List Of Credit Card Foreign Currency Transaction Fees
Not too long ago I went on vacation in East Asia. While I was there I had the fortune to be accompanied by local friends who could spot me so I didn’t need to convert my American dollars into local currency. However there were at least two occasions when I glanced upon several beautiful small wooden art pieces that I wanted to buy. While I had a few local currency bills on me, it wasn’t enough to buy the slightly expensive art pieces. So I had to resort to what I ordinarily would do back home in the United States – pull out my trusty cash back credit card. Fortunately, I had the foresight prior to traveling to another country, to research and familiarize myself with credit card foreign currency exchange fees.
Watch Out For Hidden International Credit Card Foreign Currency Exchange Charges
While foreign currency exchange fees are now generally listed and disclosed by credit card companies, card issuers rarely publicize these hidden charges, preferring to leave them in the fine print. While some complain that the majority of these interchange fees are not used to process the actual currency exchange, but rather used to fund credit card reward programs and other direct advertising campaigns, the real concern is the lack of education when it comes to incurring these fees. Frequently, consumers who use their credit cards overseas come home to the unwelcome surprise of costly fees on their billing statement.
The foreign currency transaction fee for credit card purchases is comprised of two parts – the fee percentage charged by the card payment network (such as Visa, Master Card, Discover, American Express) and the fee percentage added by the card issuer (such as Citibank, Chase, Bank of America). Visa and MasterCard impose a standard 1% fee on all foreign currency charges to cover the expense of converting your foreign currency purchases back into U.S. dollars. The fee is imposed on the card issuer, but the expense is usually passed onto the consumer. Banks and card issuers that issue Visa and Mastercard also tack on their own additional transaction fee to the total – usually another 2%.
American Express does not have an extra card issuer fee, but it does impose its own foreign currency conversion charge of 2%. Previously, Discover Card was the only major card payment network that levied no foreign purchase transaction fees, however they have now updated their policy and tacked on the nearly ubiquitous charges. But then I challenge you to find a place overseas that actually accepts Discover Card. I think those living abroad probably have never heard of Discover before, likely thinking it’s some off shoot of Visa or Master Card.
Credit Card Issuers That Have No Foreign Currency Transaction Fees
Capital One credit card is one of two major issuers that charges no foreign currency transaction fee for credit card purchases made abroad. While Visa and Mastercard still levy fees on Capital One – the card issuer has made the conscientious decision to waive the fees as a cost of attracting customers. Thus it looks like your best foreign purchase bet would be to apply for a Capital One Visa Or Mastercard to avoid the expensive and cumulative currency exchange transaction fees. I personally have the Capital One No Hassle Miles Card, which I use to earn 1.25 miles on each dollar spent, good for any airline with no seating restrictions, mileage cap, or expiration date on miles earned.
List of Credit Card Foreign Transaction Fees Sorted From Lowest to Highest
Today, most of these foreign transaction fees are laid out in more readable form on your monthly credit card statement. Sometimes they are denoted by a simple asterisk indicating the fee percentage that was levied, while some card issuers will list the actual dollar amount of the transaction fee portion. The transaction fees I’ve provided below include the total combined charges imposed by both the card issuer and the card payment network. Pay attention to some of the hidden special offers out there, especially the ones from more obscure credit unions and brokerage/banks.
| Credit Card Issuer/Offer |
Fee For Foreign Currency Transactions |
| Capital One | 0% |
| Schwab Bank | 0% – Schwab Bank Invest First Visa |
| Stanford Federal Credit Union | 0% – SFCU Visa Cards |
| Affinity Federal Credit Union | 1% |
| NASA Federal Credit Union | 1% |
| Pentagon Federal Credit Union | 1% |
| USAA (Military) | 1% |
| American Express | 2% – Not Generally Accepted Overseas |
| Discover Card | 2% – Not Generally Accepted Overseas |
| Advanta | 3% |
| Bank of America | 3% |
| BB&T Bank | 3% |
| Chase/Washington Mutual | 3% |
| Citibank (Citi Card) | 3% |
| HSBC | 3% |
| PNC (National City) | 3% |
| SunTrust Bank | 3% |
| TD Bank | 3% |
| U.S. Bank | 3% |
| Wells Fargo | 3% |
Reminder Before Using Your Credit Card To Make Foreign Purchases
Modern credit card programs today implement sophisticated transaction software to detect fraudulent and unauthorized credit card activity. If your card has always been used in the New York tri-state region for example, but suddenly credit charges start streaming in from some place like Thailand or Indonesia, your card issuer may raise an eyebrow and start declining those international charges as part of their anti-fraud measures. A quick e-mail or phone call to your credit card company before you travel should prevent such an inconvenience from happening.
