We just got our Capital One card yesterday for the same reason. It's the best card around for travel outside the US--at least as far as I have been able to determine. I tried to talk each of our other two cards into competing with Capital One but they weren't interested.
We are in process with the Capitol one card as well and looking into several credit unions as a second card as they tend to have good deals as well.
Kathy left an interesting RTW site for me on my traveling lite thread where I found this interesting piece of info that might be of interest to you Jane or other longer stay travelers:
"And who do I recommend? If you have over US$100k combining your securities, IRA, and cash, transfer it all into several Schwab One accounts with Charles Schwab. Your total value held in Schwab will be assessed across all your accounts by your social security number. Then ask for your travel cash account to be upgraded to a Schwab Access account. This account gives you money market interest on all cash, the option to invest the cash in the stock market, free check writing, an ATM card on Plus and Cirrus that reimburses you for any domestic or international bank charges incurred from use of another bank's ATM, online statements, bill pay, transfers between banks, and a 24-hour international toll free (or call collect) financial representative to assist with any and all transactions you want to make. As far as I know, Schwab Access is the only account in the world that reimburses charges levied by other banks. The reimbursement is made one day after the other bank levies the charge."
FYI, Schwab Access accounts have been "retired" and replaced by Schwab Investor Checking accounts. Benefits are the same when it comes to ATM fee rebates but they now appear as a lump sum on one's monthly statement. One also has a $2K daily withdrawal limit, an increase from the Access account limit.
Thanks ChrisV, I knew this was dated info ( from a few years ago when they took the RTW trip) and we are still gathering more info on it,so your added info is helpful.We are looking to see if vanguard or anyone else has a similar plan.
It's true. I just got my Capital One Card bill for items bought in Italy in April and there were no transaction fees. I'm happy because I got it just for this purpose!
Colleen: What kind of exchange rate did you get? I know that that can vary from one card to another. I've always found that I got a favorable rate with AMEX, but would like to forgo those transaction fees also.
Nancy, this is what Capitol One says about their VISA exchange rate--either 1.) a rate selected by VISA from the range of acceptable rates in wholesale currency markets.......which rate may vary from the rate VISA itself receives or 2.) the government mandated rate in effect at the for the applicable cental processing date.
I can't say that I understand what this says or means but maybe you can compare it to what AmEx says. If you do, let me know as we carry AmEx too.
Another decent card is Automobile Association. They don't charge anything but you still pay the 1% to VISA.
Topic Closed
I'm happy because I got it just for this purpose!
