Originally Posted by Boraxo
...I'm not sure I would trust some CSR in India. A more authoritative source would be someone who has recently received a statement and can verify the actual rate used.
Data for June 19th, 2006
BRL 1,000 (one thousand Brazilian reais) withdrawn from a Citibank ATM in Rio de Janeiro using Citibank’s banking card with the MC logo.
Amount charged on my Citibank statement:
USD: 444.15
Foreign fee: 4.44
Total: 448.59
Exchange rates for 06/19/06: 444.21/445.70 (bid/ask) interbank rate on oanda.com
Total converted amount for BRL 1,000
according to oanda.com:
445.698 (interbank)
450.158 (interbank+1%, calculated by oanda.com)
According to xe.com:
447.50 (mid-market)
451.98 (mid-market+1%, calculated by me)
Moral: Citibank’s converted amount of USD 444.15 is better than either oanda.com’s interbank rate or xe.com’s mid-market rate. Citibank’s total of USD 448.59 represents a 0.649% markup over oanda.com’s interbank rate and a 0.244% markup over xe.com’s mid-market rate. So … this case seems to show that Citibank’s new foreign fee has not brought the total markup to the 2% level. It seems to be still 1%, or lower. Anyone know of a better deal?