Citibank Plus - No Fee No Overseas Transaction Fee Account

[ferni]

Thanks, Cove. Did as you suggested!
There was little chance I would have done anything else, when a 10% discount was on offer at the hotel in Istanbul.

However, regarding other transactions for Turkish L to $ Au. Here are my sums for 3 transactions on the same evening in this great city. (I presume it will be similar worldwide)

XE spot rate - 1.981
Citibank Plus - 1.978
Citi Select - 1.9037

Citibank Plus has a 0.15% premium over the XE spot rate, but for the Citi Select a whopping 4.06% over the same spot rate.
Even at 3.33 points per dollar, for overseas spend, this 3.91% premium inflates the cost of a J return to Europe, way above my comfort zone.

Citibank Plus is my new OS card.

Always learning and refining the game at AFF!

I usually use citi plus to withdraw cash and pay for most things while o/s but us citi credit card to pay for large bill like hotel, that way citi get a few $ for all the points I extract out of them

 

[Cynicor]

Thanks, Cove. Did as you suggested!
There was little chance I would have done anything else, when a 10% discount was on offer at the hotel in Istanbul.

However, regarding other transactions for Turkish L to $ Au. Here are my sums for 3 transactions on the same evening in this great city. (I presume it will be similar worldwide)

XE spot rate - 1.981
Citibank Plus - 1.978
Citi Select - 1.9037

Citibank Plus has a 0.15% premium over the XE spot rate, but for the Citi Select a whopping 4.06% over the same spot rate.
Even at 3.33 points per dollar, for overseas spend, this 3.91% premium inflates the cost of a J return to Europe, way above my comfort zone.

Citibank Plus is my new OS card.

Always learning and refining the game at AFF!

Isn't it much less than 3c/point?

$100 charge (Aud equiv)
Cost on CC $104 (on statement)
Points 416
400/416= ~1c/point (all figures rounded to the more conservative value.

Versus cash
$100
Paid 100, no points. No interest free period. Had to withdraw upfront/in advance or pay on the debit card. Especially bad for holds.

Versus Amex Plat
$100
$104 on CC
208 points into MR or QF
2c per point.

What surcharge would you pay in AU?

If less than 1% then things are consistent. If more then (I may have my maths wrong!) you may as well pay forex on the citi signature or select.

 

[ferni]

Isn't it much less than 3c/point?

$100 charge (Aud equiv)
Cost on CC $104 (on statement)
Points 416
400/416= ~1c/point (all figures rounded to the more conservative value.

1c per Citi point sounds right but that's only 0.66KF points.... so closer to 1.5% surcharge back home in Aus.

 

[Duffa]

No interest free period.

D@mn you, Cynicor!

I forgot to factor in the 55 (or average of 27.5) days interest free on Select. In fact, it's even worse because I've had 10k in that non-interest bearing, Citi Plus account since I left Oz 3 weeks ago. So the lost interest could potentially be up to 76 days!

Back to the drawing board.

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

Re: Foreign Operator ATM Fees

Hi All.
I've read through this thread (yes, all 432 posts...), and noticed many references to the use of non-Citi ATMs outside of OZ, some of which charge local operator fees and some which don't.
So far it seems like a pretty much 'luck of the draw' thing as to whether there'll be a local fee or not.
While the ATM should usually warn of fees (but sometimes won't), It would be preferable to be able to seek out 'known operators' that don't charge a fee for use of the CitiBank card.
I've tried several times by email & telephone to get some information on this topic directly from CitiBank Aus, but they've been very unhelpful. The 'best' help I got from them through the entire (frustrating) exchange was that if I nominated the countries that I'm intending to travel in then they would give me the phone numbers of the CitiBank head office in each of those countries and then I could call each of them and ask. Somehow the prospect of making international phone calls to 6 different countries to try to make this enquiry in English just doesn't seem to be worth trying...

So my questions:
1) Does anyone know whether there is a list of international ATM providers that do not charge ATM fees to CitiBank cards?
2) If not, is it worthwhile creating a document within the forum to record our collective experiences at the various ATMs in the various countries that we visit?
3) Does anyone have any better idea?

Thanks in advance.
TOOJ#3

 

[Mr_Orange]

A good idea. So far, I have only used Citi ATMs (HKG and SIN) or HSBC in HKG. Neither charged operator fees.

 

[ferni]

A good idea. So far, I have only used Citi ATMs (HKG and SIN) or HSBC in HKG. Neither charged operator fees.

I could probably go back and check my statements but from memory

Las Vegas charged $4-5 from memory (no option)
Thailand charged a couple of $
Bali didn't charge me
Osaka didn't
Guam didn't

In the end I just use whatever because the $ i save on FX and would get charged the operator fee regardless of what card I was using...

 

[moa999]

Agree you will probably get hit with the local fee whatever card you use, so still better using the Citibank card.

My experience:

US - Generally charge card fees (anywhere from $1-5) - Solution use Citibank machines
(bank machines/ in-chemist supermarket machines normally have the lowest fees)

Thailand - Charge for all foreign-issued cards - THB150/180 depending on machine (even at the few Citi machines I understand)
Cambodia - Common to charge for foreign-issued cards - normally US$3

And Aus - Generally charge card fee - Solution use Westpac machines (global partnership with Citi)

 

[markis10]

Agree you will probably get hit with the local fee whatever card you use, so still better using the Citibank card.

