I think all cards—Mastercard, Visa, Amex (don’t try Discover overseas)—charge at least 1%, some are higher—maybe 2 or 2.5%—depending on your bank or creditor. Generally speaking, credit union-issued credit cards tend have lower fees—closer to 1%—and big chain banks tend to charge the higher fees.

The only thing you can really do to stay “fee-neutral” is to get a card that has a cash-back or points programme, no annual fee, and the lowest APR you can qualify for if you plan to carry a balance. I have a card from my credit union in the “Score Card” program, and I get one airmile per dollar spent; I’ve earned 2 free tickets with that card. No annual fee, 10.5%, 1 mile per dollar spent, and some travel perks with the card. That’s the best offer I’ve ever found for myself.

Airline-issued cards are another option. Northwest has their WorldPerx Visa, Delta has their Skymiles (Mastercard?), etc. so you could get an airline-branded credit card if you plan to track miles and play the promotions, otherwise the airline cards usually have annual fees, higher APR if you carry a balance, and full fees (2%) for foreign transactions; but you can earn miles quickly, towards a free ticket, via their promotions.

—————

A follow-up… Mastercard and Visa seem to have the widest acceptance in places I’ve been, mostly northern Europe, but some places (not particular “countries”) sometimes favor one brand over another. In Bavaria, for example, I was SOL with my Mastercard; Visa was all they took in the 5-6 places I visited.

The best plan, if you can swing it, is to have a debit card on one brand, and a credit card on the other brand. A Mastercard-logoed debit card, and a Visa-branded credit card, for example. If one system is “down”—and that happens—then you’ve got the other; if some place doesn’t take one brand, then you’ve got the other.

Yeah, I was gonna say that Leave your Discover and American Express cards at home

Every card is going to have a finance fee for overseas transactions, you kinda just have to live with it, unfortunately. I think mine was 3% on my last trip, but seriously, you really don’t even notice it; just keep it in the back of your mind that everything you buy is going to cost 3% more. It’s really not that bad though (unless you are TOTALLY broke, in which case you should probably put off your Euro trip, hehe)... I mean, 100 bucks becomes 103 bucks… like I said, unless you’re buying a house or something, you really shouldn’t notice…


Another thing: if you’re thinking of getting a 0% APR card to use on your trip, wait a little bit till you get it, I just figured this out the hard way. Last week I signed up for a Chase Visa card, figuring they’d give me at least a year free of APR since I already have a couple cards with like 15 months free… well, they gave me a $3,000 credit limit, but only 6 months, starting today. Since my trip isn’t until almost August… well, you get the picture
 
EDIT: That said, they still give good deals. I think the site is like www.chase.com/access ...just follow the link that says something like “our credit cards” or whatever. There’s a whole list to choose from

Just a quick breakdown on fees. Both Visa and Mastercard add 1% foreign currency conversion charge. Each individual bank then adds pretty much what they want, with 2% being industry standard at the moment. That’s where 3% comes from.
I agree that 3% perhaps isn’t much to talk about, but over many trips that adds up.

capital one sucks for the most part, but their #1 perk is no charges on int’l purchases.

What sucks about them? (just out of curiosity…)

Here’s a table updating the fees various banks charge.

I tend to use my schwab debit card overseas as well as my capital one credit card.
cheers
howie

Just to clarify my post all those fees are just for atm withdrawals using for your debit/atm card and using your credit card to buy stuff. If you are using you credit card for cash advances you will also most likely pay a cash advance fee plus finance charges start from the moment you withdraw the money unless you have some sort of special offer.
cheers
howie

Can anyone confirm CapitalOne 0% fee? VISA and MC add their fees already, what does CapitalOne do about them?

I wonder the same thing, and my hunch is that the fee is hidden in the exchange rate.

I was thinking the same thing…

Credit cards generally give you the interbank exchange rate and I’ve noticed my c1 card to be pretty close to that.
cheers
howie

1) they don’t report your credit limit to the reporting bureaus, so people checking your credit will see $xx on your balance, but they can’t see what percentage of your limit you are using. this is pretty crucial to your credit score.

2) can’t convert credit card programs. i currently have a capital one card that i got when i was a broke college student, so i don’t get rewards or any other decent perks. now that i have a lot more money, spend freely, and pay my balances in-full and on-time every month, i’ve been pleading to convert to a rewards program with no success.

3) they are very stingy with credit limit increases (and limits in general).

4) capital one will do 3 hard pulls (each bureau) on your credit report pretty much any time they are legally allowed to. this can be brutal on your credit score if you have a short or mediocre credit history.

there are many, many more reasons why they suck. but when travelling abroad, i see no reason not to use their cards.

Thanks everyone for your input! I’m looking into Capital One and if not, I will just stick with what I have.

Hey, I have just a general question for anyone who knows the answer. Okay, so I have multiple credit cards (I think I have at least 4 or 5 right now) but I don’t use 4/5 of em AT ALL. Should I just cancel them, or does that “look bad”? Also, how exactly do you cancel one anyway (seeing as I’ve never had to haha) Thanks

looks better to keep it, even if you don’t use it.

