I have a citibank Mastercard and used it last year for travel in Africa without any finance charges. Now, they charge 3.3% of each transaction. My Macys Visa only charges 1%...so not sure if the subprime mess has caused increase in finance charges, but i would suggest everyone call and confirm. It can add up quickly. i'm going to check into the Capital One Card.

We use our Capital One card, but we also take a back-up. And we stash them as follows;

Hubby keeps both Capital cards (mine and his) in his moneybelt, I keep both of the other cards in mine.

That way, if one of us gets mugged and the card gets stolen or we lose the belt, we have the other to use until everything is cleared up.

I called Capitol One and asked them to help me pick which of their cards without a foreign transaction fee would be right for me. They were very helpful.

BUT: it was kind of a good thing that I kept asking questions before I ended the call. Somehow, I got to asking about payment periods and it turned out that at least for the card I got, the only way to avoid interest on the balance was to pay the balance within 15 days of billing or something quite like that. I'm a little tired and confused now, but it was definetly different than my usual billing cycle type of payment.

If you are not worried about interest on a balance, it is no big deal. But we pay off all cc's each month in order to avoid all interest payments. The deal with my particular Capital One card was that to avoid interest, the balance had to be paid in a time period less than normal.

Definitely get a Capital One card! I just applied for one this spring for our trip to Italy, and I wish that I had used it for everything--no fees whatsoever on the charges I made. Plus no annual fee; I'll be dropping my other cards before the next renewal cycle.

I didn't want to see a lot of my purchases again on a credit card bill, so I paid cash that I got from ATMs. The fees really added up on those. Next trip: Capital One, and only the essential ATM cash.

I can't prove it, but I think withdrawing cash from ATMs and using it for day-to-day purchases is safer than handing your credit card to every PhD working the tables at the corner bistro.

Credit card purchases should be for big tickets like hotels and trains - and are required by auto rentals, I believe.

HI J,

Take two, in case something happens to your primary card.

Just reviewed my statements from my recent trip and Visa charged 3%; Amex 1% for the foreign transactions. I paid off the Visa and then AmEx and I am going to get one of those Capital One cards before next trip. I'll use AmEx or Visa to buy plane tix so I get miles but unless I figure out the points system for Cap One I'll just use them for overseas purchases.

hot sure if this has been sauid already, as I'm too lazy to read the whole thread.

but I would urge anyone like the OP NOT just to bring one c/card. we were just on holiday in Iceland, where many of the petrol stations will ONLY take c/cards - no cash. yes, really.

at one, when we were really low on petrol and there probably wasn't another for 50 miles or so, it would not accept the c/c I'd used just that morning to pay for our hotel. so i knew it was Ok and also that it wasn't "maxed out".

if I hadn't had a back -up, we'd have been in the soup.

the back-up was fine and the original one worked with no problems at the next one too.

regards, ann

I think all Capitol One cards have that same no foreign fee feature, it's a company-wide policy, not card-specific.

VISA does not charge 3 pct. Someone's own particular VISA issuer may end up charging 3 pct, but it is not "VISA" doing it. I also have an AMEX card, and they charge 3 pct, not 1 pct. Their terms say so, and I just used mind a couple weeks ago, actually, and the calculations on my bill amount to 1.8 pct over the interbank rate on the exact date I made the purchase, however, rates were changing enough around that date, that if they used the exchange rate just one day later than the purchase date (which may be when it went through, it would make it 2 pct. It isn't one percent, though, I know that as their terms even say so.