I purchased tickets on Easyjet website on April 25, the exchange rate was actually a few pennies below the rate I saw on web. Statement closed on May 22, no additional fee appeared, no literature sent with statement.

I assume if they are going to add the fee, they would have to send literature soon, if July is the month MBNA going the BofA way.

I had a big falling out with Citibank on these charges. They are completely bogus and they basically charge you 10% on top of what the spot fx rate is. They can charge you whatever they want. The card holder agreements state they will charge you a rate as set by visa/amex/mc. Its totally bogus.

Due to everyone saying that Capital One does not charge the 1% FX fee, I decided to carry it with me to Italy and compare the charges on three different cards on 10 different days. Capital One not only does not add 3%, in almost all charges it came up to 6% over the FX posted rate. No they do not add it as a seperate line item, but when they do the conversion it comes out 3-6 higher than the posted FX rate. Called Capital One and they said they use the posted rate plus their handling charge....

What specific CapitalOne card do you have? When did you get it? Were you using it for purchases or cash advances? If purchases, did the merchants convert the charges to dollars before processing them? If not, are you sure you were doing your math using the interbank rate for the correct day? I've had nothing but good experiences with my CapOne No Hassle Cash Rewards Visa for foreign currency purchases overseas.

What were the other cards you were comparing?

When you were told about this "handling charge," did they go into more detail? How much is the handling charge? Whose charge is it? CapOne is required to disclose all this if you ask them. If you didn't get that information the first time, would you mind calling them back and asking again? The more information we can gather here the better recommendations we can provide.

And remember that if you haven't traveled abroad recently, you should always give your credit card company a ring before heading overseas to double-check your current fees.

I would like to know also...

I live in China so below is an outline of some of my charges using a CapOne Visa:

Date RMB Charge (US$) CapOne Exchange Rate XE.com Rate
5/23/2006 ￥90.45 $11.31 7.99734748 8.0175
5/24/2006 ￥356.90 $44.60 8.002242152 8.0177
5/27/2006 ￥265.00 $33.12 8.001207729 8.025

More analysis. I don't see a significant difference between the XE.com and Commerce Bank/Capital One charges. The variance may be due to when the charge was processed as the XE.com historical chart only shows at 12 PM (not sure of time zone).

Date RMB Charge (US$) Exhange Rate XE.com Rate Variation XE Charge Deviation % Type

Capital One
5/23/2006 ￥90.45 $11.31 7.99734748 8.0175 -0.02015252 $11.28 -$0.03 -0.0025199 POS
5/24/2006 ￥356.90 $44.60 8.002242152 8.0177 -0.015457848 $44.51 -$0.09 -0.00193169 POS
5/27/2006 ￥265.00 $33.12 8.001207729 8.025 -0.023792271 $33.02 -$0.10 -0.002973585 POS



Commerce
6/8/2006 ￥2,000.00 $250.10 7.996801279 8.0162 -0.019398721 $249.49 -$0.61 -0.00242581 ATM
5/11/2006 ￥93.00 $11.65 7.982832618 8.0035 -0.020667382 $11.62 -$0.03 -0.002588978 POS
4/26/2006 ￥707.00 $88.42 7.995928523 8.0165 -0.020571477 $88.19 -$0.23 -0.002572744 POS

PS. If you find anything significantly statistically different please report.

I don't ever do cash advances, that is a rip off no matter whose card it is or where you are!

Yes they were all purchases and in Italy like most of Europe they do not convert to any other currency, only Euros.

I called again and was told by the representative that they can adjust the fee to the rate as much as 3 days before or after the transaction. I asked what this meant and she said we can charge you up to 6%.

I called again and the man I spoke with this time said "We don't have an extra charge but we do charge different rates for exchange than is published".

I called again and was told that I would have to speak with a supervisor as she did not have the information and then hung up.

I called again and was told that the rate is surcharged from 1 to 3%.

I called again and was told that Capital One does not charge any extra fees.

I called again and was told that the rate is surcharged from 1 to 3% and that it was included in the amount posted.

I don't guess anyone at capone really knows what they are doing, due to the inconsistency in answers. I can tell you that every customer service that I have dealt with at other banks gives me the same answer every time, even if I don't like the answer at least it matches the amount on the statement.

I will try it again in Ireland next week and England in July and let you know how that fairs.

No Hassle Rewards Card

I used the Nordstrom Platinum and the amount of the charge was posted using the correct and matching exchange rate for the day and a seperate transaction appeared for 1%.

I used my Credit Union card and had the same experience.

Just for the sake of argument I have found the best card to have is actually a Bank of Ireland credit card for traveling in Europe and a Natwest credit card for the UK.

That is the saddest thing I have heard in a long while. CapOne Reps themselves don't know what is going on within their own company. I guess having reps who read off of scripts isn't so bad at all.....

I just returned from London a week ago and I used my Netbank debit card extensively. I can confirm that there were no fees added on for ATM withdrawals or debit card purchases. The exchange rate used was roughly 1.86 pounds to the dollar.

Wow! That's an incredbily good rate! I think I will catch the next flight and use my card to the max each day. Should pay for the trip in no time at all.

(Yes, I know what you meant. Sorry. I just couldn't resist. I am a retired math teacher, so its genetic.)