remember which, and no annual fee. As I said, it has led to an interesting discussion by cheap people like me looking for viable replacement with a key quyestion there the foreign exchange fee.

In any event, we (they) have come ujp with some interesting replacement cards with most of the peole there, claiming that any card with a foreign exchange fee is DOA. Om amu event, we discoverd the Fidelity Rewards American Express which gives 2% back on all purchases but alas is an American Express with its limited acceptance (not that much of an issue in the United States but a larger issue in Europe) and has a 1% foreign exchange fee. Not too bad. Fidelity also has a visa card with 1.5% cash back on all purchases but has the nasty 3% foreign transaction fee. No good.

Then we started discussing the letters we received from Bank of America regarding the replacement card. We know full well that almost all Bank of America credit cards have the 3% foreign transactgion fee. Apparently they are going to waive that fee, for the time being or forever they don't say which, for the replacement cardsd issued for the FIA card referrd to above. So basically 1% on all purchases with 2 and 3% on certain purchases and no for ex fee. Not bad.

Finally, there is the Pentagon Federal Credut Union. They have a rewards visa card (ans well as a travel Amex card) on which they have recently announced they are dropping the foreign exchange fee effective immediately. This visa card has no annual fee, 1% casdh back on all purchases but a nice 5% cash rewards on petrol purchases. I guess they have decided to compete with Capital One for the no foreign transaction trade.

Meanwhile JP Morgan Chase has dropped the for exchhange fee on some of its pricier cards such as the Continen tal Airlines card, the United Airlines card (soon to be merged I suppose with Continental) and the British Airways cards but these cards all have significant annual fees. And several of their top line cards will soon be available with chips, although JP MOrgan Chase has gone in the directioin of chip and signature rather than chip and pin at the suggestion of visa.

Meanwhile citibank goes along and except for one of its really expensive cards ($450) has not dropped any foreign transaction fees or announced plans for chip cards. Some good deals out there for people who want to save a few bucks.

thursdaysd

Your discussion seems to have omitted the most commonly used card with no foreign transaction fee, namely Capital One. My Cap One cards have no foreign conversion fee, no annual fee, and 1% cash back. Cap One also offers rewards cards. Most credit unions only charge 1% foreign conversion fee.

hetismij2

Why choose Chip and sign rather than chip and Pin? The rest of the world uses Chip and Pin. A signature can be forged - if you protect your Pin it is a lot safer. Seems daft to me. A chip and Sign card will still give problems in Europe I think - you still won't be able to use it in unmanned machines, and it is doubtful it could be uses in a C+P machine in a shop either.

But what do I know - I am a poor sucker in the Netherlands who pays an annual fee for her card and pays transaction fees, with no cash back, points or any thing more than the ability to defer payment at an extortionate rate of interest.

Cathinjoetown

Hetismij2,

I can relate, Credit Agricole practically charges us to enter the bank!

We joke we are always being made to sit on the naughty bench for infractions such as wanting more than 1,000 € cash from our own account or wanting to deposit a Bank of America check (in euros to be drawn from BOA's Paris branch).

BTW, good to see you posting.

xyz123

Cap one I did mention in passing something to the effect that Pen Fed now wants to compete with Cap one...I like the 2% cash back twice as much as the 1% cash back.

As far as chip and signature, JP Morgan Chase made a bit of a splash when it anno0unced in April it would be issuing some but hardly universally a chip cdontaining card. Buried in the fine print was that it was chip and signature rather than chip and pin. It didn't make sense but it apparently was recommended by visa that it be done this way. For whatever the reason, there seems to be this agrreement between the American banks not to issue chip and pin cards which nobody seems to understand (some claim because customer liability changes with chip and pin as opposed to a signature card). Chase's explanation was many of the Asian countries use chip and signature. Now there have been some questions as to whether or not you can use a chip and signature card say at many of the unmanned or unwommanned kiosks in Europe. Can you use them for the rental bicycle racks in Paris or at the metro machines? Somebody reported she had no problems using the JP Morgan chip and signature cards everywhere she tried in Paris. Whether it wil work say in Holland, who knows.

But then again, it was also reported there that there is increasing difficulty using the archaic American credit cards in Canada and we read here the stories about places like Holland where you can't use an American credit card to buy train tickets either in the machines or at the windows. While it is understandable that it will cost a lot of money to covert all the US pos terminals to chip and pin, certainlyh it would cost very little to, at the very least, issue chip and pin cards to those who request them and are willing to pay the increased cost (probably about a dime) to get a chip and pin card. That would cost next to nothing while the American banking system waits for everybody to convert their pos terminals (many stores already have pos terminals that take chip and pin cards such as Walmart but you can't use them yet because of the back door processing. So there is some progress and they are coming but then again so is Christmas.

qwovadis

CC FF junkie big time between my wife and myself

almost 500000 FF miles this year opening closing cards

So far

capitalone.com Venture.com Visa my fav DOUBLE FF miles

on everything they had an awesome promotion where they

matched FF miles to 100000 so 200000 in May for me and my wife

also in July

www.aa.com AAdvantage Citicards 80000 miles 2 free TA tickets

in August

amex.com open business cards 2 150000 FF miles

just bought a tablet computer with these 19999 FF miles

the new amazon.com Fire

also

chase sapphire 2 50000 miles each.

Our preference is the Venture capitalone.com Visa

Double FF miles on everything no foreign fees

Visa taken widest worldwide so we always use that.

Good luck to all remember to close CCs B4 first year

so as not to get slammed with fees.

