Visa has new currency exchange fee
 

I am planning a trip to Vancouver in 2 weeks and 2 days ago I prepaid for some tickets (as I did last month as well)with my Visa checkcard. This time as I was looking over my online statement I noticed a currency exchange fee.

I called and they explained effective since Sept. 2 Visa charges 1% the US dollar amount per transaction.

Just wanted to let you know.

Thank you for sharing this. I just called my MasterCard vendor and they do NOT charge anything.

Is this 'Visa' that is doing this or the issuing bank? I suspect it's the latter.

I thought I explained in my first post - it is Visa.("effective since Sept. 2 Visa charges 1% the US dollar amount") All Visa cards - even if I were to have a credit card instead of a check card it wouldn't matter.

I verified this with another bank also.

It's not "Visa", it's your credit card provider. Visa and Mastercard have always had a built in 1% fee on foreign transactions, but no additional "currency conversion fee".

SOME credit card issuers have initiated, then withdrawn, then reinstituted, those pesky "currency coversion fees".

They may TELL you that it's "Visa", but that's NOT true. Ask that they send you that in PRINTED form!

Several years ago, when this all began, someone on Fodor's advised everyone to call their credit card providers and inquire. Then, if any of theirs charged such fees, advise in writing, that they would NOT be using that card when out of the country. Must have worked. Several months ahead of a trip to Paris, Capital One was assessing the fee. By the time we left, they weren't. And, they haven't since.

Even so, I phone each of my credit card providers before leaving home. First, I inquire as to whether there is any "currency conversion fee". If there isn't, I let them know our travel dates (so my card isn't put on "hold" for unusual charges). If there is, I move onto the next card.

None of my cards (last I checked - MBNA and Capital One) have any such fee at the moment.

Up until recently (last year?), these fees were never applied to check/debit cards, then Wells Fargo added the fee to theirs, and others jumped on the bandwagon.

These days, so many banks are competing for your Mastercard/Visa business! It really pays to shop around.

Note that not all banks "itemize" the "currency conversion fee" - often it's just buried in the transaction.

And, that fee is not necessarily 1% - sometimes it's 2%, 3%, even more - for example: American Express (though I've no idea what they're doing these days as I cancelled my account).

You also have to watch out for ridiculous charges when withdrawing funds at ATM's. Many banks charge a stiff fee for that as well.