Originally Posted by
goAsia
...are all of the "no foreign exchange fee" cards simply hiding their fees by giving a bad exchange rate?
No. Until a few years ago no US-based bank itemized foreign exchange fees, they were hidden in the exchange rate. As the result of a successful class -action suit these hidden fees were repaid to cardholders, and the issuers agreed to itemize the fees. Consumers are new sensitized to these expenses, and reducing or eliminating them has become a competitive strategy. As a practical matter the exchange rates are determined by the processing networks (American Express, Discover, MasterCard and VISA), not by the individual banks which issue cards (except in the special case of American Express and Discover which are both network operators and card issuers.)