Sorry, I don't know about the United offer.

Has anyone received any decent offers from Capital One in the mail? It is hardly smart to use Capital One in the US, but for times when you are abroad, which version do you use/suggest?

The days are over where you only get 1% Forex fee tagged onto your foreign purchases.

Debit cards with the Visa or MC logo usually only charge 1%, so that should usually be used instead of a credit card.

However, I use my AMEX Starwood as their points are much more valuable (to me) than the 2% they charge in Forex fees.

FFGuru said:[New Offer! Starwood Preferred Guest AMEX (Thanks Cbass98)
This is an excellent card now famous in the travel community. Its my only 5 smiley in any of my threads. You earn 1 point per dollar spent, but you can exchange 20,000 points into 25,000 frequent flier miles into many airline frequent flier programs. That means you are actually earning a whopping 1.25 frequent flier miles per dollar spent with a low $20 annual fee. Plus you now earn an excellent 6,000 bonus points on your first purchase, and up to an additional 6,000 by staying at Starwood properties. This is beter than most airline-affiliated cards, becuase you can transfer points into just about any mileage program. Do a bit of research before you do the transfer and find the airline offering a reward requiring the least amount of miles, fewest connections, and best schedule. (You can't do this very well with an airline specific card.) This is a great pick!

I'm reading over the benefits of the card, and I came across this.

Benefits of the Card
The first year of Cardmembership is fee free, with an annual fee of just $30 per year thereafter. There is a six-month 2.90% introductory APR on purchases, then Prime plus 9.99% and a grace period up to 20 days. Additional cards are fee-free, so you can share virtually all the benefits and services with family members and watch those Starpoints add up even faster!

This says $30 annual fee, while you have $20 listed. Am I on the wrong card? Has the card specifics changed?

Thanks

I would add the new Marriott Premier Visa card to this list. With 5 points for every $ spent at Marriott, you effectively get 15 points per $ when staying at most Marriott properties and paying with this card. Decent bonuses as well - 15 nights credited to your account that count towards elite status, 15k bonus points on application, 1 night free stay certificate upto a Cat 5 hotel, 2-for-1 golf coupon, etc.
linky

Good news....

FYI, I requested and just received the current terms and conditions for my MBNA WorldPoints Visa Signature card and it says "There is no foreign transaction fee on foreign transactions." I don't know how long that will last. Could it be a benefit just with the Signature cards?

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.

Just completed 16k-miles trip to Far East using (non Elite)Citi PremierPass. Had I known Elite card credits one point per mile, I would have upgraded before purchasing the ticket. Ouch.

When getting cash in a foreign currency, is it still best to just go to the ATM? Is it ever smart to just go to the exchange place?

MBNA Fidelity Visa Signature - I called the CSR to ask about the foreign transaction fee, and she told me it was 3%. However, I distinctly recall my T&C saying there was no charge.

Very odd. Need to go home and check.

Don't forget that for the Citi PremierPass Elite you can only redeem an amount of air miles equal to or less than the amount of purchase miles you've accumulated. This makes the card much less attractive... This has been mentioned in this thread already, just a heads up.

SweetCash said:Don't forget that for the Citi PremierPass Elite you can only redeem an amount of air miles equal to or less than the amount of purchase miles you've accumulated. This makes the card much less attractive... This has been mentioned in this thread already, just a heads up.Good point, something I hadn't noticed before.

Off of Citi's site: "You can redeem your points for just about anything. For every one Purchase Point you earn, one Flight Point will become available for redemption."

The way I understand this, if I have 12,500 purchase points, I can then redeem 12,500 flight points, which would be 25K and enough for a domestic flight... right?

Hmmm... AMEX Delta, AMEX starwood, citi pp elite... eeny meeny miney moe.

EDIT: Actually, I'm really leaning towards the AMEX Delta right now, getting 15K bonus points, and cancelling/switching after a year to avoid the fee (unless they waive the fee).