General Reports

[QUOTE=NattyBumpo;1830749]

There are no ATM fees anywhere or rather all ATM charges are refunded at the end of the month. I repeat there are no net ATM or bank charges for withdrawing cash at any ATM in Thailand, Indonesia, the PI, or Macau ect ect. My usual hunting grounds. The maximum per day withdrawal from my account is $900 which is more than adequate for my needs. Also there is no minimum number of withdrawals per day so if necessary I can use different ATM machines to achieve my goal.

[/QUOTE]I can confirm, ATM fee's are returned. What I question is the $900 withdraw per day statement, I was told my max withdraw was $1000 per day but limited to 2 withdraws of $500. I would also suggest that people should open two accounts and have them linked. This way two different debit cards will be issued. If one is lost or stolen, simply go online and transfer your cash to the other account.

[QUOTE=Breadman;1831073]I was told my max withdraw was $1000 per day but limited to 2 withdraws of $500. [/QUOTE]Thanks for you input Breadman. I just checked with a bank representative. $1000 is the default max withdrawal per day, but it can be increased by talking with a Schwab representative. There is NO LIMIT to the number of withdrawals allowed per day.

BTW, always notify the bank by phone a week before your trip of your travel itinerary. I failed to do this on my first trip using my Schwab ATM card and could not withdraw funds for the first few days I was in Jakarta. The situation was rectified with a free Skype call. It was a good thing I also had a Capital One 360 ATM card for back up and a wad of cash. I never had another problem with this card.

NB.

No foreign exchange fees on the State Farm Account. Acts the same way as the Schwab ATM. I use both to fund myself in my 3 month stays here (Thailand, Issan land).

[QUOTE=MichaelSamuel;1831040]Foreign exchange fees on that statefarm account?

Snipped.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=NattyBumpo;1831088]BTW, always notify the bank by phone a week before your trip of your travel itinerary. I failed to do this on my first trip using my Schwab ATM card and could not withdraw funds for the first few days I was in Jakarta. The situation was rectified with a free Skype call. It was a good thing I also had a Capital One 360 ATM card for back up and a wad of cash. I never had another problem with this card.[/QUOTE]Be careful and like you said always have a backup. Last time I was in Rio I wasted half a day running back and forth from the bank and calling Schwab on Skype before the problem was finally resolved. I was lucky to already have a little local currency on hand.

Also, I called them before a trip to Colombia in August, but when I got there the card still did not work. I used another one of my ATM cards. The week before last I had no problems with it in Colombia and I have never had a problem with it in Thailand.

Absolutely a must. Call before going out. Credit Cards too. Capital One allows you to do same on line and is good for 60 days. I am now on my 2nd 60 day notification with them. Or else you find yourself in a world of hurt.

[QUOTE=MrEnternational;1831179]Be careful and like you said always have a backup. Last time I was in Rio I wasted half a day running back and forth from the bank and calling Schwab on Skype before the problem was finally resolved. I was lucky to already have a little local currency on hand.

Also, I called them before a trip to Colombia in August, but when I got there the card still did not work. I used another one of my ATM cards. The week before last I had no problems with it in Colombia and I have never had a problem with it in Thailand.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for info. Will look into that as another backup account. I checked today and did get the full refund of 500 thb which schwab credited 13.81 back on the 1st. Was still worth a couple months of fees at citi for all the AA miles I got from opening and funding account. If you are looking to collect miles it is a good value even with a few months of fees waiting for miles to post. Looks like they just upped it to 50 k miles from the 30 k I got, probably cause AA is devaluing their chart in March. Still though miles work well to fly cathay to LOS.

[URL]http://www.hustlermoneyblog.com/citibank-citigold-checking-american-airlines-aadvantage-bonus-miles/[/URL]

[QUOTE=Jgm005;1831173]No foreign exchange fees on the State Farm Account. Acts the same way as the Schwab ATM. I use both to fund myself in my 3 month stays here (Thailand, Issan land).[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=MichaelSamuel;1833863]Thanks for info. Will look into that as another backup account. I checked today and did get the full refund of 500 thb which schwab credited 13.81 back on the 1st. Was still worth a couple months of fees at citi for all the AA miles I got from opening and funding account. If you are looking to collect miles it is a good value even with a few months of fees waiting for miles to post. Looks like they just upped it to 50 k miles from the 30 k I got, probably cause AA is devaluing their chart in March. Still though miles work well to fly cathay to LOS.

[URL]http://www.hustlermoneyblog.com/citibank-citigold-checking-american-airlines-aadvantage-bonus-miles/[/URL][/QUOTE]There has always been a 50 k reward, you just have to find the right link to click on. Sometimes you have to log into your airmile account first and then click the link, sometimes it takes several tries and clearing the browsing history. What's great about AA is you can fly to europe in the off season for 40 k airmiles, only 36 k (4 k refunded) if you use their personal mastercard to pay the taxes. They only fly to Hong Kong and the cheapest I found was 70 k roundtrip (63 k after refund). Too many miles for a flight that doesn't get you to Bangkok. Now if you ever sign up for a United account, make sure you add your favorite imaginary friend to your account upon applying and you'll get 55 k after your spending (50 k + 5 k). But you need 80 k to get you to Bangkok with United now (a ripoff).

