Credit card "Foreign Currency Fee"?

vicwatson

Have noticed these "Foreign Currency Fees", credit and debits, on my Credit Card statements in the last few months - what are they for exactly? Never noticed them until recently, has some rules changed?

advertsfox

Have you bought items in another currency than EUR? If so, there will be a small fee for the conversion at the time (e.g GBP to EUR etc).

Wheety

Have you bought something in sterling?

If you think they're punitive, consider a Revolut card. You get a better exchange rate and no fees.

i71jskz5xu42pb

vicwatson wrote: »

Have noticed these "Foreign Currency Fees", credit and debits, on my Credit Card statements in the last few months - what are they for exactly? Never noticed them until recently, has some rules changed?

I'm 90% sure something did change where the banks now breakdown the amount i.e. rather than saying you spent £90 and it cost you €100 it now says you spent £90 and it cost you €98 + a €2 euro transaction fee

As mentioned there are options out there if you want better FX rates, N26 is who I use

Nigel Fairservice

It's a charge from your bank for using a non euro currency. As Wheety said get a Revolut card to bypass these fees.

Dardania

Another good option is Curve if you don’t want the hassle of getting another full account

vicwatson

Thanks to everyone for the replies

vicwatson

Can I just ask if this is a new system by credit card companies where they show this "foreign currency fee" seperately or has it been imposed on them, I know what the fee is but am just assuming it was always in the converted amount but are obliged to show the converted rate ad their "fee" seperate.

Or indeed is it a new charge completely in that they convert say Stg to Euro at their rate of exchange, then add a fee to "facilitate" that currency conversion???

Hope my questions are obvious. Sorry.

It wasn't always shown like this

AlmightyCushion

vicwatson wrote: »

Can I just ask if this is a new system by credit card companies where they show this "foreign currency fee" or has it been imposed on them, I know what the fee is but am just assuming it was always in the converted amount but are obliged to show the converted rate ad their "fee" seperate.

It wasn't always like this.

It was changed a while back. They have to split the fee out from the currency conversion.

vicwatson

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

It was changed a while back. They have to split the fee out from the currency conversion.

So previously this might have been an inbuilt part of their Conversion rate of exchange basically ?

AlmightyCushion

vicwatson wrote: »

So previously this might have been an inbuilt part of their Conversion rate of exchange basically ?

Yeah.