I am extremely interested in this thread. Thanks for delving into the topic. Going back into my statements, it seems that my starwood amex charged me LESS than 2% in Brazil. For example, the following charge appeard on my statement for February 13:

70.00 BRASIL REAL BILLED AS
24.63

That is a rate of 0.3518571(rounded to 7 decimal places). According to oanda.com (thanks for the link) the interbank +2% credit card rate for that day is: 02/13/2004 0.3523080.
Using that rate, I should have been charged $24.66 not 24.63. Thus, it was actually BELOW the 2% rate. On other days is was between 2 and 3%
On mastercard it was between 2 and 3.5% for various days. I assume that they don't have the exact same rates as oanda.com. Although not much different. Any reason why Brasil would not get the whopping fees that others have been getting here?

[This message has been edited by grupie (edited Mar 25, 2004).]

[This message has been edited by grupie (edited Mar 25, 2004).]