My secondary credit card is a British Airways VISA from First USA Bank. I have it specifically to use on frequent trips outside the United States, since my Citibank AA Visa pads the normal Vias 1 per cent foreign currency transaction fee with an extra per cent charge.

Something I read here on FT indicated to me that First USA's United card was the only miles-bearing visa not to have an extra fee. I called customer service before I went to Turkey and the UK in July and was reassured by them that there was no extra fee. However, when my card was up for renewal in August, I decided I wanted to get that assurance in writing. I got an email from someone in customer service repeating that there was no surcharge beyond the one per cent fee. I renewed the card.

At the same time, I asked to have a cardmember agreement sent to me. It arrived this week, and it says the opposite of what the email told me -- that there is indeed a three per cent charge. I wrote again to customer service via email. This time I got a message that said "First USA has changed
how the foreign currency conversion rate is determined for some of our accounts, which includes British Airways."

I would not have renewed this card if I had known. I am also furious that this was apparently done without any official notice - I only got the cardmember agreement because I specifically requested it. (Usually when a card agreement is changed, in my experience, you get a card member agreement with a note that says that changes have been made, that ifyou continue to use the card, you accept those changes."

Do I have any recourse here? It's also possible that all the charges I made in July were ALREADY padded with this fee, of course, and I am definitely out the annual fee.