NYCRuss

Well you can get a PIN for cash withdrawals. I have one, although haven't used the PIN. Whether or not the U.S. SPG Amex has chip & pin capability is something that I don't know.

mia

Chip & Signature, same as all other cards issued American Express (USA).

NYCRuss

Thanks!

Michael Ad

So in that poster's situation, it must be that any entry works for an Amex card at the kiosk where he had success.

G-CIVC

My MC transaction over the weekend finally posted today. The rate was pretty awful (4% off from the mid market rate) but not like I can do anything about it...

perhaps using the ATM cash rate is better when traveling abroad in the future.

mia

On which date?

photaco

Great news, as 0.712100 is the rate quoted by https://www.mastercard.com/global/currencyconversion/ for AUD -> USD on 2/29. (I am pretty sure mid market rates have no bearing on what MasterCard charges post as.)

MOC991

I was disappointed to see my charges for my trip starting tomorrow had about 1-1.8% added to them on my JP Morgan Visa over the market rate. It has barely fluctuated between 1.09-1.10 for EURUSD recently with applied rates of 1.11-1.12 on the transactions. The 2x points are worthless if I'm just paying that much in hidden exchange fees. I suppose I'll be forgoing the 2x points on travel and use my Amex wherever possible.

Chase really shot themselves in the foot making their exclusive deal with Visa since I would have just fallen back on a CSP MC if they existed. I need a good MC card and it looks like it will be coming from Citi instead.

I also wanted to add when I last made Euro purchases in 2012 and 2014, there was not that big of a fee. It was around 0.5% on Visa at the most, and the Amex then was at market rate. I haven't made any purchases for this trip yet on the Amex. If it is purely Visa, maybe we should start to make more of an effort to complain to the issuers to push back. At the least encourage them to list it separately as a fee charged by Visa so more people complain since no FTF does not mean 1-2% fees.

patrick.barnes

Well, I think the prevailing FX rate has some bearing it's not a random number...

Either way, no mark up on the A+. Still the best card for FX.

G-CIVC

Feb 28th. Bloomberg showed rate of 16.1x...MC gave me 15.70...Anyway, this ex-JNB MR still got a good CPM ^

richarddd

Based on these web sites, MC beats Visa for EUR and loses to Visa for GBP.

Visa tool: https://usa.visa.com/support/consume...lculator.html/

MC tool: https://www.mastercard.com/global/currencyconversion/

Based on these, Visa is usually about 1% more expensive for EUR charges paid in USD, with a range of about 0.75% to 1.25% higher. Charges in GBP charges however, were cheaper for Visa, by comparable amounts.

I can't find a similar tool for Amex, the closest is a Barclays UK which is only GBP https://www.barclaycard.co.uk/person...rds/amex-rates. GBP charges were cheaper than Visa or Amex, but I'm not sure how accurate this is, as I paid almost 1.5% more using an Amex SPG card.

Is there a general Amex currency conversion tool?

You might see if the reported rates equal what you were actually charged.

mia

There is one on the American Express UK website, but it requires a login to access, and I can no longer find a way to trick the site into accepting a USA login (redirects to USA site). The tool displays rates for specific card accounts. Mine is an International Dollar Card, so the rates are displayed in USD with the 3% Foreign Transaction Fee broken out (and excluded from the figures below).

For transactions processed 4 March the USD/GBP rate is .706, the USD/EUR rate is .913 . (We are accustomed to seeing the rates displayed the other way around 1.416 and 1.095 )

richarddd

Visa is 0.712687 GBP (1.4031) and 0.921482 EUR (1.0852), so Visa is better on both.

MC only goes to 1 March, Barclay's Amex only to 3 March.

mia

These are the rates for transactions processed on 1 March 2016:

USD/GBP = .716 (1.397)
USD/EUR = .911 (1.098)

Dieuwer

Chase Sapphire Preferred.
Transaction date: 3/3.
Post date: 3/4
Rate: 1.097251 USD/EUR.
VISA website for 3/4 with 0% bank charge: 1.097290 USD/EUR.