Originally Posted by
AA_EXP09
Even with Canadian FX fee of 2.5% you lost out 1% at the very least (though there are FX free cards)
I'm non-resident, so my options are limited. TD was the easiest way for me to get a PIN-priority card, and the issue this time was the way they do foreign currency conversion. Their T&C states:
If you use the Account to make
Purchases or obtain Cash Advances in U.S. Dollars, Euros, Great
British Pounds, Australian Dollars, or Mexican Pesos, the foreign
currency will be converted directly to Canadian Dollars before it is
recorded in the Account. If you use the Account to make Purchases
or obtain Cash Advances in any other foreign currency, the currency
will be first converted to U.S. Dollars and then to Canadian Dollars
before it is recorded in the Account.
And they tack on 2.5% both times. I have it mostly in case I bump into a PIN-required situation (mostly in the UK/Eurozone, so it would indeed only be 2.5% and I'd take the hit to avoid merchant trouble or waiting in line), though once I got home I was also putting non-essential purchases on it in what is essentially a forex bet. The C$ seems to have bottomed out relative to the US$ so that's the end of that, though.