[QUOTE=NattyBumpo;1831088] Thanks for you input Breadman. I just checked with a bank representative. $1000 is the default max withdrawal per day, but it can be increased by talking with a Schwab representative. There is NO LIMIT to the number of withdrawals allowed per day.
BTW, always notify the bank by phone a week before your trip of your travel itinerary. I failed to do this on my first trip using my Schwab ATM card and could not withdraw funds for the first few days I was in Jakarta. The situation was rectified with a free Skype call. It was a good thing I also had a Capital One 360 ATM card for back up and a wad of cash. I never had another problem with this card. NB.[/QUOTE]Can be done online also.

With the Schwab account, login to your account. Make sure you are on the SUMMARY page. On the middle right side of the page there are additional options, one of those is a debit card travel notification. You can use that to notify them of travel plans.

Same goes for Capital one 360.

I usually travel with 5 or 6 cards, credit and debit. Always be prepared.

Pay attention to the travel notification length of time! You may need to repeat it if you are travelling for 2 months or longer.

Chase bank does +3% after adjusted exchange rate and an additional $5 dollar charge if using an ATM. This is for a premiere plus account.

[QUOTE=PipeLayer99;1834180]
I usually travel with 5 or 6 cards, credit and debit. Always be prepared.
[/QUOTE]I agree. Plenty of backups is essential. I have 2 Thai bank accounts, two Farang accounts and 2 credit cards.

Notification is a bit too much for me. I just notify them once that I am in permanent travel state to multiple countries, including Thailand, Asia and Europe E.U. , sometimes USA.

[QUOTE=Syzygies;1834446]

Notification is a bit too much for me. I just notify them once that I am in permanent travel state to multiple countries, including Thailand, Asia and Europe E.U. , sometimes USA.[/QUOTE]I agree, but I would stress to everybody to ALWAYS tell your bank if you are travelling anywhere.

Any bank that is serious about protecting you and your money will see flags if there is suddenly a withdrawal from an ATM in any country other than your home country tht you have not told them about, and you run the risk and inconvenience of them freezing your card and your account whilst they contact you to verify if it is a valid withdrawal.

If you're not checking emails regularly or your phone is not in roaming mode then a blocked card can get quite irritating even though it is actually good service by the bank and can protect you against lots of hardships down the line.

My card was frozen once several years ago when I forgot to tell my bank I was in Vietnam but thankfully I had another back-up to tide me over until it was resolved. Nowadays it is high priority on my "to-do" list to tell my bank before I leave home.

[QUOTE=RedKilt;1834472]I agree, but I would stress to everybody to ALWAYS tell your bank if you are travelling anywhere.

Any bank that is serious about protecting you and your money will see flags if there is suddenly a withdrawal from an ATM in any country other than your home country tht you have not told them about, and you run the risk and inconvenience of them freezing your card and your account whilst they contact you to verify if it is a valid withdrawal.

If you're not checking emails regularly or your phone is not in roaming mode then a blocked card can get quite irritating even though it is actually good service by the bank and can protect you against lots of hardships down the line.

My card was frozen once several years ago when I forgot to tell my bank I was in Vietnam but thankfully I had another back-up to tide me over until it was resolved. Nowadays it is high priority on my "to-do" list to tell my bank before I leave home.[/QUOTE]Around six or seven years ago Schwab put a security hold on my ATM card when I tried to withdraw funds from an ATM in Bangkok; as part of the process of having the security hold removed, I explained to their rep that I travel overseas very often. Since then I have never informed Schwab of my travel plans and haven't had a single security hold put on my account over the course of a hundred or so overseas ATM withdrawals. I suppose I should add "knock on wood."

[QUOTE=LAGuy5;1834521]. . . as part of the process of having the security hold removed, I explained to their rep that I travel overseas very often. Since then I have never informed Schwab of my travel plans and haven't had a single security hold put on my account over the course of a hundred or so overseas ATM withdrawals. I suppose I should add "knock on wood."[/QUOTE]I have done the same LA G. I asked HSBC to flag my account as a frequent traveller overseas but. . . I live in the Philippines so if anything can go wrong it will, so I double up every time and inform them. Maybe it's overkill but it removes the "knock-on-wood" aspect (perhaps?)

Banks locked my Credit Card more than once because Lufthansa stupidly tried a 1 cent transaction on my account to test the Credit Card number. Banks viewed this as very suspicious, perhaps fraudulent test of a credit card number. Of course then the subsequent real air ticket payment on the card failed. Very annoying indeed.

Was useless to try to tell Lufthansa not to do that. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

[QUOTE=RedKilt;1834538]I have done the same LA G. I asked HSBC to flag my account as a frequent traveller overseas but. . . I live in the Philippines so if anything can go wrong it will, so I double up every time and inform them. Maybe it's overkill but it removes the "knock-on-wood" aspect (perhaps?)[/QUOTE]Maybe the algorithms the banks use these days are better than before at keeping track of one's travel profile, but five or more years ago Chase would often put security holds on my credit cards after I informed then about my travel plans and then used their cards overseas. I went through two or three iterations of canceling my Chase credit cards in total frustration over this (I had more than one) and then at a later date reapplying based on new card bonuses being offered (this was back when you could cancel and later get a new "new card" bonus with each cancel / new card cycle); i had he same problem with American Express, to the point where they once delivered a new card to me in Japan, and then put a security hold on it three times consecutively when I used it in Japan, cleared the hold, and then used it in Japan again. These days I haven't had the security hold problem with Chase, Schwab, American Express, or Capital One cards, despite that I never give them travel notices. But for me, at least in the past, providing my travel plans did not necessarily mean an absence of security holds when I used my cards overseas.