As far as I know, most cards now mark up foreign purchases by 3% over the current exchange rate. Does the MBNA card still charge only 1%, and AmEx 1.5%? Any others assess low markups?

Frontier Master Card (Juniper Bank) charged me $3 for $150 purchase charged in UK.

AMEX (in the United States at least) used to say it charged a 2% currency conversion fee on top of the interbank conversion rate. More recently they have changed that to say "Unless a particular rate is required by applicable law, you authorize us to chose a conversion rate that is acceptable to us for that date."

Sort of adds some uncertainty, doesn't it. What happens if the interbank rate for euros into dollars happens to be �1 = $1.20, and they find a rate of �1 = $2 to be "acceptable" to them.

My experience has been that they usually are within about 3% of the interbank rate, although some cases they have been interbank rate plus 10%. (In those cases, in all fairness, when I called to complain they credited back -- as a "courtesy credit" rather than an overcharge -- all over interbank plus 2%.)

If you look on the American Express forum, you will find some threads where the posters speculate that AMEX is inflating the exchange rate deliberately -- because they now can -- and only giving a credit back when someone complains. See, e.g.,

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=142118

Also, some years back a list was posted of the currency exchange fees charged by various cards. I'm not sure if it's current, but you can view it at:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ign+conversion

MBNA still charges only 1% - I have the MBNA AAA Visa card - it's a good card that gives you 5% cash back on gas (upto $2.00 rebate per day - $40 worth of gas) & has no annual fee - also gives you 2% back on AAA purchases (including travel, I think) and for every 5K spent on the card, you get a $50.00 gift certificate to AAA.

http://www.aaamidatlantic.com/financial/creditcard.asp

MBNA and Capital One are the major credit card issuers still at 1%. The rest add additional surcharges, usually totaling 3%.

Many local credit union and smaller bank issued cards also only have a 1% fee.

But the cheapest way to get foreign cash is to use an ATM card issued by a bank that does not assess network fees, and to withdraw the money from an ATM that does not have an ATM fee. (Most ATMs outside the USA do not have a fee.)

Fleet still charges 1%.

QL

I almost included Fleet in my list, but when I checked their web site at www.fleetbank.com, it says that they merged with Bank of America. When I clicked on their credit card products, they appear to only offer Bank of America cards, which have a 3% foreign currency transaction fee.

Looks like only current Fleet Bank cardholders are grandfathered in to having a card with a 1% fee. And that may change with the merger...

Which banks could you recommend that do not charge fees for withdrawing $ from foreign country, foreign institution ATMs?

BTW, the US practice of charging holders of foreign institution ATM cards is spreading to some other countries. Canadian institutions charge, and I believe Korean banks do as well.

Washington Mutual has never charged me, but perhaps I am grandfathered.

QL

I always use my Umbrellabank.com Visa ATM card to get cash when in the US or overseas. The rate I get overseas is almost exactly 1% above the day's market rate on xe.com with no other fees (at least that's been my experience in China, Hong Kong, Holland, Spain, Israel, and the UK). The same rate seems to apply for POS transactions, so I've started using it for shopping when overseas, because the miles aren't worth the 2-3% Amex and Citi charge on top of their already-crappy exchange rates.

I've been with Umbrella for almost 4 years now and have been extremely happy. I have only a $500 minimum balance to avoid fees for _interest_ checking with free online billpay, free Visa ATM card, free postage paid deposit envelopes, 24hr native-English-speaking customer service, and up to 5 ATM fee rebates per month (so I can use any bank's ATM in the US). I have only three complaints: I can't deposit cash because deposits are by mail, I can't choose my ATM PIN number (it's randomly assigned), and there's no call-collect number on the back of the card for when I'm overseas. Otherwise, I've been thrilled.

Now if only they had a referral system like ING Direct.... I promise I have no affiliation with them other than being a happy customer.

Probably so, since WaMu's credit card operations (at least for new customers) are now handled by Citibank.

themicah, thanks for the recommendation! I may well try them.

On Sept 12, after having read numerous complaints about Amex charges, I decided to make an experiment. I made two purchases in Israel, within 15 minutes of each other, one using my Bank of America Visa and the other my Amex.

Amex wound up charging me $0.2286 for each Israeli shekel I charged.

Visa charged me $0.2252 for each shekel, but I found a second charge on my bill. I inquired about it and received the following reply from Bank of America:

Thank you for your inquiry dated 9/15/04 regarding Regular Checking -
We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced.

The item that posted to your account on 9/14/04 is a foreign currency conversion adjustment of 2%. The 2% foreign currency conversion adjustment will be charged for each purchase made with a Check Card in a foreign country. The new adjustment is in addition to the 1% charge currently assessed by Visa, which is included in the original transaction amount. The 2% adjustment will be listed separately from the original transaction.

If we may be of further assistance, please contact us again by e-mail.
Thank you for choosing Bank of America.

This new charge now means that when I am using my Bank of America Visa I am paying $0.2296 per shekel -- more than what Amex costs.

On 8/29 Umbrellabank charged me $0.2222 per shekel at an ATM. And they charged me $0.2227 and $0.2241 per shekel on 8/29 and 9/4 for sign-the-receipt transactions in stores. No additional fees.

Well I'm no BofA fan, but kudo's for them for splitting it out. MBNA can't even tell me what exchange rate they used.

While I'd rather pay rate with a 1% surcharge than the 3%, I think all exchange rates should be noted on the statement.