Credit Card Users Who Have Made Credit Purchases Abroad May Be Entitled To A Cash Settlement
If you made a foreign transaction using your Visa, Mastercard, or Diner’s Club credit card at least once between February 1, 1996 and November 8, 2006, you may be entitled to claim money from a legal settlement. In response to an anti-trust class action lawsuit brought against Visa, Mastercard, and Diner’s Club for alleged fraud and conspiracy to fix and conceal foreign currency transaction fees on credit card purchases to the detriment of card issuers and consumers, a legal settlement has been worked out. Under the settlement terms of In re Currency Conversion Fee Antitrust Litigation (MDL 1409), those who fall under the plaintiff class have three ways to participate and claim their settlement money.
While two of the options require that you gather your billing statements and receipts to verify the estimated value of your foreign credit card purchases, the simplest method for most is to file for the Easy Refund option, which is the route I personally took. As noted, this option is recommended if you traveled outside of the U.S. for less than one week or had foreign transactions of less than $2,500 using your eligible cards during the 1996 to 2006 period.
April 18th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Thank you for your post. I have been using the wrong Visa card when I have a Capital One Visa card on my wallet. I have been charged 3% for all transactions…From now on Capital One is the one I will be using
April 19th, 2008 at 2:56 am
No problem Mike. These credit card companies definitely don’t do a good enough job of advertising these foreign transaction fees. But then again, why would they want to spoil a good thing for them…
May 8th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Discover has struck a deal with UnionPay, a Chinese credit card, so that Discover is accepted all over China. It is actually now more widely accepted than Visa or MasterCard. I know this because I am on a month-long trip to China and Hong Kong and researched what card to use before I left. Sometimes the merchant might not know what to do with the card, but you just need to tell them it is a UnionPay card.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Anyone have luck negotiating with their credit card company to temporarily wave the foreign transaction fee?
May 21st, 2008 at 6:25 am
I tell my overseas visitors to New Zealand about this all the time and they often look at me like I’m crazy. “Our credit cards are an extension of us. Surely they wouldn’t bite us!” I’ve linked to you in some travel tips I’ve posted and hope your info will bring clarity, or at least stimulate good questions before people buy up large.
Jill
May 21st, 2008 at 10:27 am
The CapitalOne card seems like a good deal, but they refused to honor a charge I made to buy airline tickets, and by the time I had straightened it out I had to pay an additional $500 because the prices went up at the end of the week. Unlike many other cards, CapitalOne does not tell you when it is going to refuse a charge (for example, Bank of America will take the charge and then call you), so even if you tell them ahead of time they can decide to leave you stranded. As a result, I may pay a higher fee, but at least my card works.
May 30th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
CapitalOne is also extremely slow in posting large transactions, which means you can be left with no available credit for weeks while traveling. I recently had an $8k hotel bill for a large business group I was traveling with. When I paid the hotel CapitalOne immediately reduced my available credit by the $8k, but I couldn’t pay my credit card bill until this finally showed up on my account a week later. Then, when I immediately paid the bill off in full on-line, fraud put a 2 week hold on my payment because it was too large. End result, for 3 weeks I couldn’t use my card while traveling, even though I had previously set aside enough money to pay off my full credit card balance immediately. Not a good solution when you’re overseas and you need a card you can rely on! I’d rather pay the fees and have a functional card.
