We really like our Alaska AIrlines VISA card, but the 3% foreign transaction fee is killing us (up until now, we've been using it for SXM hotel, car rental and the occasional "bauble" purchase). The Capital One cards are being heavily promoted with no foreign transaction fees, and we are considering getting one just for use on SXM. Has anyone run into any problems using a Capital One card on the island? Are they as widely accepted.as any other cards, or are we likely to run into merchants that are reluctant to accept them?

We use ours all the time. Never a problem.

Absolutely, we've used Cap 1. No transaction fees. Though their rates are a bit high compared to other cards.
If you plan to off your baubles right away, no problem. Otherwise, compare the APR vs tx fees.

We use our CapOne cards everywhere though we originally got them to avoid the international fees in St. Maarten and other international locations. It's just like any other card except this one sends me $50.00 checks all the time. Gotta love that feature, too. Only drawback, as with most credit cards, is the interest but the card is free and if you pay it in full every month you're good to go! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Thumbsup.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Thumbsup.gif" alt="" />

Cities bank has no foreign few as long as its rung as us dollars. Chase bank no fees in any currency.

Research pays off.
Used Capital One year before last, no fees. Into 2nd year, fees appeared. Contacted Capital One and was told applied fees would be erased but that if I kept card fees would be applied. Cancelled card, now I get periodic offers from them that say no fees.

Your post could have been written by me a year or two ago. Contributors in this TTOL forum led us to get a Capital One card for SXM trips and we've never looked back. Just paid my latest SXM bill yesterday, and we paid the market exchange rate on the day the transaction was processed. We also get Rewards/Points. Love it.
On their website you can even login and advise them you'll be travelling and to expect the card to be used in places like SXM during a range of specific dates, thus you won't get any surprise declines, holds, alerts or hassles that can sometimes occur when your card suddenly starts getting used in a foreign land.
The only thing that's a pain is wading through the array of ever changing Capital One cards available, and then finding the one that best suits your needs. Ours were minimal... No Annual Fee, No Foreign Transaction Fee.

Been using my Cap 1 card for years now.. And even no fees this past May. I'm happy. I know have the Chase United Explorer Card as my "backup" for no foreign transaction fees.

We use our Capital One Venture card and it has no transaction fees or annual fees. We get money back or charges taken care of with the rewards points. We are going on three years with no complaints. It got compromised with the Target thing and they sent us a new one. I go to the dentist in Canada and the same thing applied. No transaction fees as well as exchange rate as of that day. No complaints about their service.

I think the foreign transaction fees are becoming something from the past. Most cards charge no fee if bill is in US dollars. Now, how the place determines the conversion to US dollars may not be the best rate though.

I've never had an issue with my CO card. I'd suggest getting the Venture card that pays back 2% towards travel expenses (1% towards non-travel, but a bad deal IMO). It does cost $59/year, waived the first year, and gives you a 40000 point bonus the first year, which is worth $400, so you do come out ahead.

I used to use an American Air miles card exclusively until they stopped counting credit card mileage towards million mile status, and now use the CO card for most items.

Alaska air Bank of america visa charges foreign transaction fees regardless of currency used.

I just traded my Venture One card for a Venture Rewards card. $60 annual fee, but I get two "miles" for every dollar I spend. To redeem "miles" I apply them to travel related charges on my card.

If you spend $1k per month on your card, that's 24,000 miles a year, or $240 applied to your travel expenses. Given that airline miles are nearly impossible to use, this is a waaaay better deal. I charge everything I can on my card, which equates to one free round trip flight to SXM per year.

We love our Cap1 card! We also love that we can customize it with our own picture. Ours has a beautiful pix of Orient Bay and the Tiko on it. We get comments on it all the time.

We've cancelled our Alaska cards after nearly 20 years in favor of Capitol One. We've been using Capitol One exclusively for foreign travel because they don't charge foreign exchange fees but are now using it as our everyday card. We’ve used them in SXM, Canada, Mexico and Europe without any problems.

With Alaska's decreases in benefits (no more Board Room passes, no more 1st class upgrades or companion fares and decreased flight availability), it doesn’t make sense to pay $75/yr to earn mileage we can’t use. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/cloud.gif" alt="" />

We LOVE Capital One - 2 for 1 points and you can "erase" travel expenses from your bill. Formula is simple. Just add two zeros to the cost of your hotel room or flight and is how many points you need. We use it for positively every expense we can - groceries, gas, insurance, heating expenses, cable TV; points build quickly. Obviously you have to pay it in full when due or interest will wipe out any savings. And, as they say, No foreign transaction fees. We pay an annual fee but it is worth it. Love capital one.

Cap one Venture...$20K limit...can not get it increased. 90 days to redeem travel $$. Still a good card.

That $20,000 isn't a Venture Card limit.

Like Jim and Beth, we put absolutely everything on the card, including our timeshare maintenance fees, which are considered travel expenditures so we can use the purchase eraser for those, as well as airline tickets and hotel rooms here in the states. I keep track of our finances with Quicken, and just did a quick check: in 2014 we got over $1400 in travel purchases erased just by using this card. Yes, there is an annual fee, but well worth it.

Don and Linda..... Just to make sure you understand..... The $20000 credit limit is your personal credit limit. Everyone's is different based on their situation. Others are higher than that. I had mine increased by calling and asking as I knew I had some major purchases coming up. This is your credit limit, the amount you are allowed to charge up to in one billing cycle. This is not the number of travel reward dollars you can earn. In fact, with the correct Capital One card, you can earn up to 40000 points each billing cycle if you charge the full $20k and pay it off each month. Also, your points don't expire. The 90 day limit you referred to is that you can only use them to erase travel that has been charged in the last 90 days. You can accumulate points all year long, as many as you want, then use them to erase all the charges for one grand trip.
Not sure if that was your understanding or not, but just wanted you to know if it wasn't.

