Originally Posted by
richarddd
In London, I used my Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa and Amex SPG for £5 top ups to my Oyster card. I did them within about a minute. Chase translated to $7.17, Amex to $7.26. There were no separate currency conversion fees. Charge was on 2/17.
This seems contrary to recent posts preferring Amex to Visa.
The Visa rate (1.434) approximated the highest inter-bank spot in 2/17, according to
https://www.poundsterlinglive.com/be...-on-2016-02-17. The Amex (1.452) rate was higher, although the pound was dropping at the time.
Originally Posted by
luna6
Actually it makes perfect sense, because earlier posts mentioned that Visa/Mastercard uses exchange rates on day of usage and Amex the day it settles (?). So in instances with a rapidly dropping currency you'll see Amex lose out. Conversely, when exchange rate is stable or currency is rising then Amex will come out ahead.
Originally Posted by
richarddd
With falling exchange rates, the charge in dollars should be lower the later the date that is used to calculate exchange rates. The pound has been getting cheaper (likely due to talk of Brexit).
If Visa uses day of usage and Amex uses the same or a later day, Amex should be the same or lower, rather than being about 1.25% higher.
Originally Posted by
bigbuy
Regarding Amex, not necessarily true.
This from Amex t&c's
"Unless otherwise required by law, we will chose a rate that is acceptable to us for that date. The rate we use will be no more than the HIGHEST official rate published by a government agency or the HIGHEST interbank rate we identify from customary banking sources on the conversion date or the PRIOR business day. This rate may differ from the rates that are in effect on the date of your charge".
My point was that, contrary to the post to which I responded, if rates are falling (e.g., fewer dollars per pound), using a later date will give you a lower price, not a higher price. The OP got it exactly backwards.
Your post does not seem responsive to that issue. It could be consistent with my post that Amex gave a worse rate.
Earlier posts were to the effect that Amex generally gives a better exchange rate than Visa. Both Amex and Visa appear to use the highest rate on the relevant day, which suggests neither is generally better than the other, it depends on which date is used and how market rates are moving.
From the t&c you post, Amex seems to use posting date rather than date of use. Visa seems to be the same, given that the amount shown in "pending charges" is often different than the final amount. Amex does not seem to post "pending charges" for forex transactions, perhaps to avoid showing different pending and final amounts.