June 14th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
I have made severla purchased from “overseas” retailers over the years. On a recent purchase I noticed the next month a finance charge. Since I pay my CC payment each month in full I called BOA. They stated FTF are billed as advanced cash billing and that the interest is compounding. I told them that was crazy and cancel my card. They agreed to waiver this fee. Next month if there is a fee this card is bye bye……any suggestions for a CC that will not do this????
June 28th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
The answer would be to eliminate Credit Cards altogether. We all carry a cell phone so using the WAP portion – we can do the transaction less than the CC charges. Since it is PIN driven no lost ID or CC fraud. It’s great for the merchant since the transaction would no be subject to charge-backs.
July 5th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
We travel a lot and have been using CapitalOne for the last few years, after being burned with high overseas transaction fees on our regular Visa (MBNA/Bank of America). CapitalOne has been driving us crazy with unannounced blocks on any transactions with an overseas business, even though we go out of our way to notify them in advance. Each time we call them and wind up talking to several different people before the problem is corrected. Sometimes we think the problem was corrected and find out later that it wasn’t. We are now looking for an alternative solution, because CapitalOne’s practices are out of control and too much to put up with.
August 23rd, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Capital one seems like a great deal – and I got their Platinum Cash Card for the specific reason that they said they did not charge a foreign currency transaction fee. But then when I started to make charges overseas, I saw that the amount actually charged is approximately 1% higher than the published rate in the WSJ.
What’s with the discrepancy? The answer is buried in their legal conditions and terms: “For international transactions, MasterCard’s currency conversion procedure includes use of either a government mandated exchange rate, or a wholesale exchange rate selected by MasterCard for the processing cycle in which the transaction is processed, increased by an adjustment factor established from time to time by MasterCard. The currency conversion rate used by MasterCard on the processing date may differ from the rate that would have been used on the purchase date or cardholder statement posting date.”
Best I can tell is that they use the adjustment factor as a type of foreign currency transaction fee. If not – what’s with the discrepancy?
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:34 am
The “discrepancy” is using that WSJ rate. The newspaper published rate is for interbank transactions of $1M of more. You will NEVER get that rate for your credit card transactions. The US Visa and MasterCard associations charge 1% fee to the banks for all forex transactions. In the old days, this was the only fee you saw, but as you know most large banks charge 2% to 3% after conversion into US dollars.
Also keep in mind that you’ll get the rate as of the day the transaction is posted. If you return an item abroad, you will lose money as the rate is different for purchases than credits. Just like the buy and sell forex rates have spreads.
I had OK experiences with Capital One but I only use this card for overseas purchases.
A JCB card may also be a good option for you, particularly for travel to Japan. However, you must be a resident of CA, CT, HI, IL, NJ, NY, NV, OR, WA. http://www.jcbusa.com. They do not have a separate forex fee and their association upcharge is 1.1%. Discover card has an alliance with JCB similar to that of Union Pay. Currently JCB cards are accepted wherever Discover cards are accepted. Reciprocity is supposed to start by the end of 2008, but this has yet to be confirmed.
November 4th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
I live overseas. Capital 1 has no fees, but is the worst CC company I have used. Card # was stolen, and they can’t seem to figure out how to mail me the replacment or send the mom-in-law stateside a card. Reps are foreign and don’t do very well.
Use at your own risk
December 1st, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Capital One Canada charges a 2.5% foreign exchange conversion fee
I just applied online for one and I decided to read the disclosure agreement before I submitted my application and I saw 2.5% foreign exchange conversion fee for foreign transactions. Maybe US capital one is the only one that dont charge foreign exchange conversion fee
December 9th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Hi,
I think you blog needs a real update, banks are way ahead of you!
I made an online purchase on December 5th, 2008 from an online retailer(epharmacy) based in Australia using my citi bank Master Card. The actual purchase is US$ 16 but transaction fee is US$ 40.
I’ve no idea how to deal with issue. it is really messed up situation.
December 10th, 2008 at 3:02 am
Sohail, I would really recommend calling the number of the back of your credit card and finding out what that is about. I use my U.S. currency credit cards all over Central Europe and never have I even heard of such a ridiculous fee. At the very least you ought to easily be able to get them to waive the fee this one time.
