Capt Mary Kidd wrote:

The message
from Rosalie B. contains these words:

"Leland F. Dumas" wrote:

When I used an ATM in London last fall I was charged a "Conversion
fee" also
by Visa. I think it was only 1% though.

I have been calling my different credit cards to check on this. One
VISA, a debit card and one Mastercard charges 1% my AmExp charges 2%
another VISA and one Mastercard charges 3%. Guess which ones I'm
going to take?

To make a fair comparison you should have asked what exchange rate they
were charging at that time. If they all gave you the exact same rate
then of course you would take the 1% one, but that may not be the
cheapest overall if the others have a better exchange rate.

When I called all the cards, I asked them what they would charge for
transitioning between Bahamian or Bermudan $$ and US$$ and that's what
they said they would charge. There is NO DIFFERENCE between what a
Bahamian or Bermuda dollar cost would be and a US dollar cost as the
currencies are on par with each other. Actually one of the cards said
they charged no fee.

I first ran up against the difference in charges when I was in the
Bahamas. One card still charged me 3% on each transaction, while one
card charged nothing for the transactions. It took me awhile to
figure out why there was a difference between the charge slip I signed
(which was for the cardiologist and the ICU), and the amount that I
was charged. When I asked, that was the answer given.

For the different currencies (like the Euro or the UK pound) hey all
AFAIK charge the bank rate that is in effect when they get the charge.
I've never found any difference between cards for the rate.