International Credit Card Transactions Fees

Author: obsidian
Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2005 3:17 pm
Post subject: International Credit Card Transactions Fees

Is there any card that doesn't charge you a 3% transaction fee while in foreign countries? Any that won't charge you at a foreign ATM either? I can use my debit card without fee at foreign ATM's, but my debit card won't work for foreign car rental.

So far the best two card out there seem to be Citi Dividend Platinum Select for cash and Citi PremeirPass for travel;
both charge the foreign fee;
only the travel card offers car rental insurance.

Any idea if there is a good cash back card that offers car rental insurance, no foreign transaction fee (if possible), and no annual fee?

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Author: Alexis Rios
Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2005 3:34 pm
Post subject: International Credit Card Transactions Fees

So far the best two card out there seem to be Citi Dividend Platinum Select for cash and Citi PremeirPass for travel;
both charge the foreign fee;
only the travel card offers car rental insurance.

Any idea if there is a good cash back card that offers car rental insurance, no foreign transaction fee (if possible), and no annual fee?


It's very hard because the transaction fee is charged MasterCard or Visa which makes the convertion of currencies. I think the fee is charged from the networks(MC,Visa,Amex, Discover)and not from the issuers.

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Author: BLT
Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2005 4:53 pm
Post subject: International Credit Card Transactions Fees

Not sure where you see your info, but the Citi Dividend card offers car insurance - the college student version does not, but here's their terms:

https://www.accountonline.com/ACQ/Chooser/ChooserController?siteId=cb&docId=ChooserFeatureTravelSvc

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Author: obsidian
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2005 11:29 am
Post subject: International Credit Card Transactions Fees

Thanks, you are correct about the Citi auto insurance (it wasn't bulleted on the page where you apply for the card).

So no one knows of a way to avoid the 3% fee when traveling abroad?

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Author: Alexis Rios
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2005 5:21 pm
Post subject: International Credit Card Transactions Fees

How to avoid this fee? Search for stores , restaurants or other places which accepts american currency. It's very hard to avoid the fee if you want to buy in foreign currency. MasterCard perhaps don't include the fee. I think Visa is the card which adds the fee.

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Author: BLT
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2005 5:33 pm
Post subject: International Credit Card Transactions Fees

I could be wrong, but for some reason I don't think AmEx charged me a fee in Canada, while BoA did...

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Author: Daniel
Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2005 9:15 am
Post subject: International Credit Card Transactions Fees

Cap1 does not and most credit unions do not.
Pentagon Federal Credit Union comes to mind.

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Author: Board Monitor
Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2005 9:54 am
Post subject: International Credit Card Transactions Fees

Daniel,

CapOne will be adding fees soon! :0(
_________________
Best Regards,
Curtis Arnold
Board Monitor
http://www.cardratings.com
(501) 663-0314

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Author: rain
Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 11:00 pm
Post subject: International Credit Card Transactions Fees

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20050624b1.asp

Btw Curtis, how did you find out about the Cap1 card raising rates soon? Won't put anything past them of course, but where'd you read about it?

The key to remember to this is that this 1% charge is a charge visa/mc charges the card issuing bank, like bank1 or citibank. It is up to the bank to pass on this charge to the consumer, absorb this charge, or tack on extra charges. We all see what most banks chose to do.

I mentioned in another thread that I was getting providian for the credit report review feature. The card is here now, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it charges just 1% for currency conversion. Not bad eh.

I also have 2 MBNA cards that are still just charging the 1%. Different MBNA cards seem to charge different %. My two are the Merril+ card and Charles Schwab card, if you're interested. Presumably these 2 financial houses' card agreements with MBNA are somewhat different from the other affiliate cards MBNA manages, hence the difference in %.

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