credit cards

I have alays paid most of my bills etc with visa credit card. Now the charges are mounting with both visa and the bank taking a fee...all up about 2%. Is there any other way of paying for goods etc without incurring fees...other than cash and travellers cheques.

HELP please

Boondy

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Boondy,

You need a credit card that either pays a cashback reward to offset the conversion fees, or one that doesn%26#39;t charge any conversion fee at all. I%26#39;ve heard rumor that Capital One doesn%26#39;t charge any fees, but I%26#39;ve also heard that effective in the last year or so, they%26#39;ve started passing on the 1% Mastercard/Visa transaction fee.

My best advice is get an HSBC Cash Back Credit Card. HSBC only charges the 1% Mastercard/Visa Foriegn Conversion Fee. They do not tack on an additional percentage of their own (like CitiCard, for example). So, if they are paying you a 1% rebate on all purchases, that will eventually wash the 1% conversion fee. (I say eventually, because you only get to cash in rebates in 50$ increments.)

I also set up savings and checking accounts online with HSBC Direct with a decent interest rate, no minimum that gave me an ATM card that I could in France. I had two HSBC Online accounts with two ATM Cards so that if necessary, I didn%26#39;t have to worry about a daily withdrawal limit on just the one account. Please note, since these were two primary accounts with two separate cards, I had no trouble accessing the funds (savings OR checking) from French ATMs. As near as I can tell from the math, I was never charged any out of network fees for cash withdrawals on these funds, even when I didn%26#39;t use an HSBC ATM. (CDG is crawling with HSBC logos, btw.)

(PS: No financial interest in HSBC...just a happy customer.)

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PS: Make sure your cashback reward is at least as much as your conversion fees.

Traveled this summer with %26quot;she who shall remain nameless%26quot; who insisted on paying with her credit card to get her 1% reward. I knew for a fact that her card was charging her 3%.

Unfortunately for her, she made life so annoying for those around her...especially the locals, that I kept %26quot;forgetting%26quot; to mention that she was really losing money. ;)

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Call your credit card company before you leave for your trip. %26quot;Shop around%26quot; your own credit cards benefits just to see wich one offers you the best deals, example: no fees, insurance, low interests, etc. I%26#39;ve done it a couple times and it worked, one credit card even offered to lower my interest rate for anything purchased during my trip...way to go!

Vaya con Dios.

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Thanks guys a lot for info. I have also since found out about a card called wizard which I am looking into which has no fees etc or any charges for foreign exchange

Thanks again

Boondy

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