Good Luck – I’d really like to see what Citi’s response is. That’s insane!
January 13th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Schwab has a cashback credit card with no foreign currency transaction fee(s)…you need to establish a Schwab broker account however (having said that there’s no minimum and no fee on either the brokerage account or the cc, so maybe there’s no downside).
Schwab Bank Invest First Visa Credit Card
February 1st, 2009 at 4:33 pm
I deal with the Foreign Currency Transaction Fee problem every day. Luckily there is another option for people who don’t want to deal with Capital One, but who also don’t want to deal with the fees – Charles Schwab Bank offers a Schwab Bank Invest First™ Visa Signature® credit card. No transaction fees – plus 2% back to an investment account.
It’s nice to have options.
Also – the foreign currency transaction fee on the Amex is higher than 2% (somewhere between 2.7% and 3%) and it’s accepted widely here in Poland.
February 4th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Hey,
One basic question about credit cards. Lets say I buy something at an online store for 100$/5000 Indian Rupees using a US based credit card. Paypal/Merchant’s bank contacts the credit card company and the credit card company authorizes the payment. The item gets shipped. When would the amount be credited into the merchant’s account? If that happens exactly at the time of purchase, the merchant would get 100$/5000Rs. But if that were to happen after 2days, and lets say the $ value drops to 48 Indian Rupees after 2 days. Then, will the credit card company just transfer 100$/4800Rs to the merchant’s account or will it transfer 5000Rs? This might sound silly, but I had this doubt since some of my credit card transactions appear with a latter date on my statement. I have never used my US credit card for purchases in India, so I don’t know how it works.
Pls clarify..
February 24th, 2009 at 8:48 am
I have ordered prescribed medicine for years from Canadian pharmacies. Paid by Mastercard ( Citibank). No problem til about a couple months ago when “bam” I am charged for a foreign transaction. The Pharmacy is based in Houston, Tx, which buys from some place in New Zealand. They pay with US dollars. I contacted Mastercard & they give me a song & dance about my buying from foreign suppliers. I bought from a US based ( even tho they are Canadian ) company. I can’t believe they can get away with this. I challenged them & my Pharmacy-but got the same answer-I doing a foreign transaction! I don’t like it. If I buy a new TV-it was made in China or somewhere besides the USA-I dare you to buy very much that is not made in a foreign country. Should we be charged for that? I’m looking for a credit card company that does not make that charge. Any suggestions? I am an 84 yr old woman & feel like I’m being used & I shop with these people to save a buck!! Thanks!
February 27th, 2009 at 8:37 am
Just received a message from Discover Card. They are now tacking on 2% for foreign currency transactions.
All good things come to an end I guess.
February 28th, 2009 at 8:53 am
Discover is now charging 2% for Foreign Purchases. I just got the notification. I am upset. It was the reason I changed to Discover!
February 28th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
There is a new card in town – The Charles Schwab Bank Visa. It does not charge a Foreign Currency Transaction Fee and it gives you a flat 2% cash rebate on all purchases. I’ve been tracking the differences, and this seems like the best alternative.
March 4th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Barclays Visa charges 3.00% on all foreign currency conversions. So listen up everyone, it’s not on the list, but I have first hand knowledge!
March 10th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
sir, i am a business citizen of india. i want a free lifetime credit card. please send me details.
March 13th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
I spend most of my time in France and have had good luck with Capitol One. Yes, there is the occasional transaction denial when the issuer’s fraud software thinks it sniffs something funny. But other than that, it’s been okay. And I collect cash-back rewards on all overseas purchases. As noted above, Discover isn’t accepted much in Europe and now also see currency conversion as a revenue generator. so Capital One is the only U.S. card to turn to, although I’ll check out the Schwab card.
What I would really like to avoid are wire-transfer fees and unfavorable foreign exchange rates from my greedy American bank when I wire money from my U.S. account to my overseas account. The unfavorable foreign exchange costs me 4-5% of the transfer. Any one have any ideas?
