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"Foreign Usage Fees On Credit Cards"

By admin | January 19th, 2008 | General

Are you going on holiday soon and can’t wait to sample that sun on your back and wading into the hot waters that the Med and like offers you? Instead I will just send you off with a little piece of advice that could make your holiday all the more memorable.

The first thing is if you are taking your credit card, yes your little plastic friend, are you fully aware of the extra charges that using your little friend costs you, No? Then let me explain.

Don’t feel embarrassed about not knowing what your credit card costs you abroad, as most people don’t and the usage charges that your credit card issuer take are not advertised in the big writing, when they are trying to get your custom, leading to two-thirds of credit card customers knowing nothing about these charges.

These fees are usually around the 2.75% mark for using your credit card abroad, this may not seem too high at first, but put it up against your expenditure when you are on holiday, then the cost is quite a sum to pay as well as any interest that maybe added, for example if you spend £2,000 on holiday on things such as meals, excursions and souvenirs, then when you get back home you could see charges of £55 on top of your already large holiday bill, just for using your credit card.

This is not the end of the charges and fees, what ever you do try not to use your credit card to withdraw cash from an ATM, you may find that the fee of 2% is cheaper than that of the usage fee for simply handing over your credit card, will think again, this is added to the usage fee, now giving you a total of 4.75% being added to your bill back home.

A tip is to contact your credit card issuer and find out what they’re charges are. Once you have done this compare them to what it will cost to buy travellers cheques or foreign currency here, this could save you cash that could be spent on your holiday, on you and your family, rather than making the credit card issuers of this world, richer.

Credit card issuers who don’t charge for using they’re cards abroad are few and far between, though the Nationwide Building Society is one of those. Although some credit card issuers don’t charge usage fees, they will have restrictions. The Liverpool and Victoria does not charge within the E.U, though once you travel outside the E.U boundaries then the charges will be applied.

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Post A Comment:

  1. Hi
    I have been using the NATIONWIDE credit card for many years in Europe and Australia New Zealand Singapore ……

    The exchange rate on this card is about 2-3% below the median exchange rate for INTERBANK. There are no other charges for transactions

    Be warned that the POST OFFICE exchange rate is about 7.3% on the same basis !!!. Other credit cards such as Tesco offered add overseas charges andlike most do not identify the exchange rate used for each transaction.
    The exchange rate used by the Post Office for over the counter and over the Internet for cash is similar outrageous but evn more so.
    The claim of commission free may be true but the real charges INCLUDE THE EXCHANGE RATE.

    If cash is required on the trip then it is well worthwhile to clear the balance on the NATIONWIDE card and then load it with credit.Overseas ATM can then be used and the excellent 2-3% below Interbank rate can be obtained for cash.
    The catch is that if the card is used for other transactions the the deposit is used first to offset any purchase and immediate interset charges accrue.

    Comment by mike traveller — November 12, 2008 @ 6:15 pm

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