Fees Charges & Exchange Rates for Foreign Credit Card & ATM Transactions

This is a list of the cards which do charge additional fees. For possible ones that don't, check the links to older threads i have already posted.

I myself have used Fleet cards abroad, they used to not charge additonal fees. though I will NOT use them again due to atrocious customer service & my experience in contesting a charge (in summary, they found against me even though I had a signed receipt from the charger listing a different amount. even more d@mning, the vendor eventually responded to me much later & made good on the difference, claiming he was out of touch when i tried to contact him originally, and said that fleet didn't even try to contact him. though who knows if that was true, he may have only made good with me because he was associated with the university hosting the conferrence we were attending & I wrote him & said I was going to tell them what he did -- he got back to me right away then!) I will probalby use CapOne next time I travel, I think they are still 1%.

thanks sloppy1

I know that MBNA-branded cards do not have a foreign currency surcharge. But the AAA 5% gas rebate card is not explicitly MBNA-branded.

Anyone care to share their experiences?

Bump.

At my age, bumping is as good as it gets.

Bump

There is an updated May 2004 survey:

http://www.consumer-action.org/English/CANews/2004_May_CreditCard/

If you use a credit card overseas, MasterCard, Visa and American Express add a “currency conversion fee” to the charge when converting it to dollars. On all Mastercard and Visa charges the amount is 1%; American Express charges 2%.

In addition to the MasterCard and Visa charge, many banks add another fee of their own. This year 26 of surveyed issuers are adding their own currency conversion charges that are separate from MasterCard and Visa fees. The number has grown since last year’s survey, which found 17 issuers including American Express with currency conversion fees. However, the average fee has dropped from 1.86% to 1.56%.

The bank charges range from 1% to 3% of the amount converted, which does not include the MasterCard/Visa commission of 1%. “Of the large issuers, we found that Capital One, Fleet Bank and MBNA do not add a charge of their own.”

use a credit card, it will almost always be the best and easiest way to buy, plus you get tons of protections (depending on the card) such as lost /damaged item, return protection, chargeback rights, possibly extended warranty)

if you dont have a MBNA card, get one!

monicutza said: SUCKISSTAPLES said: if you dont have a MBNA card, get one!

I do have one; do you mean it's better to use it while overseas instead of my Citibank dividend CC? My MBNA card points system is not as good. uh yeah, read this thread. Citi charges you 2% on top of the 1% visa/mc fee. MBNA does not, so using an MBNA card has 2% less fees. I doubt your Citi card rewards beats your MBNA rewards program by 2%

MarkM said: monicutza said: So the question is, as a general rule, am I better off exchanging cash in the airport/exchange office or paying with my citibank? Airport exchange rates are known to be bad so I would think CC is still better. How about using a debit card at an ATM?As a "general rul" I'd say CC -- even citibank, if you absolutely must (I wouldn't use that CC!) -- but that doesn't mean always. I personally prefer CCs for general travelling abroad for the convenience & protection you get, as SIS points out. However in special circumstances you might find it worthwhile to go with an ATM. For example, my wife has family in Mexico & she (and sometimes I) go there for weeks, and shop at many places that don't take CCs. We have found that an HSBC ATM card, used in machines owned by their Mexican subsidiary Bital, give us the best exchange rate possible, just about 1.1% above interbank internal rates (CCs typical give you a rate 2% above, and then add the fees discussed here), with no ATM fee. But I only bothered to search that out because of the special circumstances I mentioned & because we need to move thousands of $ cash to Mexico each year.

a bank may charge conversion fee for withdrawing cash from ATM too.

just got my fleet cc statement for last month, here is an example of the rates i got while in london. on april 22 when the interbank range for GBP was 1.7627 to 1.7764, i got 1.7845, no other additional fees on my statement.

Another good card for foreign currency transactions is the USAA MasterCard, which does not tack on any additional fees to the 1% MC conversion. We have used the USAA debit card (attached to our checking account) extensively in W. Europe and Central America, withdrawing in both dollars and local currency, and have never been charged any fee.

To answer other questions, I would never exchange money other than through an ATM. ATMs are ubiquitous, safe, easy, and by far the cheapest and most convenient way to get foreign currency. We charge where possible and use ATM/cash when necessary. You can't buy crêpes on the streets of Paris with a cc! LOL.

Does Juniper have any foreign currency fees in addition to the standard Visa/Mastercard 1%?

u know, i would know the answer if i worked for juniper

I think what he was trying to say was, instead of waiting 2 days for an answer here, it would have been quicker to just call them up and ask them.

hey thanks for that info. i was just about to call them but i knew someone here would know and save me the time.

MarkM said: a bank may charge conversion fee for withdrawing cash from ATM too.

Netbank don't charge any ATM fees abroad. But i dn't know what are the fees on exchange rate.

MarkM said: May I suggest no one ever respond to a COG post/taunt. That's my resolution
Awww, I'm crushed - the stay at home dad won't be answering my question. Thankfully, I don't have many stay at home dad type questions

USrules said: I didnt account however for variation in the daily exchange rate Euro/$ during this time period.

Then your conclusion that AMEX is the cheapest is not valid. Over a 2-week period, exchange rate alone can fluctuate between 1.24 to 1.28 easily.