March 14th, 2009 at 1:41 am
Dan the way I get around the fees is pretty arcane, but it works. I live in Poland and when I need to deposit money into my Polish Bank Account, I’ll go to the ATM in my Polish Bank – make a withdrawal from my US Bank in local currency, and then walk over to the counter to make a deposit in local currency to my Polish Bank account.
My US Bank charged 1 1/2 percent for the foreign currency fee, but gives a very fair exchange rate.
It’s not the most convenient and it is a little time consuming, but I avoid larger fees. My bank will also raise my ATM-limit substantially if I call them prior to the transaction, so I’ve never had an issue of not being able to withdraw enough cash.
If you click on my site, to the right there’s a link for credit cards where I’ve had several entries about Capital One and The Charles Schwab Card – You might find some of the older posts helpful.
March 16th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
updates – the cash settlement for visa is over and I spent a month in England for summer 2008 and I was able to use my amex quite a bit
March 23rd, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Discover will charge foreign currency fee starting 6/1/2009
March 26th, 2009 at 9:54 am
Just a note of caution when using Capital One. Be aware that the conversion fee that they use is the one for the posting date, not the transaction date (even though I had 4 capital one reps tell me the opposite) . I recently made a purchase and it was posted to my account 2 weeks later. In this economy with the changing conversion rates, it ended up costing me 12% more than I was expecting, as I was looking at the conversion rate the day I made the transaction.
March 27th, 2009 at 2:49 am
One way to get around foreign transaction fees with a large amount of dollars is to use a cashier’s check. I used this to take out thousands from wamu and place in my RBC accunt in Canada. This way, I saved over $120 to transfer over $3000 to pay for school. Othewise, writing a check directly to the school would cost me that much, plus the $120.
April 3rd, 2009 at 10:23 am
I have just found out that Citibank has now started charging the same 3% Foreign Transaction Fees even if the transaction is in US Dollars and there is no conversion necessary. As long as it is out of the country the fee is charged. I too am going to check into your Capital One suggestion!
April 6th, 2009 at 1:38 am
Anyone have experience with the ETrade Bank Platinum Visa? it appears to have no foreign currency fee.
The posting date is done by the bank after the merchant submits your transaction. Even though there may be an electronic authorization, the transaction is not complete until the merchant sends in the information. Just like in the US there could be a 2 to 3 day delay with posting, it can be even longer overseas.
April 7th, 2009 at 11:52 am
After many years of charging to my Adavantage Mastercard credit card in US Dollars with no charges of foreign curreny; now I got hit with this fee. I use it in Panama where all transactions are done in US dollars.
I try Captial One.
Don’t they make enough with the interest they charge?
April 14th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
I have been a Citibank Premier Pass card holder for a long time. I bought/paid stuff online and it so happens the company is based outside the US, even though the amount I paid in US Dollar, they still charged the 3% Foreign Transaction Fee. (Example: Hostels.com is based in Dublin, Ireland even though you are paying US Dollar in their deposit.) I called Citi, argued with them, but to no avail. I emailed these companies as well (like Hostels.com) to inform them but to them it’s my issue with the Credit Card and I should use another campany.
I’m pissed and made my research and found this article. Thank you, I said!
So I got a Capital One and recently bought a flight from Dublin to Liverpool through RyanAir and it cost 13.70Euros. In my Cap1 statement, it came out as $19.52. This transaction was on 4/8/09.
Today is 4/14/09 and the exchange rate from xe.com is: 1 EUR = 1.32777 USD or 1 USD = 0.753141 EUR.
Just to get an idea:
If you simply get the Euro rate from 13.70Euros to $19.52, that’s 1 EUR = 1.42 USD or 1 US = 0.70 EUR. This is a terrible rate!!
If you simply convert 13.70Euros using the rate on 4/14/09, it’s $18.19. That’s a difference of $1.33 from the $19.52 Capital One charged me!
If you only apply the 3% Foreign Transaction Fee from, say, what Citibank charges, to the $18.19, that’s only 0.54 cents, NOT $1.33!