My experience:

US - Generally charge card fees (anywhere from $1-5) - Solution use Citibank machines
(bank machines/ in-chemist supermarket machines normally have the lowest fees)

Thailand - Charge for all foreign-issued cards - THB150/180 depending on machine (even at the few Citi machines I understand)
Cambodia - Common to charge for foreign-issued cards - normally US$3

And Aus - Generally charge card fee - Solution use Westpac machines (global partnership with Citi)

In Thailand you will not get a fee using the two Citibank ATMs in Bangkok, if you are happy to find them, also any AEON ATM which are often in the small supermarkets/7 11 type shops.

 

[moa999]

Good to know re citi. I thought aeon was now charging the surcharge

 

[markis10]

Good to know re citi. I thought aeon was now charging the surcharge

Thats a possibility, my experience in Jan was no but things can change.

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

Thanks for all contributions so far.
To summarise, when using a CitiBank Plus card in a non-CitiBank Foreign ATM:

Country/Locality	Provider	Fee	Notes
Cambodia	Generally	US$3
Guam	Unknown	Free
Indonesia/Bali	Unknown	Free
Japan/Osaka	Unknown	Free
Thailand	Generally	Baht150-180	CitiBank included! But not in Bangkok
Thailand/Bangkok	CitiBank	Free
Thailand	AEON	Baht150	Often in small 7/11 style supermarkets
USA	Generally	$1-5	Bank, Chemist & Supermarket ATMs have lowest fees
USA/Las Vegas	Unknown	$4-5
New Zealand	Westpac	Free
Hong Kong	HSBC	Free
Philipines	Generally	Charge	Charge not specified
Turkey/Istanbul	AKBANK	Free
France	Generally	Free
Switzerland	Generally	Free

Where a fee is charged by the local provider, (unless you hold some other ATM card that has some other fee-free options) then whatever fee is charged it’s most likely going to be the same for all other cards.

And, as most would know, Fee-Free ATMs in OZ are:
CitiBank, Westpac, St. George, Bank of Melbourne & BankSA.

I’ll update the table as more information comes in (unless a Moderator would like to take over… ;-)

 

[moa999]

This lengthy thread suggests that AEON started charging in Feb-14, much to the chagrin of a bunch of folks living in Thailand.
Aeon Bank now charge 150 B ATM fee - Jobs, economy, banking, business, investments - Thailand Forum

Appears some avoid the fee by doing an OTC transaction of THB 30k+ (which you can't do at a machine - most have caps of 20-30k)

 

[markis10]

This lengthy thread suggests that AEON started charging in Feb-14, much to the chagrin of a bunch of folks living in Thailand.
Aeon Bank now charge 150 B ATM fee - Jobs, economy, banking, business, investments - Thailand Forum

Appears some avoid the fee by doing an OTC transaction of THB 30k+ (which you can't do at a machine - most have caps of 20-30k)

To quote Toyota - bugger

 

[tim374]

Westpac in New Zealand didn't charge anything when I was there last year.

 

[Mr_Orange]

Westpac in New Zealand didn't charge anything when I was there last year.

That makes sense as Citi are teamed up with Westpac.

 

[Mr_Orange]

Thanks for all contributions so far.
To summarise, when using a CitiBank Plus card in a non-CitiBank Foreign ATM:

Country/Locality	Provider	Fee	Notes
Cambodia	Generally	US$3
Guam	Unknown	Free
Indonesia/Bali	Unknown	Free
Japan/Osaka	Unknown	Free
Thailand	Generally	Baht150-180	CitiBank included! But not in Bangkok
Thailand/Bangkok	CitiBank	Free
Thailand	AEON	Baht150	Often in small 7/11 style supermarkets
USA	Generally	$1-5	Bank, Chemist & Supermarket ATMs have lowest fees
USA/Las Vegas	Unknown	$4-5
New Zealand	Westpac	Free

Where a fee is charged by the local provider, (unless you hold some other ATM card that has some other fee-free options) then whatever fee is charged it’s most likely going to be the same for all other cards.

And, as most would know, Fee-Free ATMs in OZ are:
CitiBank, Westpac, St. George, Bank of Melbourne & BankSA.

I’ll update the table as more information comes in (unless a Moderator would like to take over… ;-)

You missed HSBC in Hong Kong which is fee free: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....bank-plus-no-fee-no-34155-11.html#post1136532.

 

[Inver]

Philippines followed Thailand and started charging overseas cards in the last 5 years. Saying that I use the Citbank atm's in Manila and Cebu.

 

[RooFlyer]

Great idea and thanks for the compilation.

I think I posted well up thread about my experience with the Citi plus in Europe, particularly eastern Europe. Started off hunting for Citi ATMs until I was somewhere where they don't exist, so had to use random ATM - to discover no fees! Then used with abandon, and virtually none I went to charged a fee, even in Russia. Will try to dig out the paperwork to see if I can name banks concerned.

Annoyingly, Canada, where I spend most of my time o/s, doesn't have any Citi ATMs!

 

[Duffa]

No fees in Istanbul.
Tried two ATMs but only remember the name of one - AKBANK - with machines everywhere.