Before you travel abroad, check your credit card for a foreign transaction fee, usually 1% to 3% of every purchase processed outside the U.S. If it has one, pack a card that charges none. The fee buys you nothing, and it adds up over a whole trip.
Put $3,000 of hotels, meals, and train tickets on a card that charges 3%, and the fee adds $90 to a two-week trip. You won’t see it at the register, because it shows up later on your statement as an extra charge on each purchase.
Travel isn’t the only trigger. Buy from a website based outside the U.S., and the fee can apply even if you never leave home.
Plenty of cards skip it. Many travel rewards cards charge no foreign transaction fee, and Capital One and Navy Federal Credit Union charge none on any of their cards.
To check yours, open the card’s agreement in the issuer’s app or on its website and find the pricing table, the box that lists the card’s rates and fees. A foreign transaction fee, sometimes called a fee for foreign purchases, appears there as a percentage. If you can’t find the agreement, your issuer must send a copy when you ask, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s credit card agreement database lets you look one up by issuer.
Then look at the card’s network. More merchants abroad take Visa and Mastercard than American Express or Discover. Before you count on an American Express or Discover card, confirm your destination takes it, or pack a no-fee Visa or Mastercard instead.
And when a terminal abroad offers to charge you in dollars, choose the local currency, since the dollar price carries a markup of its own.
If your card charges the fee, apply for a no-fee card when you book the trip rather than the week you leave, so it arrives in time to pack.
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