Are Older Men in Thailand Trading Love for Financial Ruin

[AlexDorneles]

Does anyone know of another bank that offers free international withdraws similar to Schawb?

[kurtmartens]

My Bank of America account reimburses me each month for overseas withdrawls. But you might need to be enrolled in their "wealth management" program for that. No sure.

[Pib]

Take a look a this flyerguide.com article in the chart column labeled foreign transaction fee for debit card "ATM fee." Link. It may help as a starting point.

It will indicate if a foreign transaction fee is charged by the U.S. debit card issuing bank (i.e., like Schwab)....and then checking the bank's website for details should tell whether the bank may also reimburse X-amount per month if the local ATM charges a fee like the 150 baht foreign card withdrawal fee (not to be confused with the U.S. bank foreign transaction fee) like Thai bank ATMs charge...excluding AEON ATMs which do not charge the 150 baht foreign card fee. Usually those US banks which do not charge a foreign transaction fee will also reimburse X-amount per month of any local ATM charges/fees if a certain minimum level is kept in the account, a monthly direct deposit is occurring, etc. The rules vary from bank to bank, may depend on the type of account opened, etc.

[55Jay]

Capital 1 does. I have a checking account with them, reimbursable Thai ATM fees and no 1% foreign transaction fee. Believe others may chime in with State Farm Bank, but I have no direct exp with them.

When I first got my Capital 1 checking acct/ATM, tried in LOS (before I had Schwab acct) they only caught 1 of the ATM fees, the rest from that month I had to ask them for reimbursement at the end of the month, which they did without a fuss, up to $20 - mine was $19.26 for that month. Also, due to system changes, the Capital 1 debit card didn't work for me on AEON machines, hence my use of non-AEON machines during that past trip.

I live in LOS full time now and have a Schwab acct which I use primarily at AEON ATMs and have never tried to use the Capital 1 ATM card again. I just free ACH from my US credit union into Schwab, withdraw via AEON ATM here at no extra charge, then dump the baht into my local Bangkok Bank Acct.

I keep the Capital 1 checking account/ATM active as a back up and only use their MasterCard credit card as it also sports no foreign transaction fee, and up until last week, a healthy rewards program.

J

Edited February 20, 2013 by 55Jay

[maxman71]

Citi has a no-charge ATM withdrawal account option if you have a Citigold checking account, which requires a minimum $50,000 balance. With this account, you can also get a MasterCard that doesn't charge the foreign transaction fee.

I don't think the Citigold ATM card will prevent non-Citi ATM fees if used in a non-Citi ATM.

But there are several Citi ATM's (and two branches) in Bangkok, and Citi ATM's/branches are all over Asia. I don't think there are any Citi ATM's/branches in Thailand besides Bangkok, however.

[Langsuan Man]

I got caught in the Capital One network change that eliminated using the AEON machines. It was not even a matter of reimbursement, the Capital One card just would not work in AEON machines after the change

Reading here at TV I am pretty sure that the only remaining reimbursed fee ATM cards are those issued by Schwab and State Farm (not counting the high deposit CitiBank and HSBC accounts)

[dddave]

TD Bank does not pass along the fees as long as a minimum balance of $2500.00 is maintained in the account.