[pawelos]

Check what is the currency exchange fee - while you might not pay for withdrawal, they can still add a few % of the exchange fee (that’s at least the case for some of Polish cards).

[lotsofpulp]

Schwab's currency exchange fee (via withdrawal at non-US ATMs in local currency) has basically been the spot rate in my experience, for a decade or more that I've been using it. And there's no other fees so it's basically free forex (for small amounts I presume, they're not going to let you do that for $1M I bet).

[User23]

Given that the daily forex volume is around $5 trillion[1], I wouldn't be surprised if they'll give you $1 million at the same rate as $1000.

[1] https://www.quora.com/How-much-volume-is-traded-per-day-in-t...

[nemothekid]

Same - I’ve found Schwabs rates to be better than virtually any other option

[gnicholas]

How do you find out what exchange rate they use and how it compares to the spot rate? I have cynically assumed that they make money on this (despite claiming “no foreign transaction fee!”) but never knew how to check one company versus another.

[lotsofpulp]

I google “USD to GBP” or whichever currency right after I get the money. My BoA/Chase credit cards also give me basically spot rate conversions. Although this article explains why it might not make sense to use that number:

https://www.thinmargin.com/blogs/why-comparing-against-excha...

[hocuspocus]

More and more traditional banks are getting rid of these fees too.

Mastercard rates are very good (typically better than Transferwise's), and Visa has been catching up as well.

[ValentineC]

With HSBC, the bank rate they use at their ATMs isn't as good as the interbank exchange rate I would get if I used some other bank's ATM.

[glogla]

It is definitely the case for Czech banks. GP's Equa has about 2.5 % in fact. Worse, there's basically no banks that have under 2 %.