Yes, in my experience with Citibank’s Premier Pass, their Foreign Exchange conversion rate is usually very close to whatever is the market rate. Also the same with American Express.
I called Capital One to ask what was the Euro amount that came in for this transaction. I wanted to see that maybe RyanAir charged me more than what I had in my receipt from them. But Cap1 could not provide this to me. They say, they only get the $ amount from MasterCard. I’ve had American Express, Discover, Bank One, Chase, and Citibank Credit Cards in my adult life. The foreign amount is always there in my statement as well as the US Dollar amount. Cap1 gave me the MasterCard number to ask them.
I called MasterCard and the best that they can do is provide me the rate on that transaction date (4/8 as I mentioned above). And they said, it’s 1 US = 0.75 EUR. This rate is very close to the rate I got today as mentioned above.
I don’t know, something is wrong here. Until they can provide answers to me, I’d rather use my Citibank Premier Pass despite the 3% fee.
April 16th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
A follow up to my above post. I recently used my Citi Premier Pass to book a hostel in Liverpool. The deposit is 8.40Pounds. It came out as $12.47 in the Citi PP statement. That’s pretty good for it is very close to market rate. This transaction was done on 4/14. Today 4/16, xe.com’s rate is 1 GBP = 1.49243 USD or 1 USD = 0.670050 GBP. If you apply this to the 8.40Pounds, it’s about $12.54.
I’m planning to use Cap1 again for some small amount to have another example and let you know what happens. But I dunno fellow consumers, I was turned off by the 3% fee at first. But if Capital One (or Mastercard for the matter) is using crappy conversion rates, I’d rather use the card that uses rates close to market rate even if it charges the 3%.
Something to think about. Thanks all.
April 17th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Beware of CitiCard incurring 3% Foriegn Transaction Fees on ANY business conducted with a foreign country while still in the USA. I am currently disputing this fee added to my air travel booked with British Air online. My financial transaction was in USD at a NYC office.
Upon query, 2 Account Managers have interpreted their terms to include charging this fee for “any business WITH” a company OUTSIDE of the USA, even if no conversion of funds occurred. I am pending receipt oftheir documentation and published definition.
April 28th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
State Farm Bank (part of State Farm Insurance Co) charges 1% on foreign currency transactions and gives you a 1% credit towards the cost of a state farm insurance policy, or they will give you the money back if you have a bank account with them. They issue the rebate only after it exceeds $50.
I have used them. They are a very considerate company. So far whenever there has been a dispute they take my side; Chase and Capital One always took the merchants’ side. I can (and do) choose to have State Farm automatically pay their credit card bill from my checking account at a local bank (not State Farm bank).
May 3rd, 2009 at 11:38 am
I’ve been using Discover up to now in China because it’s accepted just about everywhere, but now that they’re introducing that 2% fee looks like I’ll have to look at something else. That Visa card sounds nice, but then acceptance isn’t nearly as wide as with Discover.
May 8th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
Citi will charge 3% for US$ purchases made online to a non-US company. But even more amazing is that when I bought airplane tickets in US $ from a US company (Orbitz.com) online the foreign transaction fee was added by Citi because the airline was foreign!!!
What’s next, will we be paying a foreign transaction fee to buy gasoline that comes from Saudi Arabia at the corner gas station?
May 18th, 2009 at 10:07 am
I was charged this rip off fee using my CitiCard with a company in Montreal (I live in the US). I am going to cancel this card and get a Schwab Visa. I’m fed up with this sort of practice.
May 18th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
the schwab visa is great – their currency rate is very close to the actual market, and there’s no international fee. but in the chart where it says american express is ‘not generally accepted overseas’ is way off – it’s widely accepted
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:26 pm
I just called American Express and they said the international fee is 2.7%. Is there any card that doesn’t charge a fee?
May 23rd, 2009 at 5:06 am
Jamie – Try Capital one and Charles Schwab Bank Visa. They both are the best bets on the market right now. Charles Schwab has the best deal for people who spend a lot outside their country.
