Visa / Mastercard exchange rates
Jan 18, 2009 | 3:13 am
#1
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Visa / Mastercard exchange rates
With many European shops not accepting regular magnetic cards anymore, I'm looking for a new credit card, one with a CIP.
Found yesterday a local bank (ING) offering a good card, but their foreign exchange rate system seems quite odd:All the other CCs I have use only the Visa/MC international exchange rate from RON to the foreign currency, not a double exchange.
Does anybody know how Visa/MC calculate these exchange rates and where would we, customers, be able to see them online (even retroactively)?
Found yesterday a local bank (ING) offering a good card, but their foreign exchange rate system seems quite odd:
- purchases made in Romania - currency is RON, money will be debited in RON
- purchases made in EU-zone - currency turns to EUR, money will be debited in RON from the account, after the exchange rate of ING in Romania (usually a 1-2% cost)
- purchases made in non-EUR zone - currency is EUR, and money will be debited from my account following a strange algorithm:
- change GBP to EUR at Mastercard exchange rate (big unknown...)
- EUR is changed in RON at local bank exchange rate (in total I think I will get screwed with ~3-4%)
Does anybody know how Visa/MC calculate these exchange rates and where would we, customers, be able to see them online (even retroactively)?
