Bizarre unless your Quicksilver is a MasterCard version.

0.5% higher foreign exchange rate with Chase vs Cap one
 

There was a post here on FT maybe a few months ago with a guy who tested about a bunch of cards and their forex fees. Try to look it up. It was really interesting

If you are looking at the pending charges on the issuers' websites the USD amount shown are approximations, and likely to change when the transactions post.

It is indeed a quicksilver mastercard. Why would that make a difference, and such a large difference?

Suggest reviewing this entire thread. Many members report consistently better exchange rates when using MasterCard vs VISA.

The script is failing for me with "Visa: Cannot find exchange rate", is it still working for you or did they change something in their backend?

Barclays charging hidden foreign exchange fees
 

Barclays has started charging a hidden foreign exchange fee on their Arrival+ (and presumably other cards, as well). I'd used the Arrival+ for some largish transactions in New Zealand dollars last year, and saw that they applied the expected exchange rate for the settlement date as quoted by MasterCard (https://www.mastercard.com/global/currencyconversion/) I did some more transactions in January, but now the exchange rate used by Barclays is around .5-1.0+% in their favor.

This appears to be a violation of their terms and conditions. If you're using Barclays for an large foreign currency purchases you might want to check this for yourself and confirm - the USD amount should match that quoted by MasterCard for the settlement date, which would typically be the next U.S. business day after the transaction took place.

I've confirmed that Citi is still using the MasterCard rates on their cards, at least the Premier.

I've tried contacting Barclays about this but have gotten nowhere, with secure mails just sending me canned responses and live representatives saying they have no control over the exchange rate. Seems like a great class action suit in the making.

Sounds like Dynamic Currency Conversion to me. Is it illegal? Don't think so. Is it a shady practice? I do think so.

Anyway, no, this is not a DCC issue. This is an issue with regular purchases charged in the foreign currency.

Hmmm... I make large AUD purchases and always use the A+. I'll see if I can corroborate this.

Guys, I'm here for an easy answer.

For Singapore, should I use Amex SPG or Barclay Arrival+?

My feeling is that they are about the same for USD/JPY, but 1 SPG point is in my idea more valuable than 2 Arrival points. Therefore I used Amex SPG mostly in Japan.

Do you guys have different opinions?

I have always been one to see Discover/Mastercard > Amex > Visa. However, recent posts indicate this may no longer be true for Barclay's Mastercards...

Jan 3 I did a $100 transaction in Tokyo using A+, and the rate was fine...

I will test again soon as I'm heading to Singapore. Maybe I'll find a convenience store and do two swipes.

I kind of think Amex uses almost the same rates as MC does, and I would like to know whether your experience explicitly tells differently, thanks~

Amex has always seemed a tiny bit worse but it could have been time of day etc. Discover and MasterCard I consider essentially perfect. Amex a tiny amount worse. Visa pretty bad.

One advantage of Amex is that you don't have to be alert to the possibility of DCC (dynamic currency conversion) since they apparently don't allow that.