CapitalOne360 or Charles Schwab ATM Debit for cash & POS ?

@seinfo3 I use Capital One 360 as a debit card.  From my experience, the card doesn't work everywhere. Some machines will read an error message when I insert my card. When pulling out cash, I always was charged a fee.

I haven't used any of those but my account at Umpqua Bank reimburses me for all ATM fees, domestic or international.  When I withdraw money at a Brazilian ATM, I don't know which bank does the currency exchange, although I do know that I don't get a very good rate. 

- @timhoffnagle

07/20/22 I have a Schwab one and I load it just enough for my travel expenses. Im only able to withdraw at bradesco. Banco do Brasil and santadar didn't accept my card. The rate I got was surprisingly better than exchanging cash but since than I've been using wise to convert USD to brl to a local bank

- @vtu

I recently went to a Bradesco ATM in Rio de Janeiro and withdrew the exact amount from my USAA checkings and Schwab checkings and got the exact same rates. Bradesco charged me something ridiculous like an 8% fee.

I took out exactly $300 BRL from Wise, Remitly, USAA, and Schwab... Here's the rates I basically got with the Bradesco tax (I'm not sure if this is normal behavior in every ATM, I don't take out cash much):

USAA: $63.73 -- R$4.71 rate received // R$5.16 actual market rate

Schwab: $63.10 -- R$4.75 rate received // R$5.16 actual market rate

Wise: $60.16 -- R$4.99 rate received // R$5.16 actual market rate

Remitly: $60.47 -- R$4.96 rate received // R$5.16 actual market rate

The more money you take out, the sweeter the deal is. That said, with both Wise and Remitly, I transferred cash into my Brazilian bank account and there will likely be some form of a withdrawal fee. So it's not a fair apples to apples comparison because I don't have the Wise Debit Card yet to withdraw cash. I rarely need cash for anything here, only when I go to a festival of some sort and buy R$7 espetinhos from those little tents. That's about the only use case I have for cash over using my US credit card.

I got Schwab specifically for international transfers and am not seeing a whole lot of upside. I'm traveling to Europe next week and will give Schwab one more chance to impress otherwise, I only see value in opening a Wise account, especially since I can fund it with credit card funds.

Also, if you don't have Schwab already, they are SLOW. I mean, days from the date of transfer for funds to arrive in your account slow. It's currently 6:45 AM EST and I just made a transfer from Schwab to USAA and the earliest they can initiate the transfer is tomorrow. USAA is stupid fast with everything. I know not everybody can get USAA but, for me, Capital One seemed on par in terms of technology. I rarely use cash anymore, nor did I ever really. If you're in Brazil too, you can often ask folks to charge your card more and have them give you cash in return for a "fee". This doesn't work for everyone, mileage certainly may vary but I'm just throwing out ideas. If you know someone who wants to buy something from the states you can ask cash for it as a way to avoid ATM's.

@seinfo3

it’s an option. You should never ever do either at an ATM or at a POS..  the fees are astronomical like a 12% transaction fee is typical never ever ever do dynamic currency conversion or DCC. That’s what it’s called.!!!!!

I usually withdraw cash from ATM's with my AMEX card........low fees and low risk.

@seinfo3

Yes I use Schwab for a about 3 years now only for ATM withdrawals.

Have used them in Mexico and now finally in Brazil.

Wonderful experience.

You get 100% of the local ATM fee machine charge back the following month.

My example was R$20 ($4 USD approx) back for each withdrawal.

Only charge you will most likely ever pay is something nobody discusses. It is about 1.2%  on all MasterCard or Visa transactions that are international. No card or bank can waive these. No matter what you believe. Still not bad. On 100 USD its only about 1.25.