pssteve

I've paid more than $400.00 in FTF's in 2011. What's my best CC direction? Thanks for any info.

JohnnyColombia

What's a foreign transaction fee?
Apart from the slightly exploitative exchange rate that AMEX/VISA/MC applies I have never been charged for using a CC anywhere in the world apart from the fee for cash advances.

Happy

There are quite a number of cards dont have forex fee now.

It depends on your objective on what to earn from your spending before you can say which one is best for YOU.

Several Chase offerings (airlines and hotels affinity cards and its own inhouse cards) are 0 forex, ditto the Citi Premer Card that earns TYPs which offers 25% discount when redeem for flights that are revenue tickets which earn miles. AMEX also eliminates forex fee on the Plat and Cent cards.

Of course the infamous "What's in your Wallet?" Capital One cards are all 0 forex fee.

ms247

I have used Capital one venture/regular platinum CC and amex platinum CC this summer when I was traveling trough Europe. No fees, and worked great. You do need to call them in advance though. Amex platinum card has a hefty fees, so capital one may be cheaper (and its visa) .

Also, I always keep two cards - a) Visa has more acceptance than Amex, and b) as a back-up if one card declines transactions due to fraud alert. There is no specific workaround for the latter. It generates in random locations and for sizeable amounts of transactions, and you have to call them back to approve.

I have heard Chase BA cards also come with no fees, but I haven't used them though.

Happy

google is your friend since your address is not US-based, you may want to google it if you want to know.

Love_to_Travels

Chase Marriott also does not have foreign transaction fee. It has a promotion going on right now for 50k pts and 1 free night and annual fees waived.

biggestbopper

Nope, many cards, both Amex, Visa & MC add on 3% or more to the converted forex amount as a somewhat hidden profit center. This is a relatively recent developmet (started maybe 20 years ago with a few and quickly grew as the card companies realized the customer mostly didn't understand how they were getting cheated). In the last year or two a few cards have been offered that drop the forex charges with this being touted as a great new thing. While not bad, it is really just going back to the way things used to be.

Likely has a lot to do with bankers' fear of the new Federal Financial Protection Bureau.

tentseller

I find calling the card issuer before leaving and giving them my dates and cities that I will be in helped in avoiding fraud alert and having transaction declined.

JohnnyColombia

Cheers Happy, Googled and I am amazed. As owner of CCs from 3 different countries I presume this must be a mainly USA thing. I am amazed the Americans let their banks get away with it.

Happy

Actually the 3% used to be a hidden thing in the "exploitative" exchange rates used to convert the foreign currencies to billing currency.

It is the result of several class-action lawsuits to make the banks disclose this charge from hidden to a separate line item.

Now the exchange rate is fairly close to the average intra-bank rate of the posting date of the transaction.

So the net net is, if your card has 0% forex fee, you are not being gouge any more because the exchange rates are more aligned to the true rates instead of an inflated rate.

But your cards that are outside US may still employ a very inflated exchange rate when it comes to convert the charge to billing currency.

Oh, the class-lawsuits also would refund the cardholders the gouging amount AFTER all the lawyers fee etc ... The suits were several years ago and the forms for us cardholders to file our claims were at least 2 if not 3 years ago.. and of course we still haven't seen the final settlement amount yet... At the end of the date, may be we each get a few bucks back...

JohnnyColombia

I remain unconvinced Happy. I saw a Helm Bank (Colombia) LanPass Visa card a couple of years ago that stated "No additional fees for foreign currency transactions"

That got me thinking that that was a sound thing to be on the lookout for someone like me that spends in different countries, however in Colombia I have failed to find a card that does apply additional forex fees over and above the 1 (ish) percent that MC, Visa or Amex charges. I always ask the bank if I am interested in applying for the card and they look at me like I am from a different planet. It takes 3 or 4 attempts to manage to explain what I mean because the concept is lost on them.

I check the T&Cs of my UK cards and keep an eye on exchange rates and always seem to get a fair deal

For this reason I wondered what the OP meant, like I said, I definitely don't have any cards that apply such a fee. But I just remembered, the BA UK Amex card has a 3.75% fee.

I promptly didn't apply for the card, but got a Peruvian Interbank Amex card and once again upon asking, they confirmed that apart from the exchange rate difference, there is no additional fee. After a couple of thousand dollars worth of spending on it in the UK last month, that seems to be true, fairly reasonable exchange rates.

I really do think that the issuing bank adding an additional fee on top of that charged by MC/Visa/Amex is something that is not widespread the world over.

I for one am certainly not taking a 3% hit on any of my CCs

I have been a completely useless nuisance in this thread but thanks, it has been an eye opener

b1513

The Chase Marriott black signature card was the one I recently used in France and Switzerland. No forex fees. It was great.

Bobette

Happy

Chase has Marriott, Hyatt, IHG cards 0% forex fee, some versions of CO / UA cards and the BA card also 0% forex fee. Sapphire Preferred, the in house card and may be other in house cards are 0% forex fee.

Citi Premier card is the only one 0% forex fee among all Citi cards I believe but I may be wrong.

AMEX Plat and Cent are 0% forex fee. Sadly SPG is not.

The no longer available ex-Schwab now FIA Visa is 0% forex fee.

C1 cards are 0% forex fee since inception.

The options are a lot more than just a year ago.

Which one to choose is up to the individual to evaluate which card's reward program fits better to his own need. The best one for person A may not be the best one for person B.

Captain Mike

I just called to verify forex fees on Amex Hilton HHonors (basic brown card) and Chase Marriott Visa (non-premier).

Amex CSR was particularly curt about the 2.7% fee. When I asked why I would use that card outside the U.S., she replied, "The fee comes with the card. If you don't want to pay the fee, then use one of your other cards". Thanks, bit**, I most certainly will.

Chase CSR was more friendly, but did state that the fee applies to the non-premier Marriott card. Premier cards are exempt from forex fees.

Future trips have me using the Chase BA card exclusively outside the U.S.

lin821

No, it's not a mainly USA thing.

Foreign transaction fees have been universal since the last decade in Asia as well. Ever wonder why "no foreign transaction fee" being advertised as a nice "feature/benefit" of certain CCs?

As I recall, in the mid-1990s, issuing banks used to "absorb" whatever fees International MC/Visa/Amex imposed on international charges, usually from 1% to 3%. And staring in early 2000s, you'd find most banks bill foreign transaction fees as standalone charges in the billing statement. If you like, you can dig up more discussion about this fee in the other master thread on foreign exchange:

Best card for foreign exchange?

There's also another shorter thread about cards that charge no foreign-transaction fee back in 2006. You should just be glad that none of your chosen cards in whichever countries haven't implemented foreign transaction fee. Consider yourself lucky.