May 24th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
So, I guess it’s a consensus that the best international credit card for making purchases overseas without having to pay foreign currency transaction finance charges is – any Capital One credit card or the new Charles Schwab rewards card right? Might have to look into one of these options
Discover Card, while pretty popular in China as I’ve heard before, is not really widely used and definitely not as widely accepted outside of the United States, making its international credit card usability somewhat limited. Sure, while Discover continues to make major inroads into places like China where the company has recently signed a partnership deal with China’s largest credit card network, China Union Pay to accept the Discover Card, the 0% fee offer alone for foreign currency purchases doesn’t make it all that attractive…
But these 3% foreign money purchases are just outrageous – 3% of the total credit card purchase cost – are you freakin kidding me! That is ridiculous. I found out the hard way when I returned home from my spring trip to Europe and saw the surprising and shocking finance charges on my Bank of America card. Calls to the BoA customer service reps went ignored and I was stuck having to pay the charges – per my customer application agreement as the lovely people at Bank of America put it. Grr!
Any idea if the new federal credit card rules or credit card consumer Bill of Rights law that President Obama and congress just passed covers these foreign currency credit card transactions? Do they do away with them or limit how much foreign fees the card issuers can sneak on cardholders?
May 26th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
just found out that discover is now charging 2% foreign currency transaction fee.
June 7th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Commerce Bank (Cherry Hill, NJ) VISA, for years, had NO fee for foreign transactions. They stated euros and dollars on every statement.
Just received a letter saying (eff. 6/09) they are converting my Commerce Bank Platinum VISA to a TD East Rewards VISA. (TD Bank bought out Commerce some months ago.) This was touted as a much better credit card for me. Here’s how it’s better: Purchases interest rate goes from 7.24% to 14.24% and Cash Advance rate goes from 11.24% to 23.24%. Plus the Foreign Transaction Fee goes from 0% to 3%. Can you spell GREEDY? Shame on TD. I’m not agreeing to these “usery” terms and TD will also see me close my large TD Ameritrade Account too.
Maybe Charles Schwab has a good thing. Who knows if you can you have a Schwab Bank VISA without having a Schwab trading account?
June 7th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
If you want the best credit cards for zero or low foreign exchange fees, this is where I got my info. It’s got details about foreign currency fees as they related to credit, debit transactions, and even foreign ATM transactions.
Just a friendly reminder, Discover has sent out a mailer updating their foreign currency transaction fee & finance charge for their credit cards from 0% to 2% starting June 2009.
Credit unions are great – PenFed, AFCU, and the NASA FCU – 1% fees, although qualification is not always easy as they have limited membership into their credit unions.
Another interesting set of cards that offer low 1% foreign fee finance charges are department store retail cards like the Nordstrom credit card and the Macy’s/Bloomingdale’s Card. But I personally definitely would not apply for a store card just for this rate…and it’s even not all that great considering there are 0% cards out there in terms of the foreign currency fee percentage.
June 9th, 2009 at 6:00 am
Anyone has info on foreign transaction fees being waived at least in Canada?
I spoke to a rep from Bank of America who told me that I can withdraw cash from Scotia Bank in Canada without being charged and non-BOA ATM fee ($2).
Is my best bet just to withdraw some cash and avoid credit cards altogether?
Thanks in advance.
June 10th, 2009 at 12:18 am
The US federal credit card legislation curbs interest rates, not fees.
This may not help a lot of people, but BofA just verified for me that they will not be charging foreign transaction fees for foreign purchases made from the USA and paid in US dollars *IF* you use one of their *DEBIT* cards. This isn’t terribly helpful for a lot of people, but it might help a few.
June 27th, 2009 at 1:03 am
Ok I got hit with the foreign purchase fee like a lot of people. Now I would like to change to another card. The problem is I am living in Panama and do not have a U.S. address, or utility bill etc. like some cards requiere. I could apply for one here in Panama through HSBC but they require you to open up asavings account and keep a balance of 120% of the credit limit. Naw I don’t think so….. Any thought on how to get a Card when living out of country?
July 1st, 2009 at 5:56 pm
i just called Fidelity Investment Amex card service, and they told me 0% FTF for my trip in Cananda