[Idyllchat] Credit card/ debit card-no fees

[ELEANOR AND DICK WINTERS]

I guess that it is time for me to repeat my credit and debit card advice--an old refrain from me.  If you check the archives you will find that I have done this often.

I recommend USAA Federal Savings Bank, San Antonio, TX.  Actually my 40-year employment career was at a bank in the town where we still live in north central Illinois.  Of course I use the local bank cards, but for traveling you can't beat USAA.

USAA was originally formed for service personnel who had trouble purchasing auto insurance and expanded into banking.  Knowing that their customers were all over the world and unlikely to be able to use local ATM machines they do not charge for using other bank's machines and even reimburse for the fees that other banks charge.

Because both MasterCard and Visa credit cards make a foreign currency conversion charge (usually 2%) they have to pass that charge along to their own card users.  They do not add any charge of their own.  So we never use credit cards overseas--just get ATM cash and purchase everything in local currency.

You can reach USAA at www.usaa.com or by phone at 1-800-531-2265

By the way, we will be back in Switzerland for the 7th time this year the first two weeks of August.  It will be the 4th time we have stayed in Sachseln with the Greuterts.
We particularly enjoy being there on August 1, the Swiss national holiday

Dick Winters

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