Alaska still has the companion ticket and I never have problems redeeming my alaska miles to destinations other than SXM. I use my AA miles for SXM.

I think it is time to get rid of our Citibank cards.(I keep saying this!) The miles are impossible to use and they have annual and foreign transaction fees. I'd like to use the miles we do have first.
Some people said that Capital One has no annual fee---others said they did.
What is a purchase eraser? I'm guessing that you pay for your travel and then they refund you with your points?
Now with all the different cards they offer, which do you prefer?

Pat, you don't use Citibank for AA miles?

We have both a Capitol One Signature Visa card and the Capitol One Venture Card. We use the Venture Card almost exclusively because we get two "miles" for every dollar we spend on every single purchase. The way you redeem those miles is to use them either to purchase travel through the program, or to "erase" previous travel purchases. You only get two miles for every dollar you spend if you redeem those miles for travel purchases, either new or within the past 90 days. If you redeem your miles for other than travel purchases, you only get one mile per dollar. I don't save mine up; I just go into the rewards area online and erase whatever I have enough miles to erase, unless I know I have something big coming up, and then I might save up to pay for that.

The Venture Card has an annual fee, the Signature does not, but the rewards programs is nowhere near as good on it. Neither card charges a foreign transaction fee nor a currency conversion fee.

Terry,

We have one citibusiness card we still use for AA purchases and very limited expenses but basically, I'm now a Cap One gal. We also have a separate savings account for only vacation monies and that's where all the personal cap one checks go. It's amazing how the dollars mount up. People tell me I should take points but I really do so love getting those refund checks in the mail........ <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Thumbsup.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Thumbsup.gif" alt="" />

We have a Venture card with no annual fee but we get 1.25 miles for each dollar. When I talked to the person at Capital One they said if I wanted I could upgrade to the other one that had 2 miles for each dollar spent, but it would have a $59 annual fee. Each person has to decide which is best for them.

I agree completely. We did the math, and even with the annual fee, the 2 miles card was best for us. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

We've used our Capital One card for years, several trips to SXM and Europe, never had a merchant refuse it, never had a foreign transaction fee.

As far as the annual fee on the Citibank card, there usually isn't one for the first year. And whenever our Citibank card was about to renew, we'd call to cancel it saying we didn't want to pay an annual fee, and they always offered to waive the annual fee if we kept the card. Most years we would cancel the card anyway, just to get a new one and get lots of "new card" bonus miles. And we've flown to SXM many, many times on the miles that we got with the Citi card. Never really found it that difficult to redeem miles on AA, even used our AA miles to get free flights on US Air this past year.

If my deteriorating math skills are correct, you would need to spend $2950 in a year to make up the annual fee.

I just got a offer from Capitol One for no fees, 20,000 miles and no interest until 2017, I am taking them up on it!! Seems like a great deal!

It'd be $7867 for breakeven, i.e. 59/(.02-.0125)

You are right, but some people just use the card for the no international fee. I just don't like annual payments. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

Thank you. We have a no fee Capitol One Venture card. It is based on my credit...over 800 and a clean payment record for over 3-4 years. I have called several times to raise the limit, but was told by the banker that my particular card does not have a higher limit. Perhaps other Venture cards do.

The redemption travel costs drop off the eraser after 90 days. I do not think they are accessible after that. If I have enough points to erase I do. I understand that points accrue and I could save them for a big trip.

there are 2 Cap One cards worth considering, the Quicksilver which is free, and the Venture Rewards card which is $59/year after the first free year

the Quicksilver earns you 1.5 "points" for every dollar charged, and the Venture card 2 points for every dollar...these points can be applied as credits towards your purchases

as far as choosing which card is best for you, if you plan on spending at least $12,000/year on the card, you're better off paying for the $59 Venture...if you're going to spend less than $12k, might as well just get the free Quicksilver card...the simple math, with Venture $12,000 x 2 = 24,000 points = $240 credits, less the $59 fee = $181 net earned....with QS $12,000 x 1.5 = 18,000 points = $180 earned

neither card charges a forex fee

fyi, a CapOne High Yield Checking account is also a pretty decent for ATM usage...no forex fees on withdrawals, CapOne doesn't charge ATM fees, and they will automatically reimburse any fees charged by another bank's ATM <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Thumbsup.gif" alt="" />

Best - there is an ap for your Iphone and it shows you every time a purchase/charge is made immediately.... Perfect as a security back up in case any one uses your card...

I use it but it drives my wife crazy. "What did you buy at Kohl's for $89?"

I was probably not paying enough attention, but last winter, after we rented a car for three weeks and about $1300, we got a message from Cap One suggesting we use that 'charge eraser' to pay for it. By that time we had enough money charged to the card to handle this, and we did it. They don't charge an annual fee nor international currency exchange fees. And, even better from my point of view, they send me an email every time I use the card outside the US or if it is used for a large transaction (>$100). I bet other cards will start doing the same thing.

I don't know what CapOne card you used but none have a foreign transaction fee as far as I know.

We just received a Cap One offer in the mail. It's a Venture without an annual fee. I don't see anything about insurance for car rentals. We will have to do some research and see if the fee card is better for us.

The fee card IS A BETTER DEAL because of the 40,000 point bonus, if you can meet the minimal hurdles. The fee is waived the first year, so you can convert in year 2 if you don't want to pay the fee for the extra 1/2 point per $ spent.

Capital One covers rentals cars.