thanks, great post

teKillah said:Nice Thread ! Wells Fargo slapped a $5.00 fee for ATM use abroad. That really stung !!~!try 13 $5 charges from bofA..ouch!

FlyerTalk's "What card should I choose?" thread

The longer Capital One waits to announce what FOREX fee they will charge, the more I think it will be more than 1%. But for now, its the best choice at 0% especially if you get an account that also earns points/miles, CashBack, or whatever.

nice thread, OP. TY! ^_^

Only wish I had known more info about the differing ranges of foreign currency charges prior to my studies abroad (2 years in the netherlands, 1 in germany). I knew that the percentages varied based upon the card, but made the common mistake of being lazy and not researching the issue (doh!).

Oh well. . . I was young and ignorant then (still am), but I'm learning and am quite happy to have found resources like FW. I shudder to think of where I'd be without some of the stuff that I've learned here (even just recently).

Thanks again, OP.

FFGuru said:I am curious to see what type of experience people have had in redeeming travel rewards thru Chase and Citi. Does anyone know how much availability there is? What is the maximum value of a ticket you can get for free?

Chase on there mastercard you can transfer points directly to airlines program of your choice or redem directly from them.

As far as Citi Thank you network is concerned. People on Flyertalk.com have reported having to pay 30-40K points for tickets over Thanks Giving and Xmas when they redem points for free ticket as they were told all free invenotry was sold out but if they agreed to pay more then could still get one.

Just so you know not all Citibank charge 3% for forex fee. It seems all the Citi Mastercard charge 3% but older grandfathered Citi Visa cards only charge 1%. Other people on flyertalk.com have also verified that there old AA Visa cards only charge 1% forex fee.

madhorse2 said:And now Citi PremierPass Elite can be referred if your friends have this card, which may be good for those whose credit score is not high. Of course, you can ask whoever are generous here for help, including me .


AyresFan said:I'll second the Citi PremierPass Elite card. It's actually one ThankYou point (roughly equal to 1 cent) on all spending (not just travel) with a bonus ThankYou point on top of that for groceries/gas/drug stores/parking/transit. Flight points get matched with spending points and bonus points (including points from Citi's ThankYou Merchants program--a FatCash-like program--which effectively doubles the Cash Back on that). The flight points earned are in addition to any frequent flier points you may earn. The matching requirement means you earn about 2% back on all purchases. Other features include trip cancellation insurance, price protection, and a largely useless companion ticket program (which most of the time saves you $20 but sometimes can yield bigger savings when prices are high).

I also like Citi's flight redemption program. They have fairly reasonable availability based on what I've heard and my own experience. Last year needed to buy a ticket to Europe that would have cost $900. No airlines had mileage availability, but Citi had a flight for 50k points and on my preferred airline (which I earned miles on).

Hey, I would be interested in a referral for the Citi Premiere Elite Card, what are the prerequisites ( to be qualified ) and what do I need to do to apply under the referral program?

-Fortezza

Currently I have the MBNA Worldpoints Visa Signature. It is not the most rewarding card, but I have had it a while, so I continue to use it until my next reward.

I am a bit worried that BofA may change the program and devalue it when they take over. I haven't had terribly good experiences with BofA in the past. I called MBNA and the rep told me that while BofA and MBNA will merge, it sounds like the MBNA management team will handle the credit card side of things, and leave BofA to the banking. He said that Worldpoints has been very successful so he doubts that it will be changed much.....

Has anyone else heard anything else?

Joe1690 said:MBNA actually only charges a 1% foreign currency fee on any of their American Express cards since this is what AMEX charges MBNA and MBNA doesn't add an additional fee. I have the MBNA rewards card which is part of the worldpoints program and this card charges only 1% foreign currency.Where did you read this ? MBNA CSRs are the source of inaccurate information about their own FOREX fees. AMEX charges its own cardholders 2%, so its suprising to learn that they only charge MBNA 1%.

Many MBNA Worldpoints related CCs were converted via snail mail notification from 1% to 3% in May 2005.

bluefoot said:I didn't do any referrals for the citi premier pass card.
just went to <snip> applied and got approved.
Note that the website that you reference (snipped above) is actually an affiliate link which then forwards to Citibank. You may want to delete that (if you weren't aware of that). The real link for Citi PremierPass is here.

For people interested in applying for it, I believe CardOffers.com is offering a $30 bonus on top of the usual sign up bonus. There is no need to get a referral for the PremierPass card, and it is actually one of the easiest Citi cards to get approved for. If you do get referred, there is no additional benefit for the person getting referred.