Best international credit or debit card?

[NYCMustachian]

I'm going to India in December for a week and plan on paying cash for everything and withdrawing the cash I need from ATMs. The last time I left the country my bank, Ally, charged 0% conversion fee and reimbursed me for all international ATM use. Now they charge a 1% fee and don't reimburse international ATM fees. boo.

So i am thinking of opening a checking account with Schwab just to get free ATM use and no international conversions. Does anyone have experience with schwab or any other bank that's great for travel?

[mb196]

I went through the same years ago and decided to find and keep a card just for that.  I settled on

BankAmericard Travel Rewards card.

My primary is a Chase Freedom Unlimited, but I keep the BankAmericard Travel Rewards card when I go on trips.  This second card also adds the convenience that if it gets compromised by fraud, it's easy to cancel and I don't have to contact all my automatic bills from my Chase card.

[ZiziPB]

Schwab is great.  My daughter has an account there and uses the debit card for ATM withdrawals and payments.  She is currently in Russia, last year she was in the UK and also traveled to other destinations in between.  There is no foreign transaction fee and they do refund any ATM fees very promptly.  Highly recommended.  Keep in mind that Schwab requires you to open a brokerage account with them when opening the Investor Checking account.

In addition to the debit card, you should also have a credit card with no foreign transaction fees.  I have a Capital One card and a Bank of America Travel Rewards that I use when I travel.

[nybeccaboo]

I second the Schwab debit card.  I travel internationally a lot and, to me, it's the best card out there for travel. Besides no foreign transaction or atm fees, their customer service is great!   I realized 3 days before a trip that my card was expiring and I hadn't received the new one. Called them up and they overnighted a new card to me. 

[Nothlit]

I use Alliant Credit Union, which refunds ATM fees worldwide (up to $20 per month, which is enough for me) and charges no currency conversion fees of their own. However, it's my understanding that the Visa network charges a 1% fee for foreign currency ATM transactions, which Alliant passes along and does not refund. It does sound like the Schwab account might be better in this regard (it's hard to tell -- they say they charge no fee, but make no mention of any Visa network fee). But since cash makes up such a small percentage of my foreign travel spending, it hasn't been worth the effort for me to set up a separate account.

[Ebrat]

I have a Capital One card, which has no transaction fees. I don't think they refund ATM fees though.

We had a bad experience abroad with Bank of America. They shut down the card for (nonexistent) fraudulent spending but gave us no way to contact them to get it opened back up.