I’ve had my 360 Checking for about 2 years—it’s not my primary bank that my direct deposit goes into, but the 360 bill pay system is better than my other bank’s, so I use it as a transfer account and to pay some bills on auto-pay. I didn’t experience major issues until recently. I always had mobile check deposits (I receive money from an old school trust that cuts checks) clear within 2 days, with a chunk being available immediately. The last 2x I deposited checks there has been an issue. The first issue was my deposit of 2 checks totaling just under $5k. Everything seemed to be pending, then the next day a flag went up and my account was locked—even though CapOne sends me garbage promo texts constantly, they couldn’t be bothered to text about this—they sent an email, which I didn’t see until the next day. In the 12 hours overnight that it was locked before I was able to call in, I had 2 bill payments fail, not from insufficient funds, but because the account was locked and unusable. When I spoke to a rep, I was told that oh yes since your usual pattern is to deposit one check and not two, we’re reviewing the transactions. They then told me that the check funds would be held for 5 business days. Since they DID unlock my account right then and I didn’t NEED those deposits right away, I said ok no big deal maybe just the fraud analysis is really intense.
Fast forward to this week—on Tuesday I made another mobile deposit, the first I’ve done since the incident above. Deposited a check for $2k, and immediately got an email that my funds would be held until the FOLLOWING MONDAY due to “the risk the check may be returned”. Mind you, this is a check from a money market account, not a personal 2-party check, yet they used the “risk of not clearing” excuse. I called the CS line, and was like hey, this check hold is way longer than anything I’ve experienced here before, can you tell me what’s going on? The rep put me on hold for 20 minutes to “speak to the review team”, came back on and said “no problem, we do have to hold it for at least 24 hours so call back Thursday and we can get the hold released early, I’ve put a note on your account”. Great! So I wait until Thursday morning (today). I call back and let the rep know of my conversation. He places me on hold for 5 minutes, comes back and informs me that they will indeed NOT be releasing the check earlier, that it will be Monday. I pointed out my Tuesday conversation and he said he was very sorry, but that the rep must have lied to me. Um, what? I ask if there’s any recourse that I have—I’m then transferred to another agent who almost immediately sent me to a manager. I thought I might finally get somewhere, but THIS useless human on a power trip (newsflash: you’re an accounts manager at Capital One, it’s not impressive) keeps saying “we’re entitled to hold funds for this timeframe, it only SEEMS long because there’s a weekend in there and weekends are not business days”, like thank you so much, I’m an idiot and had NO idea that Saturday and Sunday weren’t business days.
Bottom line—I’ve always had a balance of $2k+ in my account. I’ve never overdrafted. I’ve been a Capital One credit customer for 18 years and a banking customer for 2. If, on Tuesday, I’d been told that no, there’s no way the check will be released before next Monday, I would have said ok well guess I’m depositing checks into my other bank account instead moving forward—other than the hold annoyance it wouldn’t have been the end of the world. But I was blatantly LIED to, given the run around, and then told repeatedly that they were “entitled” to keep them this long.
Know why banks hold check deposits? Because they get interest on that “float” amount while it sits there before clearing, along with the interest they get once it’s deposited. They’re essentially legally double dipping and making money twice, and they can choose to keep it longer any time they want, for no reason at all.
Since I now have another 4 days to wait until my check clears, I’ll be moving everything in there to my primary bank account at that time. I’m done with their ridiculous account shut downs, deposit hold times (literally the longest I’ve ever experienced), and being LIED to.
The best way to avoid foreign transaction fees is to us a debit or credit card that waives such fees while traveling abroad. About 25% of the available credit card offers on the market don’t charge foreign transaction fees, and those cards are available to people of all credit levels, so there’s really no reason to pay the extra charge when you travel abroad.… read full answer
1. Get a credit card with no foreign transaction fee.
Foreign transaction fees are charged by credit card companies, not merchants, and the surcharge could add as much as 4% to purchases made outside the U.S. These fees also apply to online purchases processed abroad, even if you’re sitting in front of your computer at home when you complete the transaction. If a card charges a foreign transaction fee, it will be listed in the card’s terms and conditions.
The 10 largest credit card companies all offer at least some cards without foreign transaction fees, and some issuers don’t charge these fees on any of their credit cards. Using credit cards with no foreign fees rather than cash also is a convenient, inexpensive way to avoid having to convert physical currency while traveling abroad.
2. Understand that foreign fees can be an issue even when you’re not traveling.
You don’t have to be in another country to get hit with a foreign transaction fee. If you do business online or by phone through a merchant based outside of the U.S., make sure you pay for your purchase with a no foreign fee credit card to sidestep the surcharge. If you use a card with a foreign fee, you’ll be charged this fee on top of your transaction, the same as you would if you had made the purchase at a physical location abroad.
3. Have a no foreign fee debit card handy.
You probably won’t be able to use credit cards for all your international purchases if you travel abroad, so having a debit card will allow you to get cash in the local currency when you need it. Many debit cards also charge foreign transaction fees, so make sure to bring a Visa or Mastercard debit card with no foreign fee when you head out of the country.
4. Avoid converting currency at airport kiosks.
Converting your cash at an airport kiosk outside of the U.S. may be convenient, but that convenience will cost you. Currency conversions at airport-based exchange stations come with extraordinarily high fees and less-than-favorable exchange rates.
Instead, use a no foreign transaction fee credit card for most of your purchases, and a no foreign fee debit card to withdraw physical currency. These options are very convenient, and each allows you to take advantage of low Visa and Mastercard currency conversion rates automatically.
5. Do not accept offers for dynamic currency conversion.
Dynamic currency conversion (DCC) is a practice in which foreign merchants may offer to charge your purchase in U.S. dollars instead of the local currency. You should never accept these offers because if the merchant converts your payment for you, they may set their own high exchange rate to increase their profits.
With that, you know the basics of how to avoid unnecessary costs when spending money internationally. If you already have a credit card that charges foreign transaction fees, there’s not much you can do to avoid them, save for not using the card abroad. Consider applying for a travel credit card with good ongoing rewards and no foreign transaction fees to use instead. There are plenty to choose from.
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