My credit card company charges a foreign transaction fee of approximately 10% per charge. Is this common? Will the credit card company waive this fee? Thanks for the help.

What's the name of your credit card company? Is it U.S. based?

Mastercard & VISA normally tack on 1% transaction/conversion fee, the European Bank ATMs should charge you nothing. 10% is excessive. A lot of banks I'm hearing are charging 3-5% foreign transaction fee, plus some are adding on a $1-3 ATM fee.

If yours is charging you 10%, you need to change credit card companies.

We just made a deposit via Mastercard for $103. Noticed there is a $3 charge.

Citibank MC is charging 3% foreign transaction fee. Using my credit union visa logo debit/ATM card there was a 1% fee to withdraw cash (no added bank ATM fee though).

Both the MC and ATM rates, even with 3% and 1% fees are lower cost than exchanging either US currency for Euros or cashing in travellers checks. I will continue to use MC for large purchases and CU ATM for cash withdrawl.

We checked before our last trip and the American based cards we have all charge 2-3% point of sale transaction fees. 10% is way too much.

Schwab Investor Checking charges 0% for purchases, 0% for withdrawals, and 0% for International Service Assessment. They also rebate ATM fees from foreign banks. It costs me 0 to transact business in Europe.

I've never heard of a such a thing, are you sure they charge 10 pct? What card and company are you getting this from? If they are charging it, I don't know why they would waive it. I have ones that range from zero to one pct; as others noted, some charge about 3 pct, but I've never heard of any card charging 5 pct or more for foreign transactions. Unless you are talking about taking out cash with a credit card, of course, not a purchase, and then it is a whole other subject and yet, cash advance fees on credit cards can be really high. Even then, I don't think they are usually that high.

Perhaps OP is making a lot of SMALL purchases and is hitting a minimum fixed charge?

Well, I'm really embarrassed. It is 1%, not 10% (too early and not enough coffee!). Thank you all for your replies. So, apparently 1% is not unusual. I do have a couple of other questions. My son brought Euros home. Where is the best place for him to convert them back to dollars. And, if his bank (Wachovia) has charged him ATM fees while he was in Europe, does he have a shot at getting those fees waived. Thank you all again.

If it is not a huge amount of Euros I would just hang on to them till next trip. Normally I pay down my hotel bill on the last day with whatever Euro cash I have, save 30 or 40 Euro to have in my pocket for next trip.

No, do not expect Wachovia to refund the ATM fees. They are the ones who added them in the first place, not any bank in Europe.

How many euro are you talking about??

There really isn't a way to convert them in the states w/o taking a hefty hit.

So if it is a substantial amount, I'd either save them for another trip or sell them to a friend/relative who might be going to Europe.

If a small amount - hey, they are a souviner . . .

Capitol One is the only bank that will not charge a transaction fee.... However, unless you call them prior to leaving the States, they will put a hold on your account until you call and verify you are out of the country and your card is not lost or stolen.
We were in Spain last November, we used my Bank America ATM/Visa, Amex and Cap One Mastercard. Should have just left the other two at home!

Actually the credit card transaction fee is responsible for Merchant not customer, If you book or use the credit card in the internet, you will never got the credit card charge.

Next time you have foreign currency left that you want to get rid of, you buy something just before leaving (usually at the airport). Hopefully you will spend more than the foreign currency you have. You charge the difference and, bingo, you are zeroed out.

For euros or British pounds, I just save them for a subsequent trip. Remember coins cannot be exchanged.

There was an infamous trip where my then teenage daughter went to Israel and brought home a sack of coins. Everytime she bought something, she gave them paper currency and, in ditz fashion, never mastered the currency, although she was there for 6 weeks on a teen trip. OK, what did I do with the sack of coins? A friend of mine went to Israel and bought them from me. We simply looked in the newspaper or on the internet to see what they were worth; it was about $40 in coins. Oy!

Baggalini sells a little purse thingy with 5 pockets that I store my currency in. I always have pounds, euros and Canadian currency. The rest of it is miscellaneous coins. The miscellaneous coins would make nice jewelry for someone who does that sort of thing. Otherwise, unless you go again (and the currency is still the same or hasn't been devalued), the coins are nice souvenirs. However, I do not want a sack of $40 in Israeli coins!

"Capitol One is the only bank that will not charge a transaction fee."

DMary - that's flat wrong.

My bank, Commerce Bank out of New Jersey, does not charge any transaction fees, conversion fees, or ATM fees to withdraw <b>my</b> money out of <b>my</b> checking account.

If your son's bank charged an ATM fee, I don't know why they would refund it as it is part of their fee structure, but if he wants to call and ask for it to be waived, why doesn't he do it. It's just a few minute phone call, I think he should take the bank's word for it rather than anyone's on here. If they charge an ATM fee at any ATM not their own, I can't imagine why they would waive that fee anymore than they would if he used some ATM in Dubuque. It's his bank account and he was given the terms when he agreed to it. A lot of banks charge ATM fees when you use other bank's ATMs.

I'm not sure what tozzman is saying, but if you do have a CC transaction fee, it has nothing to do with the merchant or whether you use it on the internet or not. It's simply a fee your CC adds on to any transaction coming in from a foreign country, and if you book a foreign hotel on the internet, the charge will come from them and you will have a foreign transaction fee if that's the norm for your card.

Banks don't charge ATM fees to their own customers. These fees come from the bank that owns the ATM, and some card issuers rebate them to the cardholder. My card, Schwab Investor Checking, has this policy.

I quote from their website, http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/...anking_lending

&quot;Take advantage of features such as <b>ATM fee rebates</b>, online bill pay, and more.&quot;

Capital One does charge out-of-network fees on its ATM cards. It's their credit cards that don't have foeign currency fees.

Just to clarify, it's my understanding (from using it in Ireland last year), that Capital One does pass on the 1% fee charged by MasterCard (or Visa as the case may be), but doesn't add any of their own.