Just came up with an idea...

How to eliminate foreign exchange rate fees on ATM, debit, and credit cards.

At the present, when a person travels to another country, they must pay a fee to convert their money. The most costly way to convert money is with cash or travelers checks. The most economical way is by using a major credit card. ATM withdrawals are a close second to credit cards.

Visa and Mastercard charge a 1% fee for currency conversion. Until the past year, credit card issuers did not add any additional charges to the currency conversion. Now, credit cards issuers will now be free to add an additional charge that could end up with a conversion fee of even 4%! Another way banks are slipping extra fees that earn them big profits.

I tried thinking of a way around the currency conversion. The best I think of was to open a bank account in the regions that I plan to travel and obtain a debit/credit card that from the bank. The only problem is that still find that I must transfer U.S. funds from my bank to foreign banks in order to have money for my debit/credit card. Again, I will be hit with currency conversion fees unless of course, I transfer millions of $at a time (wish I could).

Thinking some more... Why not become find a counterpart in the country I am going to travel? For example: Say the Euro and U.S. dollar are on equal exchange, 1:1. If over a year, I charge/debit/withdraw 10,000 Euro in EU countries and my counterpart charges/debits/withdraws $10,000 in the U.S. If we each pay our own bills, we will end up paying anywhere from 100 $/Euro to 400 $/Euro or more in conversion fees. But if I pay off my counterpart's U.S.-based account and my counterpart pays off my EU-based account, then we would save the conversion fees because we would pay with local currency.

What do you think? Of course, there would have to be reputable 3rd parties to actual administer the transactions as I don't want to pay my counterpart's bills and then have my money disappear. And one more thought, this is intended to be a way save money by avoiding currency conversion fees, but this is not intended to be a vehicle for currency speculation.

Anyone think this can work?