www.CostaRicaTicas.com

I don't get a paper banking statement anymore so I don't always see the "fine print". I decided to read my statement online tonight and this is what I found:

Effective December 1, 2008 the non-Wachovia ATM fee for withdrawals, transfers, and balance inquiries at a non-Wachovia ATM in a foreign country will be $5.00 each.

With the current economic situation I'm sure other financial institutions will follow this move.

If you're like me and use your ATM/Check Card for the majority of overseas transactions this could get expensive. The only thing I can suggest is to take out the max each time you need money.

On a somewhat related matter...a Reminder to Fellow Travelers:

Before you leave your home city (i.e. if you're traveling to Costa Rica) be sure to call and notify your Bank and Credit Card companies of your dates of travel and where you'll be traveling to. Often times if there's an ATM transction in a foreign country and the issuing bank is not made aware that you're traveling you may find that your ATM won't work. Just a small reminder to minimize the possiblity of inconvenience.

count yourself lucky you made it this far......citibank, bofa, wells fargo and most other banks have been charging a 5 dollar fee for years you Can bitch about it and have it removed if you are a vip customer saying you were surprised and had no idea but that will only work on one trip.

Great advice.
I have personally never told my bank anything about my travels though, and have never encountered any problems.

I dont work in the banking field, but Im presuming their are a series of steps/events that take place before a card is full out halted.

Totally presuming here, but if you were to pull off say a trip to CR in May 2008 without any problems using your card, and then made a second trip in lets say August 2008, I would hope the person monitoring the activity would have enough common sense to look back and notice you had used the card in that country a few months prior with no charge disputes.

Im also probably thinking that my way of thinking would be in the ideal world, and the people reviewing such flagged incidents probably spend about 30 seconds determining whether its legit or not, and thus probably take the safer of the two paths and just disable the card.

Excellent reminders from Brothers Witling and BondTrader. As an addendum, if you're lucky enough to have medical/dental/hospital insurance coverage, give them a shout too. Anti-fraud measures work better if we help guide what's righteous.

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"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

Jmac, just because something has never happened doesn't mean it won't.

People don't flag card use, computers do. Did you actually think there was someone reviewing the millions of daily transactions?

Over an 8 year period of travel outside the US (including DR, CR, Colombia and Brazil) I never had my ATM or credit cards put on hold until I was in San Diego in 2006. Wachovia put a hold on my ATM and Citibank put a hold on my Mastercard on the SAME TRIP!

I had used the Mastercard in Tijuana but the ATM only in San Diego and Las Vegas.

Another tip when calling your bank to tell them where you are traveling (which I always do), is you can also set a limit as to how much you intend to charge. If you know for certain you won't charge more than $2000 on the entire trip then set that limit for that trip.

That will flag the card even if you've already told them you were going overseas. You can always call them to get it lifted in case of an emergency.

No I didnt think someone monitored every transaction, but somewhere along the line a human must verify those that are flagged.

Otherwise it just doesnt make any sense that I can use the same credit card in 3-4 different countries in one day and not have any problems.

Im not doubting calling your bank is a good idea, but I hardly believe its necessary unless what you intend on doing is totally not normal. Example, if you use your card for small 5-10$ purchases say once or twice a week, and all of a sudden start pulling out 5 20$ purchases a day plus hotel costs on a vacation, yeah your probably going to encounter problems.

I just got a similar notice with my USAA statement today. "Effective Dec. 1, 2008, "When you make a debit card or ATM transaction with a merchant or ATM in a foreign country, we charge a 1% foreign transaction fee, whether the transaction is originally made in US dollars or converted from a foreign currency."

Isn’t Wachovia the bank that went bankrupt and then got gobbled up by a bigger bank that got bailed out by Congress?

Socialism: The economic theory where the state owns the means of production and distribution of good and services; kind of like when the government owns the banks, controls the credit which means controls the means of production and distribution of goods as in the Congressional bail out of Wall Street and investment bankers.

That is Casillero del Diablo talking, not me.

Yes and No.
Wachovia was purchased by Wells Fargo. They are calling it a "merger" but only in the sense that Wachovia is going to be "merged" right into Wells Fargo.

Wells Fargo avoided the economic meltdown by not getting in too deep in the sub-prime loan fiasco.

So Wachovia was a bank that went bankrupt and got rescued by a bank that avoided bankruptcy and they were all bailed out by a socialistic move of the government buying up the means by production is financed. And then they moved it all offshore.

I hate it when I am so sarcastic.

Wachovia is now Wells Fargo bank (or at least will be once the deal closes)...end of story....no different than any other bank merger.

Is it really a merger when you have no other choice?

YO $5.00 fee:

Who gives a shit. I find the concern over this fee somewhat humorous considering that most of you hombres don't blink an eye when handing over a Franklin cien for an one hour chica ride. Not to mention the drinks, meals, gifts and trips you lavish on them. Wells Fargo is not your daddy giving out your allowance....Mr. Fargo has to charge a little in order to divvy out your cash.

Your big concern might be when inflation and chica greed hit fifth gear and the U.S. Gov has to begin recirculating the William McKinley bills. By then the ATM fee may be $10 to $25....whoaaaaa

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Damn if I'm going to repeat this shit again. I need a drink.
I've been drinking vodka every day for 45 years and I have certainly never found it to be habit forming.

Maybe we''ll reach the point when the goverment will have to have a "BAILOUT PLAN" for Chicas