American Express Membership Rewards - Foreign currency transaction fees?

Hi--just wondering if anyone knows where I could find out what the foreign currency transaction fees are for AMEX and other credit cards?

Thanks for any help!

Do a search.

Or read your cardmember agreement.

Lonegun. Last time I checked Amx was 2% Visa and MC were 3% and Dicovery was 0%, but you should check the latest.

IIRC, AE and DC is 2% while MC and VISA are generally 3%, but MBNA cards are 1%. MBNA claim they charge 0% which is true in that MBNA the bank itself charges 0% but MC and VISA the organization charge 1%, thus transactions using MBNA cards is 1%. Don't know about Discover.

Amex charges 2%. MC and Visa charge 1%. BUT, many of the banks who front your MC or Visa card tack on another 2%, just because. If it matters, shop around for a bank that doesn't. Not surprisingly, you'll find banks that don't add this charge, don't add a lot of other charges. AFBA and CapitalOne are examples.

I think Discover is 0% because it isn't accepted outside the US.

In the interests of being thorough:

Many report that Amex has the worst exchange rate, about 0.5% to 1% higher than Visa/MC. So Amex is comparable to a Visa/MC with 2.5% to 3% fee....

When I travel abroad I use my local credit union's Visa, MBNA Quantum MC or Amtrak, and have avoided using Starwood Amex.

[This message has been edited by anthonyanthony (edited 09-30-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by anthonyanthony:
In the interests of being thorough:

Many report that Amex has the worst exchange rate, about 0.5% to 1% higher than Visa/MC. So Amex is comparable to a Visa/MC with 2.5% to 3% fee....

[This message has been edited by anthonyanthony (edited 09-30-2003).]</font>

I don't think conjecture comes under the category of "thorough", although if someone took the trouble to build a little database comparing exchange rates day-for-day for the three major card issuers it would be useful, if only to show that differences are in the noise.

On the infrequent occasions when I've captured a "neutral" exchange-rate history (I use xe.com) and used it later to evaluate c/c exchange rates, I haven't found anything to complain about. Not saying that my conjecture is any better than the other guys' conjecture.



[This message has been edited by JohnAx (edited 09-30-2003).]

When doing the comparsion let's also include Diners Club.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by JohnAx:
[B] I don't think conjecture comes under the category of "thorough", although if someone took the trouble to build a little database comparing exchange rates </font>

I felt it was more than "conjecture" because, in another flyertalk thread, someone posted that they had made Visa/MC and Amex purchases on the same day on multiple occasions, and noticed a pattern that Amex was exchanging at a rate .5% - 1% higher than Visa/MC. A few other posters then said that they noticed the same thing.

Based on that, I felt it was worth mentioning. I tried searching for the thread but couldn't find it...

And I've read articles saying that Visa had the best exchange rate, with MC a very close 2nd, and Amex a distant third. I guess I gotta do some google searches http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Thanks for the update, anthonyanthony. Link or not, that does sound like useful information.

Foreign currency fee of just the 1% that MasterCard and VISA mandate : AFBA, MBNA, Capital One

Anyone have others to add ?

There is NO fee for preapproved Check cashing via Bankwire with a PIN at an AMEX office in a foreign country. It is a cash transaction.
There is a 3% fee for Charge Cards transactions

Otherwise it is 3% charge + 2% currency conversion + Local Bank charge for ATMS. A $5.00 minimum fee.

Visa and MasterCard charge 3%+3% for charge cards and currency conversion.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Visa and MasterCard charge 3%+3% for charge cards and currency conversion. [/B]</font>No they dont. VISA and MasterCard charge a single flat 1% fee. CitiBank or the card issuer might add their own 2% or 3% on top of that, but some issuing banks add nothing. Some are listed above.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by anthonyanthony:
Many report that Amex has the worst exchange rate, about 0.5% to 1% higher than Visa/MC. So Amex is comparable to a Visa/MC with 2.5% to 3% fee....</font>

I have had occasion a couple of times to call AMEX about their currency conversion fees (where I believed the conversion fee was incorrect).

The CSRs I spoke with would check the date of the conversion, then tell me what the conversion rate should be without the fee being added.

In each case, the rate the CSR stated corresponded exactly with that on www.oanda.com (http://www.oanda.com) for the same date.

The CSR would then note the 2% conversion fee added by AMEX, and we would each calculate it. Her calculator and mine would agree on what dollar amount should have been charged for the transaction.

So, I conclude that AMEX does indeed use a 2% conversion fee. Differences between charges on different cards (e.g., VISA and AMEX) for purchases made the same day may be due to different fees, or to the merchants processing the charge to the bank on different days.

(By the way, in both cases it turned out that an error had been made, but tracking it down it was because an incorrect currency exchange rate had been used rather than that a higher conversion fee had been added. Since the CSR's answer and mine agreed, and the amount charged on my bill was higher than our mutually-derived answer, my bill was adjusted to the correct amount.)

AMEX exchange rates and conversion fees.

I travel with both an AmEx and a Credit Union Mastercard, and often use both on the same day (some places don't take AmEx). The AmEx gross exchange rate, inclusive of all fees, is ALWAYS at least 1.5 % worse than the Credit Union's Mastercard rate, and often 2 % worse. I still use AmEx whenever I can, since I find they have much better customer service, plus I get 1.5 % cashback at the end of the year. Of course, others may have a different perspective on AmEx customer service...

I encountered a major problem with Amex exchange rates while in Argentina last year. The peso/dollar rate was relatively volatile and a social acquaintance (who owned a five-star hotel in Buenos Aires) first alerted me to the problem prior to my receipt of the statement. He said that many guests had complained about Amex exchange rates while visiting Argentina.

As a result, I went on line and found that the charged were running 16% - 17% too high. At first, I couldn't get anywhere (I'm a Centurion Card holder), but the amount at stake was nearly $1,000. I ended up having to build a detailed spreadsheet to recalculate my charges, tracking charge date, post date, historical exchange rates for each day, etc. I eventually got my money back, but it wasn't easy. No one ever gave me a coherent reason for the "mistake," either.