I wanted to updated everyone on our Capital One Fiasco. As I posted earlier, we had called Capital One to let them know we were heading to New Zealand for an extended stay and we would be making various large charges. Upon arriving in New Zealand, we had to make numerous phone calls to the “fraud” department to “unlock/unfreeze” our credit card. We ended up spending about $80 in cell phone and calling cards calling back to the US from NZ. We sent Capital One a letter expressing our dissapointment with their fraud department and customer service department. Yesturday, we received a response with an apology and a credit of $80 to our account. I must say that I am happy Capital One did the right thing and covered our expenses for the expenses and inconvenience that their overzealous fraud department caused us during our trip.

Categories: Money
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In planning our trip to New Zealand, we wanted to make sure we didn’t end up with any “hidden” fees or charges on our credit cards which we would use for the bulk of our trip. We called up the following banks to inquire about their fees for international transactions. Here is what we found out:

• American Express charges 2% fee for foreign transactions
• Bank of America charges 3% fee for foreign transactions
• Chase charges 3% fee for foreign transactions
• Capital One charges 1% fee for foreign transactions
• Washington Mutual charges $3 fee/transaction on their debit card for ATM withdrawls despite claiming they’re “free”
• HSBC charges 1% fee for foreign transactions

After careful review, we made the decision to take Capital One & American Express with us for credit card transactions and our Washington Mutual Card for ATM withdrawls. We’ll be saving 2% on almost every transaction on the Capital One card and we’ll use AMEX for emergency purposes only; The rest of the cards will be staying home as punishment for their insolence.

Categories: Money, New Zealand
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