What's worse than being poor?

I have found USAA to be really good about my traveling outside of my 200 mile radius WHEN I notify them ahead of time of my travel.

One thing about USAA, they WILL lock up your card use if you don't tell them you're outside your area. Fraud prevention thing.

You can do most of your banking with them as soon as you set up your on-line account access.

You can also set-up transfers of money from an outside bank to them - and vice versa.

USAA uses a VISA logo and they offer AMEX credit card.

Fidelity uses VISA, and they also provide internet banking, 24/7 help, and it's easy to set up interbank transfers with them, too.

I have Fidelity and USAA talking to each other in case I need to transfer funds from one to the other.

If it wasn't for the fact that Wells Fargo talks to Philippine National Bank (which has locations outside the Philippines), I'd let them slide off my table, too. But W/F didn't harm me with the crap they pulled on so many others, so I'll be staying put for now - until I find another US bank that can do what W/F does in SE Asia and Europe.

nwlivewire

 

Not sure how to overcome the OPSEC issue as financial institutions won't want to be responsible for the liability of fraudulent charges all over the world, hoping it is you traveling.

I have used my Schwab account from Canada to Central America to Asia. The one time my ATM was denied was my first time here in the Philippines (higher than average fraud alert I suppose). However, a call to 24/7 customer service was answered on the 2nd ring by an American! He was friendly, courteous, understanding, apologetic, and my card was active in less than a minute. All other contacts I have had with customer service, mostly questions before and during opening my account were also answered quickly, by Americans, who did their job well, no complaints at all. To open a checking account you also have to open a brokerage account but there is no minimum deposit or balance requirements. Using the checking account ATM card, all ATM withdrawl fees are reimbused monthly, and I have alway gotten a better exchange rate than xe.com shows.

 

I opened a Navy Federal acct a few months ago and plan to eventually move everything to them as my primary bank; you can set things up on-line as a military vet. I have not really dealt with them afterwards as I am only having my retired pay deposited into that acct and have no reason to use it right now. They have a great reputation and a guy I work with here uses the local ATMs to pull money with no issues. Another guy I work with is an old crusty Sea Bee and has used Navy Federal for over 30 years to include his house mortgage and was the one to actually recommend them to me when I was having issues with DoD Community bank.

Shawn

 

Referring to the title of the post. Lots of stuff:
Being dead
Being in a prison in the Philippines
Being captured by ISIS
Being a quadriplegic
lots of other things........

Count your blessings, something we fail to do all too often.

 

Just reading money magazine and they said Capital One 360 Checking is best for foreign travelers. There is no maintenance fee, no foreign transaction fee, no non-us ATM fee. It's an online only account.

 

I use US Bank and have for over a decade and never had a single problem. As a veteran I get a free platinum account which refunds atm fee's from non bank atm's and other things plus they have a solid 24h hotline for any issue. Other banks I have used in the past were always problematic and when complained made me feel like a customer they really don't care about. Friends who have been with Wells Fargo and Chase have both been pretty pissed at times with their banks. As far as my US Bank account I told them years ago I am mostly working in the Philippines and SE Asia so to have my cards approved for use in SE Asia transactions and never an issue.