Fidelity announced the removal of foreign transaction fees from their debit card. They previously had a 1% foreign transaction fee and they’ve now removed that.
As has always been the case, Fidelity will reimburse any ATM fees, even international ATMs. The new change is that the 1% fee has been removed on foreign purchases. In 2023, Fidelity announced the elimination of this fee on their 2% credit card, and today (8/19/24) they removed it from their debit card as well.
For Fidelity Cash Management Account owners, Youth Account owners or Fidelity Account® owners coded Premium, Active Trader VIP, Private Client Group, Wealth Management, or former Youth Account owners, your account will automatically be reimbursed for all ATM fees charged by other institutions while using the Fidelity® Debit Card at any ATM displaying the Visa®, Plus® or Star® logos. The reimbursement will be credited to the account the same day the ATM fee is debited. Fidelity does not charge foreign transaction fees; however, if you choose to pay a foreign debit card transaction in US dollars, your transaction may be processed at a rate different than market exchange.
Honestly, this change does not seem consequential for a lot of us who have reward-earning credit cards without any foreign transaction fee. Reward credit cards are better for purchases since there are no fees and they earn rewards as well. The Fidelity debit card is, as before, a good idea for pulling out cash from an ATM since, as before, they reimburse ATM fees.
Fidelity now matches Schwab who has long been known for the no ATM fee and no foreign transaction fees debit card.
Related:
- Master List of No Annual Fee, No Foreign Transaction Fee Cards
- Best Debit Cards For International ATM Cash Withdrawals
Hat tip to reader Avi
You should note that the list of accounts it doesn’t charge the foreign transaction fees to doesn’t include standard brokerage accounts without those special categories, so users should make sure to at least get a Cash Management.
If only you could add cash via atm especially when overseas instead of having to do a transfer online
This is good news, but it still says the ATM needs to be on Visa, Star, or Plus network. My Schwab debit card will reimburse fees on ANY ATM on any network. Anyone know the real world difference?
I think you answered the question for yourself?
you need to travel more…..
This is the fine print from Schwab’s debit card agreement at https://www.schwab.com/resource/visa-debit-card-agreement:
We have a limited number of ATMs that are owned by
us. However, we have made arrangements with
selected ATM networks that allow you to use your
Card and PIN at machines with the following logos:
• MoneyPass
• Plus
• Visa
From a practical standpoint, they can only reimburse fees from ATMs the card works on. If the ATM doesn’t run on one of those three networks the card wouldn’t work anyways, so there’s no fee to reimburse. Given that Visa and Plus are common to both, both will work everywhere worldwide barring some Costco-like arrangement.
Can’t figure out how 200 euro came to 243 us and only got 5 fee reimbursed
Date and rate of exchange on that date were….?
My guess is DCC. Always select No.
It is the king of debit card now for instant ATM reimbursement + no 1% foreign transaction fee. The queens are Charles Schwab and Betterment debit cards.
Does anyone know if the exchange rate is more favorable between the fidelity CMA debit card and Schwab debit card or should they be about the same? Is there still anything that the Schwab card does better? I only use this for ATM withdrawals.
Beware. Just used the card overseas at a visa terminal. 150 euro cost 194 in dollars. Got a 5 dollar fidelity atm rebate. Horrid fees
Did you accept or decline when the atm offered a conversion?
You accepted the ATM fees to do the exchange and convert. You should always charge in the local currency of the country you are in!
does fidelity have any option to add cash to an account via atm, cvs, walgreens, walmart? that’s the one thing that is a deterrent to using it as a checking account… the way they do things in thailand and other countries makes it so much easier, the USA needs QR promptpay as a banking standard
no
fidelity sucks and way inferior to schwab
Disgree. They still sweep to/from a proper MMF at near 5%. I don’t know if you need cash on hand Schwab to use their debit card. Have one but don’t use it.
Fielity reimburses the atm fee immediately, not at the end of the month like Schwab. Plus, you can have your cash sitting in a money market fund earning 5% and they will autoliquidate it to fund your atm withdrawals (or any other type of withdrawal for that matter).
I get my Schwab ATM reimbursements same day. I have an account at Schwab brokerage not Schwab bank.
Then tell me how it’s inferior?
This is absolutely amazing considering having no foreign transaction fees are usually exclusive to credit cards with annual fees
B of A Travel Rewards is one counterexample. No AF, no FTF, and earns rewards unlike this debit card.
Other counter examples that I know of (and personally own): Bilt, Cap1 SavorOne, Chase Amazon Visa.
Uh, this post is about the Fidelity DEBIT card. Which other debit cards have no global atm and purchase fees?
The Fidelity credit card gets 2% cash back on all purchases no cap no af.
Another example of no-AF card with no FTF is Amex Hilton.