Also remember ATM is a cash withdrawal incurs interest

from day 1 so pay off quickly to avoid big interest charges.

Judy

Interesting discussion. I have the Schwab/FIA card. I called to ask about the currency conversion fee on the new card and was told I'd have to wait until the card was sent to me and call the # given with the card.

xyz123

Judy...they've been very evasive about that. None of the letters I have received have mentioned the forex fee and somebody on aother bb claims the customer service rep he spoke to said no forex fee on the replacement card. Don't shoot the messenger! But I'm glad it's becoming an issue with people because of the many fees banks try to pin you with, that one is among the most immoral as the local bank has nothing to do with foreign conversion on a foreign transaction. The conversion is done by visa/mc which assumes all the currency fluctuation risk.

Judy

What is really annoying is to keep having to change the credit card # on all of the automatic billings. We try to pay everything with this card for the cash back and have several monthly bills like phone, cable, etc billed automatically.

JerryS

qwovadis, Your E-Mails are jibberish and not too helpful.

It appears that you are able to get hundreds of thousands of FF Miles . It would be helpful if you
would elaborate and explain in some detail so that the rest of us could share in your good fortune.

Christina

If they do the same thing as they did with other credit cards, the lack of foreign exchange fee will last a couple years. I had a AAA Visa without such a fee (I forget the bank managing it, but it was a specific policy on that card when I got it, it wasn't the same on all cards for that bank). Then the bank was bought by BofA and they added the typical 3% fee a year or two later.

I'm surprised there is an Amex card with only a 1% foreign transaction fee, as I have a Delta Skymiles Amex and the foreign transaction fee is 2.7 pct. I thought that was the rate on all Amex cards, but maybe there are differences just like when I got that AAA Visa, the program itself had some changes different than the other cards by that same bank.

MaineGG

<<Why choose Chip and sign rather than chip and Pin? The rest of the world uses Chip and Pin. A signature can be forged - if you protect your Pin it is a lot safer. Seems daft to me. A chip and Sign card will still give problems in Europe I think - you still won't be able to use it in unmanned machines, and it is doubtful it could be uses in a C+P machine in a shop either.>>

I just returned from three weeks in France where I tried out the U.S. Bank Flexperks Visa card with chip, pin and signature. The experience was not 100% successful, but broke down as follows: The card was always accepted in unmanned machines in the Paris Metro and for Transilien tickets. On the autoroute toll collection machines, the card worked for those around Troyes and Reims, but not in those around Chambéry and Bourg-en-Bresse. It worked in the machines in parking garages in Troyes and Reims, and required me to enter a PIN to complete the transaction in both places. It was never accepted in a fuel pump anywhere.

In Paris, several grocery stores (G20, Dia and Franprix in our neighborhood in the 11th) would not take a non-chip card, but accepted this card, then required a signature. The neighborhood tabac where I recharged our Navigo passes also required a card with a chip.

Although there were times it didn't work, overall I was very happy to have the card for all the times it did. My experience was in France only, so I can't speak for what the situation is in other countries. I just hope that someday we can have U.S. issued credit cards that work well everywhere.

travlintoes

qwovadis--I understand the concept of accumulating miles with new cards and have debated the advantages myself. But, what does it do to one's credit report? Don't we get a hit each time a new card is requested? Am I mistaken in my thinking that it pulls down my score? Just asking.
If there is no damage done to my credit score, I will start accepting all those invites!

Christina

A signature can be forged, but if you must sign for something, they can require you to show ID with that signature and of course, it should be a govt ID. So that would be more secure than just a PIN. I just got back from Europe and several large stores asked for ID when I used by credit card in them for purchases (eg, FNAC, etc). I am pretty sure it was because it was a foreign CC.

I don't have any chip CCs but actually used a regular CC in a machine in France to get a train ticket, so they don't all require a chip card. That was in Lyon train station, the airport tram. It really wasn't a big problem in Paris to not have one as they now have machines that take bills to get metro tickets, it used to be only coins and so maybe you wouldn't have enough coins on hand for the more expensive passes. I never had a single place in either Barcelona or Lyon or Paris refuse a regular American CC for a purchase, whether a museum, store or restaurant (or train station).

janisj

travlintoes: You may be lucky, but don't hold your breath. I don't ever remember qwo returning to a thread once he has posted. Guess he just isn't into having 'discussions'

Sarastro

I copied and pasted qwo´s post into the Google translator and the results did not make it any more understandable nor did it make it any less understandable.
_____

Those of us who spend a good amount of time and money outside of the USA can be adversely affected by those 3% currency conversion fees. The fees really do add up. I have a USAA CC which only passes along the VISA/MC imposed 1% currency conversion fee. This 1% was offset by a 1% cash rebate on transactions but as USAA recently canceled their cash rebate programs (probably to pay for all of their recent TV advertisements) I am now looking for a replacement.

We do use AE through Costco which has a very nice cash rebate and the AE card has the best, to my knowledge, foreign car rental insurance coverage ($25 for complete primary insurance per rental period), its 2.7% currency exchange fee means I have no backup to avoid fees for foreign purchases.

Thus, I find this thread of particular interest and should like to thank xyz for posting and for the recommendations.
_____

French gas stations will accept few cards which are not issued by a French bank - pin and chip or otherwise. Be careful about getting too low on fuel. Autoroute toll booths are operated by differing entities depending upon where in France one happens to be driving. Some magnetic strip credit cards may work in the CC lines at some locations yet not at others. Just to avoid problems, I always pay cash. Nothing worse than being first in line at the toll booth and being unable to pay with a line of angry motorists behind you.