Being that I’ve traveled abroad a few times, I thought that everyone might want to know what I just found out in a BoingBoing article: Credit card and debit card companies charge a “conversion fee” for any transaction outside the country. This fee is usually 3%, and is on top of the 5% that they charge the stores for the transactions! Not only is this a complete ripoff, the credit card companies don’t even show it on your bill–it’s just a part of the adjusted sale price of the item you bought!

For those who want to go abroad, the only company that doesn’t charge is Capital One…go with them.

Further reading (note also the atm fees):

USA Today–”New Credit Card Fees take a further swife at the dollar”

BankRate.com–”Currency Conversion Costs“

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