Comments on: Foreign Currency Transaction Fees List

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 18:02:41 +0000

I confirm W.Martin comment that Capital One Canada charges 2.5% conversion fee and on top of that all your foreign purchases are converted into US$ then Cdn$. So you get hit 3 times. I called Capital One Canada and could not get an answer regarding the exchange rates applied to the transaction.
I could not believe that Capital One Canada could not convert directly from Euro, Yen or Bath into Cdn$. Is Canada a 3rd world country with monkey money?

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 09:18:41 +0000

I just called my AmEx rep and their fee has increased to 2.7% from 2%. Thanks for the information!

By: Gary Scott

Gary Scott — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:00:15 +0000

Does anyone know the rate that First Caribbean charges for currency exchange?

By: W. Martin

W. Martin — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 21:33:51 +0000

The information regarding Capital One credit cards not charging a foreign currency conversion fee only applies to US accounts. Canadians who use Capital one cards are charged a 2.5% conversion fee on top of the US$ exchange rate. I confirmed this today April 22, 2010

By: Cheap Bastard

Cheap Bastard — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:55:29 +0000

Jim probably won’t try to keep up with changes. Better to make the changes yourself, on this wiki:

http://money.wikia.com/wiki/Moving_Money

By: Cheap Bastard

Cheap Bastard — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:43:54 +0000

I’ve recently discovered that IB has a minimum activity fee of $10, so if you don’t spend $10 in commissions for a given month, the difference between $10 and that months commission is taken.

It’s still the best FX deal though, if you’re moving money into the US.

By: savingeverything

savingeverything — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:11:07 +0000

This page or posting needs updating for 2010! Credit card foreign transaction fee have increased. American Express=2.7% Discover Card (if accepted ex-US)=2.0% Barclays Junipers=2-3%. Also, what is the effect if you bought a sweater and return it 2 days later. Do you have to pay the foreign transaction fee (3%) for both the purchase and the return? or just once?

By: Cheap Bastard

Cheap Bastard — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:02:08 +0000

Yes, IB is indeed a cheap way to convert money. But keep in mind the 10 page application process and proof of residency process is hell. It’s worth the effort though if you travel a lot, or need to do a big exchange.

So there’s no confusion, the 10k doesn’t have to be exchanged. IB just wants to see a 10k USD min balance for their forex accounts. And that’s USD values of all currencies combined. There’s no fee if you drop below that though.

By: Canuck

Canuck — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:52:54 +0000

Cheap Bastard,

Thanks for the IB info.
At $0.06 on the Euro in Visa/CIBC commissions/charges, a 10,000 Euro family vacation charged to my VISA means $600 extorted by my bank, more than enough to pay for the IB commission and the non-resident European account fees.

By: Cheap Bastard

Cheap Bastard — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 08:09:15 +0000

If I were a Canadian resident, this is what I would do:

Get an Interactive Brokers account. It’s a hassle to get it open and funded with $10k, but once you have it you can convert your money at market rate, with a flat commission of $2.50.

Buy a lump sum the amount in euros that you expect to spend overseas.

Open a non-resident euro account somewhere, and fund it from the euros in your IB account. Non-resident euro accounts will have a monthly fee, but you can close the account when you’re done with it. Wire the unspent euros back to the IB account and let them count toward the minimum balance.

By: Canuck

Canuck — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:32:16 +0000

I hold a CIBC Aerogold VISA card and following a recent trip to Europe, I found that the rate on my VISA statement is 4% (that’s right, 4!!!)higher than the Interbank posted rate for that time period (a 24-hour span between the transaction date and the posted date).
Just got off the phone (the whole morning) with CIBC Visa and Visa International back and forth, and after speaking to a number of clueless agents, I was FINALLY able to determine that:
1) Visa Int’l charges CIBC 1% for the conversion process
2) CIBC charges me an arbitrary conversion rate (NOT the Interbank rate) and they will NOT disclose how that rate is arrived at or how it relates to the published Interbank Rate
3) CIBC then charges an additional 2.5% admin. fee on top of that elusive rate, which already contains their cost recovery and a profit margin.
When I asked how I, as a customer, can assess my transaction cost BEFOREHAND if CIBC will not disclose their formula for their own conversion rate, I was told that this may be fuzzy, but that is how it is spelled out in the cardholder’s agreement.
When I asked what service I am receiving for the 2.5% admin. fee, since the cost of conversion (and profit) is already factored into their conversion, I was told that this is how it is, that I have been notified in the agreement, and then the manager went on to agree with my that it is not a good idea to use my Visa card abroad, that it will be more expensive than using cash! Unreal!!! How can an electronic, cash-less conversion be more expensive than a physical cash exchange??? How? Simple, it’s called billion-dollar quarterly profits…
So for those of you, esp. our American neighbours, who thought that 3% was an excessive fee, try 4%!!!

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:46:52 +0000

Mark, you’re not beating a dead horse at all, this was a good exercise for me. CapitalOne only puts the conversion rate on the paper statement (or the online PDF), so I looked at conversion rates of GBP/USD for that period. The tricky part about the statement is that it shows when the transaction was posted, not when it actually happened so I have two transactions on 20 July with different conversion rates. One transaction actually transacted 19 July and the other was actually 20 July, here’s how they compared:

19 July – Listed Rate = 0.61216, CapOne Rate = 0.614203455
20 July – Listed Rate = 0.60485, CapOne Rate = 0.607533414

In the 19 July rate, the difference was 0.3% in CapitalOne’s favor. In the 20 July rate, the difference was 0.44% in CapitalOne’s favor.

Incidentally, I had another 20 July transaction that got a 0.607679466 rate (same day, difference in time by about four hours).

I used the rates quoted from the site you mentioned and it appears to be within half a percent accuracy.

I hope that helps, please don’t hesitate to keep asking.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:40:57 +0000

Jim – thank you. Sorry to beat the dead horse (my wife regularly refers to me with the “A” word), but I was looking at historical US/Euro rates for the first (2) weeks of Aug. and note that they fluctuated (officially) between approx. 1.413 and 1.442. I would be curious to know if, during this time, the CO exchange rates on your statement generally fell within this range. Below is a link to where I found this data – if you have any purchases that cleared on one of the days you were there, you could certainly compare it with one of the table entries to see how close it was, if it’s not too much trouble. I don’t know whether these table entries constitute a daily average, open or close, but I don’t think the rate varies that much (lately) intra-day, so your comparison will probably be within a half percent accuracy or better, I’d guess. Thanks again! http://www.exchange-rates.org/history/USD/EUR/T

By: Cheap Bastard

Cheap Bastard — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 06:37:12 +0000

Folks- The Charles Schwab card is better than the Cap One because it rebates 2% (cap one is only 1%).

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 04:03:56 +0000

Mark – As far as I can tell, the rates are consistent with published rates. In fact, on your bill, they tell you the rate they used on each transaction. I can’t confirm that the rates were identical because I didn’t compare them on a day to day basis (and I suspect they aren’t a daily match).