Originally Posted by
neos
This is an interesting aspect that I hadn't given much thought to.
As someone with both the US and Canadian SPG Amex, I'm trying to calculate if it's worth it to pay for something in the US with the Canadian card?
Example: Widget costs $100 US (~130 CAD). Assume USD/CAD=1.3
Pay with US SPG Amex: 100 *points
Pay with Cdn SPG Amex: 133 *points
But these 33 additional *points cost something.
1) Assume Amex Canada adds a 2.5% fee to the exchange rate.
2) Assume that converting from CAD to USD would cost at least 1.6% over the rate you find on xe.com.
3) Therefore, those 33 *points cost [($2.5-$1.6)/(133-100)] = 0.027
Therefore, it wouldn't be worth it. Correct?
I don't think reason 2 applies. Typically (not sure about Amex for foreign currency) you get charged at interbank rate and then the %2.5 fee is tacked on. That's how MasterCard has always charged me. So you are paying essentially %2.5 for the points.
So yes, not worth it in my opinion unless you have no USD and would need to buy USD - so therefore it essentially cuts down the cost to about 1% (you can easily exchange USD/CAD at 1.5 from interbank)
It is worth it if, e.g., you are paying for a flight - where you can price it out using an OTA or the airline's website in either USD or CAD (e.g., you can use the expedia .ca or .com version to quote you a fare in the currency of your choosing).