Different people seem to have different terms on their Fidelity MBNA cards. If you were told 1%, it should be 1% until you get something in the mail stating otherwise. But some Fidelity MBNA cardholders in this thread have reported receiving the 3% notification in the mail. It's unclear what exactly the criteria are, but it seems most people with Fidelity Visa cards are still at 1% while most people with Fidelity MC cards are at 3%. Of course YMMV.

Despite having a good forex CC, watch out for stealth conversions!
 

Just a heads up... I just got back from a trip to HKG, and the shopping was great, used my Pentagon Federal CC with no problem (1% fee, but 1.25% is already rebated back). The only problem I encountered was at a retailer, Shanghai Tang, who rang up the charges, the receipt was like this...

Local Amt HKD$: XXX.XX
FX Rate: .132835 USD/HKD
Bill Amt USD$: XXX.XX

I asked the retailer what this was (I had seen it in stores, but they usually ask you if you want the bill in USD before automatically assuming.). The reply was, "Oh, that's just for reference, you'll get charged in HKD. That's just for your information."

I went back to the hotel room, a bit suspect, and called the CC company, who confirmed the charge in USD. The forex rate that Shanghai Tang used was interbank + 3%. I went back to the retailer to reverse the USD charge and charge it in HKD, and it was no problem.

Again, buyer beware and be vigilant! :eek:

It's pretty annoying that Shanghai Tang would seemingly take it upon themselves to impose what would be assumed a commission on the payment transaction on top of the margin they're taking on the sale of goods.

How very "Hong Kong" of them.

Yeah, seriously. Having parents who grew up in HK, I have always been taught to be paranoid about stuff like this. My wife thinks it's pretty funny. Not that HK'ers blatantly try to rip you off - they're just in it to make money when and where they can.

I had the exat same experience at a restaurant in Paris. I think it is wise to assume that if it lists a dollar amount anywhere on your charge ticket, then you're being charged in after-conversion dollars and not in the foreign currency. I intend to refuse to sign any such charge tickets in the future-I have read that this is done at the merchant's direction, allegedly after they have asked the customer which currency they want to be charged in. If that's true, then the merchant can re-run the charge in the local currency.

Remember, it's not just a bad rate you have to worry about. For many credit cards, any charge in a foreign currency or at a foreign locale results in a charge of, often, 3%. In that case, the merchant has charged you 3% for the conversion and then your card will charge you another 3% for the charge outside the US.

I intend to fight these attempts at every turn. These hustlers are like ants at a picnic and you have to keep swatting them away.

That may be true with some other credit cards, but not with Amex. If I buy something in Israel and the charge is in dollars, Amex only bills me for the original charge.

Even if the local merchant gives me a bad exchange rate it winds up costing me less than having it billed in shekels. Hence, whenever possible I ask for the charge to be in dollars.

Unfortunately, under Israeli law the only ones who can bill me in dollars are hotels, travel agents, airlines, and the Duty Free shop at the airport. (Indeed, the airlines and the Duty Free shop have their prices set in dollars, so there is no exchange rate at all. I would only have to pay for one if I were to put the purchase on my Israeli credit card -- which would mean getting charged for exchanging dollars into shekels.)

This happened to me in Switzerland, even after I specifically asked for the charge to be in Swiss Francs. I confronted the waitress about this and she acted as though she had no idea how to reverse the Dollar charge and re-run in Francs. I ended up escalating to the hotel manager who understood my request with no difficulty.

Of course I was afraid that I'd end up with multiple fees, one for each time the card was swiped (3 in all). As it turned out only the final charge appeared on the bill.

I don't know about Amex, but Visa and Mastercard now call the fee a "foreign transaction fee" so it doesn't matter what currency the charge appears in, the fee is applied for all non-US transactions.

I think Mastercard/Visa charge 1% for foreign currency transactions anywhere AND/OR non US based USD transactions, while as the banks just charge their 1 or 2% (to make 2 or 3% total) on foreign currency purchase/transaction anywhere.

So I would gather if you charge in USD internationally you get 1% "fee", but if foreign currency it is the full 3% (or 2% if you have that)

At least this is the impression I get from reading my MC T&C. Foreign currency purchases (note "purchases" only) --I just see x% after is conversion into USD

I just used my Citi's Premier Pass Elite Master Card to pay for TGV train tickets on SNCF.fr and it was 216 Euros which came out to be only $275

comparing with xe.com's exchange rate:

216.00 EUR
Euro = 274.634 USD
United States Dollars

I am very pleasantly surprised! Also i don't see anything about exchange rate or service charge on the unbilled activity

Don't get too excited. Citi will most likely add 3% in the finance charges section of your statement at the end of the month. But at least they don't rip you off on the rate, too.

MC/Visa each charge 1% for purchases in foreign currencies. Most card issuers charge an extra 2% on top of that, as noted in the wiki:

http://www.flyertalk.com/wiki/index....reign_Exchange

For USD purchases abroad, I'm pretty sure Visa and MC now charge either 0.8% or 1.0%. I forget which charges which, and I don't know whether the card issuers add their extra 2% to such purchases or not. If you use a card like CapitalOne that "eats" the Visa/MC fees, however, and doesn't add any other fees of its own, you should be fine.

AmEx does not charge a fee for USD purchases abroad, but charges 2% for all foreign currency purchases, and has been reputed to give bad underlying exchange rates (although that seems to have improved in the last couple years).

Are there any others like CapitalOne? How does CapitalOne "eat" the 1% fee, given that is already in the dollar amount that VISA/MC transmit to member banks?

Actually, it is unclear just how the 1% charge is distributed. Very likely, a large hunk, if not all, goes to the card issuing bank. Remeber, for many years there was no such fee.

My memory does not actually go back that far! In the eighties, when I was still using Diners Club outside of the US, I can remember thinking that 1% was a reasonable fee for the exchange and billing service. As far as I know, VISA/MC were also 1% at that time. The 1% fee was built into the exchange rate and was not explicitly noted in billing statements, but it was mentioned in the T&C's. Was foreign exchange ever really free?