Best Cards/Banks for Euro Purchases?

[Anonymous]

So we are Americans planning a wedding in Italy for Sept 2016. As such we are closely watching the Euro exchange rates, and have read some predictions that indicate possible parity near the end of this year/beginning of next year. I myself am not a finance master but I have an uncle who works on Wall Street who seemingly knows a bit about these things, so I am hopeful.

We have a couple of options as far as managing the payments to our villa, wedding planner, restaurant, etc. but we are in the "deposit" stage right now so we have not gotten hit TOO hard with the exchange rate (Typically in the last month it's been about $1.10 for every 1 EUR)... We primarily bank with Navy Federal, as we both have CCs and checking/savings accounts with them.

I did NOT expect nor enjoy the ~1% foreign transaction fee on the NFCU card last week. Knowing what their members do, I was surprised to learn of this, but oh well, it happens. We were in a rush and it was only a $1000 transaction. However we want to avoid this going forward. Anyone have any suggestions for banks that either don't charge this fee, or have better rates? Or basically any suggestions AT ALL for how to minimize getting crushed by exchange?

A little about us, we both have almost zero CC debt but not a lot of access to credit due to rough years past. My scores are in the 690s, hers are a bit lower but will climb after the end of this year when her short sale falls off (at least, we hope?). I have a bankruptcy that is just over 2+ years discharged, but superb payment history and 100k/yr income since then.  So some of the BEST banks may not be available to us, although I am open to trying. I have maybe three INQs, I can risk it.

Any help, wise guys and gals?

[Callandra]

A lot of cards do have foreign transaction fees (at least it was only 1%, all my cards have 3%) but there are some that do not. I think you can easily get a Capital One card (look at QS or QS1; QS might be possible). Note that a lot of times Cap1 cards do not start with high limits unless you get a QS (I think the min is $3k) or Venture ($5k) but since you have two years of rebuilding history (I assume it's been about 2 years?), it might be worth a try. 

Who did you burn in your BK? You can search "cards with no FTF" here and find some threads with more comprehensive lists; but if you have burned the bank in the past, you might not be able to get another card with them (at least not so soon).

Good luck with your wedding!

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Callandra. I will look into Capital One. Also, after posting, I did some more research and it does seem the fee of 1% is not bad considering other banks. So perhaps I should just be happy about it as is.

I accidentally called Italy for 15 minutes on my cell phone the other day, and just got hit with a $23 charge on my wireless bill. This is all a learning process, and I'm considering writing a blog as we go along so people can learn from our financial miscues!