Originally Posted by Counsellor

I'm afraid I don't understand.

If the invoice had been converted to pesos and they intended to charge your credit card in pesos, they should have done the same with the Travel Card, since it is treated as a VISA card. The VISA system would convert the pesos to dollars when they process it, at the rate current at the moment of processing.

Because VISA uses the rate current at the time of processing, the hotel desk (and you) never know exactly what exchange rate will ultimately be applied. That's why you have to calculate a bit (in my case, I use about 6%) less than the interbank rate published in Financial Times or on MARSHA when determining how much (in foreign currency) I ask the hotel to charge against the Travel Card.

What this also means is that your Travel Card will probably have a small balance left on it after the transaction clears. So don't let them keep the card, and don't toss it. After about a week (by which time the transaction should have cleared), check the balance. You can use the card for that small balance sometime when you're in a hotel in the States.