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Hello. I have never been overseas or been stationed overseas but a few months we will be moving to Italy. Can we use our debit card in Italy to make purchases just as we do here in the states or will we have to use an ATM to get cash thats converted? Thanks for any information!
Callejas,
Thanks for your question. I think it would be good for you to give USAA member services a call so that they can walk you through everything as well as make sure that you have all of the updates made that need to be. Could you please reach out to them at 1-800-531-8722 or click here to provide us with additional detail and your member information.
thanks, I'll give them a call. I just was wondering what needed to be done on my part.
This area is talking about using the USAA Debit Card, NOT Credit Card, overseas.
BLUF: USAA is the only card I have that I rarely use overseas. I haven't used my USAA credit card in about 3 years. it's only good for withdrawling cash from the ATM. Their cards that just recently caught up to the times and have chips that may be useful for day to day purchases in Germany, but they do not equate to the big banks that offer no foreign transaction fees such as Chase Saphire Prefered or Amex Platinum. Both of which you can get for free after submitting overseas orders. With all of their customers deployed worldwide, why would they still have a 1% foreign transaction fee on their cards? Most of my soldiers I tell this to, have no idea what that is. They just go with the flow like it's normal, but it's not. USAA is a great bank for a lot of things, but I don't believe so for their credit cards.
Mr. Smith is absolutely correct. I have not used my USAA credit cards either overseas or stateside since I obtained a Chase Bank Army MWR credit card in 2011. Chase does NOT charge the international transaction / foreign exchange fee; USAA WILL charge you 1%.
I prefer to keep everything "in house" at USAA but when it comes to USAA's credit cards - especially overseas - there are better options elsewhere.
Hint: Service Credit Union offers a chip/pin Euro debit card that I use extensively in Germany in stores that do not accept credit cards of any type.
It's too bad that USAA, with such a large number of members who live/serve overseas, hasn't matched either Chase or Service Credit Union.