FabR[Senior Patek Moderator]
26166
True, and the same holds with virtually any foreign purchases (all my credit cards are from the US, so while in Italy I too am "abroad"! :-) Always pay in the *local* currency, or else the conversion fees are easily several percentage points... ;-)
Jun 07, 2022,17:58 PM
Of course, the best cards to this purpose are those carrying no foreign transactions fees (FTFs). I have a pretty good "collection" of credit cards, and all three of Visa, Amex and Mastercard have a reasonable (and essentially comparable, I would say with a slight edge in favor of MC) conversion rate with the USD, based on the official exchange rate of the day.
Personally, I only stay away from Discover while abroad, whose cards are all "technically" with no FTFs, but the conversion they impose is *extremely* unfavorable, and they will only correct it for you once or twice a month (Hint: with Disco, you'd have to look at their rate when the charge posts, not the MUCH better rate they'll temporarily show you as "pending" for a few days....a misleading practice at best that they've systematically refused to change so far
Note that these days it's not uncommon to find premium credit cards with no FTFs, no annual fee, and a 2% (or more) flat cash back...pretty good especially in combination with such a strong USD
Cheers.