boring stuff - the bank

Ack..... boring stuff,

So I've been doing a lot of web research and have been discovering some important questions to ask your bank. One of the big ones is can I use my atm debit card in other countries. What I found from my bank heritage family credit union is that yes I can as long as I give them my travel plans. They basically want to know what cities and countries I'll be in and using my card so they can keep an eye on it. Well when looking into that something else came up and that's the International purchase service fee. This is a fee charged by your bank to make international purchases, in the case of my bank its a 3% charge this applies both to ATM cash withdrawals and purchases. It's also helpful to know the daily spending limit on your card for my particular bank it's $1,500 for purchases and $300 for cash. I did end up finding a lower cost solution, but I'll cover that in another piece.

As of now my travel plans with my bank are all set my card is ready to use. I not only let them know the islands I'll be visiting while in the Philippines, I also let them know the layovers I have on flights to get there.