Does anyone have a recommendation on what banks are best for overseas travel in regards to using ATM's -fees etc..Someone told me Bank of America was of course a big bank therefore compatible with multiple ATM locations overseas. Any suggestions? We will be traveling primarily in Great Britain & France this summer.

If you qualify, USAA is fantastic.

You should ask your bank which ATMs to use overseas to pay reduced fees. I believe that for France, BofA has a deal with BNP Paribas.

BofA also has Barclay's Bank in the UK in their network...so no fees.

BofA is ONLY good where they have partner banks - like in the UK, Germany, and France. For instance if you use Barclay's Banks in the UK, BofA won't assess a fee. But if you use any other bank - they will charge you $5 a pop.

So for France and the UK, BofA is as good or better than anyone else as long as you remember to only use their partners. (lordy - I can't believe I just said that. I personally will NOT bank w/ BofA. But w/ their partner agreements they will be cheaper than many banks)

do a search here on ATM.

If you already have a BoA ATM card and you're going to France & UK, you don't need to get a new bank acct or new ATM card. BoA has partner banks in both countries (BNP Paribas in France and Barclays in UK). If you use the ATMS of those banks, you won't be charged a fee.

The B of A partner in Germany is Deutsche Bank.

I will not use BofA for overseas travel any longer as I object to the excess fee they charge for using a non BofA bank when traveling overseas. Yes, I know I can use a BofA affiliated bank but I won't waste time trying to track down their banks and they don't have them in every country.

I opened an account this past year with Charles Schwab that I think is the perfect account for travelers. There are no separately listed foreign transaction fees and as far as I could tell with this last trip their exchange rate was equal to what I can see on xe.com. They do not charge a fee for withdrawls from other banks. They also will refund the fees charged by other banks - though this is less of a problem in Europe. I think there is a monthly max on the refund but I haven't hit it yet.

It's not the same answer for everyone, since banks charge different fees based on customer status.

For instance we use Citibank and they never charge a penny for using any ATM anywhere in the world. (The ATM may charge a fee if it a commercial one - that is in a hotel or store.)

But I know some people say they have to pay fees to Citibank. It may have something to do with having certain types of account there or a specific minimum balance. (We do a lot of banking there and everything is free for us, plus we're eligible for 1/2% off home loans, since they can draw payments directly from our checking).

Thanks for all your help! I opened a campus edge account at Bank of America. My daughter will be able to use it at college also. There are no fees no minimun balance etc..The woman that opened our account was from England, that made it even more fun. She recommended that we get four atm cards- two for each of us- in the event of atm "eating card machines"- though she thought this would be unlikely.

Plus we ordered "pounds" to get us started in London. No fee for the conversion of dollars to pounds other than that days exchange rate of course-but we had to pay the postage to have it mailed to the local Bank of America, the postage was nominal.

She thought it would be fun to have a little foreign currency to stick in her purse- and yes that will give us a chance to learn the denominations in flight.

I also opened a capital one credit card upon recommendation from this website.
Thanks to everyone for all your help.