Comments on: Credit Card Companies Keep Stealing From Travelers

By: China Oriental Travel

China Oriental Travel — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 04:31:52 +0000

Dont tell me… Oh God I have faced the same thing too…

By: cheap furniture

cheap furniture — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 07:27:24 +0000

If you have used a credit card in a foreign country in the past few years, the company issuing that credit card has put its hand deeper and deeper into your pocket.I also use Bank of America and appreciate that they have partnerships with many banks around the world so that you can take out $ without any fees. Also can vouch for Capital One.

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 21 May 2009 09:52:24 +0000

I live in the UK and have always used a Nationwide Debit Card as they seem to be the only ones who don’t charge for withdrawing. I did hear the other day that they may be charging now for with drawing outside of Europe but not as much as others.

Its a real shame as Travellers Cheques are pretty useless these days.

By: sam

sam — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:13:33 +0000

I also use Bank of America and appreciate that they have partnerships with many banks around the world so that you can take out $ without any fees. Also can vouch for Capital One – used that on a recent trip to the South Pacific with no problems.

By: Beki

Beki — Wed, 20 May 2009 06:21:10 +0000

That Bank of America list of partner banks is very handy. While staying in Glasgow for a few months, I walked my mile to the Barclay’s ATM for our weekly allowance on a tight student budget, and my husband and I very much appreciated not having to pay fees!

By: tim

tim — Wed, 20 May 2009 01:47:41 +0000

I’ve got accounts at both Schwab and Fidelity for retirement. Looks like I need to move some liquid money to one of those too…

By: Kyle

Kyle — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:40:47 +0000

I can vouch by Schwab. We’ve used their cards in a lot of countries with no fees. Even if the local ATM charges us a fee, Schwab reimburses us for that fee at the end of the month!

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:52:31 +0000

I’ve been using that Fidelity card for a couple years now and it’s saved me hundreds & hundreds of dollars… I had been using BOA before that… ouch.

By: tim

tim — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:56:42 +0000

Molee, that’s an awesome chart. Thanks for the link. Good to see that there are alternatives to Capital One in case the peer pressure becomes too much and they turn evil too. The E*Trade, Schwab, and Fidelity options are interesting since a lot of people have investment accounts at one of those anyway. GMAC? Who would’ve thought the arm of an insolvent car company would be more consumer-friendly than the others.

By: Molee Leng

Molee Leng — Tue, 19 May 2009 18:22:42 +0000

The most useful guide I’ve found for comparing these fees is here:
http://www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php/Credit/Debit/ATM_Cards_and_Foreign_Exchange

A note about HSBC: I used to think I was getting a good deal by using my HSBC ATM card abroad at HSBC ATMs, but they were charging especially high exchange rates at the time of withdrawal — definitely a few %s over the market rate at the time.