Capitol One is the only card I have found with no transaction fees.  One poster wrote that some companies bury their transaction fees in the conversion rate.  They (all the credit card companies) used to not show the transaction fees then they were taken to court by a class action suit and they lost so they now have to show that fee.  One other tip for all travelers regarding ATM fees.  There is a bank in Maine called Bangor Savings Bank that has NO ATM fees anywhere/ever.  When a fee comes in on the paperwork they reimburse you into your checking account.  Sweet.  An account can be set up on line for the adventurous travelers not lucky enough to live in Maine LOL.. 

no need to go to maine.. i think commerce bank reimburses your fees as well.

Many travelers worry about using money belts, etc, to protect their money, but, in my opinion, these charges are nothing but legalized theft. Think about it: If you charge 1000 euros on your trip, and a computer does the “work” of converting the cost of your charges into dollars, and you’re charged $30, it seems like a small amout. But, multiply that by many thousands of travelers, and the credit card issuers are making a huge amount of money for exactly nothing. Suppose that you were the victim of a pickpocket who got away with a similar amount—- you’d remember that for years! Remember that merchants are also absorbing fees on your purchases!

I see your point, Basie, but not sure I agree. Who wrote the software? Who pays for the infrastructure that allows us to withdraw local cash from a machine in our own language half-way round the world? Who pays the bills, for the HR dept, for the intellectual property? It’s a legit charge, IMHO, but of course it’s always nice to have freedom to shop around and get the lowest charges possible.

if i didn’t have a capital one card, i wouldn’t mind paying 1% fx fee. just the price you pay for convenience. and all things considered, the rates are a lot better than what you’d get at most street exchange booths.

Min $1000 balance with commerce to get fees reimbused. I bank with charles schwab bank online and they reimburse atm fees with no min balance.
cheers
howie

Don,
About your comment about the mastercard and being SOL in Bavaria, you said that your mastercard didn’t work and visa did.. My wife
and I are traveling to southern germany this summer, and we only have a
MC, would you suggest us getting a visa also??
Thanks for your time

Don, I don’t get your point at all. Merchants who accept the cards are assessed fees by the banks that handles their transactions, and banks pass some of those to Visa/MC to pay for “the infrastructure, the bills, the HR dept, and the intellectual property.” Arguably, it is unfair that merchants have to pay for the convenience that we enjoy. But it surely does not cost Visa/MC entire 1 percent to make conversion, and it clearly costs US (and other) banks nothing extra to bill you simply because the transaction originated in a different currency. They do it just because they can!

About different cards being/not being accepted in different areas. I guess you just should not assume that credit cards would be accepted everywhere you go. In most of Germany, for example, very few clients in rural area restaurant would pay with plastic, so there is very little sense for an owner to set-up a terminal. You may want to have some amount of cash on hand, say to pay for your meals for a couple of days. When you check-in at a hotel, make sure it accepts your card, if not get money from an ATM before check-out.
(My combo is MC credit card plus Visa check card. But in German restaurants I normally pay cash anyway.)
 

that’s why their websites are visa.com/mastercard.com as opposed to visa.org/mastercard.org.. they charge a fee above cost because that’s how businesses work.

plus, conversion might not have direct costs that large, but what about setting up regional sales & support offices, taking on interest rate risk, hiring specialized legal/compliance teams to ensure that they’re in line with whatever business laws each region has?

i’m really not sure how you could whine about this.

I’m not wining about Visa and MC and the fees they collect. After all they make travelling and simply buying stuff lot more convenient. Still, participating banks charge the merchants processing fees of 2-5 percent, and clearly these fees offsets extra cost of currency conversion.

My point is that if a bank decides to issue you a credit card, and chooses not to collect any fees from you, when you use it in your own country, it implies that issuing credit cards is a profitable business. And it would remain equally profitable, even if the bank treated the transactions originated abroad the same way. So adding up its fee on top of Visa/MC’s fee has no economic justification. As you know, a few years back this practice was deemed illegal in the US, because the banks even did not bother to disclose those fees in customer agreements. So now they do and it’s all legal, but still IMHO unfair.

okay… take what i said and apply it to the banks instead of visa/mc. maybe less administration on their end, but in the end they’re still businesses.

if i ran a bank, and i had a choice of all of my customers using cards domistically or abroad (all else equal) i’d choose domestic. why? because who knows? things happen. that could justify fx fees.

if you don’t like it, then switch to capital one. call up your current creditors and cancel your cards citing fx fees as the reason.

i just keep a few cards and use whichever one benefits me for each particular transaction. it’s pretty simple.

Well, that was exactly the fate of my two MBNA cards. After MBNA was swallowed by Bank of America, I’ve called the behemoth, and told it that I’ve got my cards for all the perks they had, and that I did not want them anymore.

such is capitalism. you’re given tons of options, so take advantage. no damage done, everyone wins.