Originally Posted by ajnaro
It remains to be seen, of course, if any of the cards will charge a separate ‘finance’ fee when the monthly statements are printed, but phone representatives I spoke to claim there will be none. For now, AMEX is the big loser, with a 1.34% difference with respect to the other two. MBNA Fidelity would seem to be the winner, since it offers a higher rebate. Nonetheless, the picture would be reversed if MBNA later throws in a 3% fee. And taking rebates into account, AMEX would come out ahead in the case of a travel and entertainment expense.
Each of the three credit card issuers has now issued final statements, and none of them added a separate finance charge. The conclusions are:
1- MBNA Fidelity Rewards does NOT charge a 3% foreign exchange fee, notwithstanding explicit information that it does charge such a fee given by its phone representatives. Perhaps new accounts have this extra fee.
2- MBNA AMEX converted at about 1.34% more than MBNA Fidelity MC or CapitalOne VISA for identical charges on the same day at the same foreign merchant, not withstanding MBNA’s claim that its AMEX charges only a 1% foreign exchange fee, equal to the stated fee of CapitalOne VISA. In fact, MBNA AMEX costs more to use than the stated 1%, although the extra charge is not made explicit anywhere on the statement. This would seem to be ripe field for a class action suit since MBNA's claims are clearly deceptive. In fact, none of the information given by MBNA representatives, with respect to either the Fidelity MC or the AMEX was correct.
The moral is: avoid American Express for international use; use CapitalOne VISA or an old MBNA card if you would like a rebate.
The one mechanism not tested here is so-called dynamic currency conversion, which can cost far more than any exchange fee.