Issuing banks typically add an FX fee to the cardholder for cross border transactions. Not always, but many times they do.

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tialaramex 15 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Even if the FX is notionally "free" they pick the rates. So they can set those rates to generate exactly the same profit for them as with fees.

You will probably not see rates that are even competitive with a dodgy FX cash place at an airport, let alone with the numbers you've seen on financial networks for what FX transactions by banks cost, but you feel happy because there was "no fee".

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gruez 15 hours ago | parent | next [-]

>they pick the rates. So they can set those rates to generate exactly the same profit for them as with fees.

No, the rate is set by the card network, eg https://usa.visa.com/support/consumer/travel-support/exchang...

	▲	tialaramex 14 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Huh. I wonder how long that's been true. I guess I haven't been to America since last century, but I could have sworn I had zero fee but unreasonable FX rates when I was in Poland which can't have been more than 25 years ago.

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decimalenough 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

This is flat out incorrect. It's actually quite difficult to get a cash FX rate that's even close to as good as the standard credit card FX rate, which is also set by Visa/MC and not the banks.

Where the banks do get their pound of flesh, though, is the foreign transaction surcharge, which is often around 3%. No-fee cards exist but you need to look for them. And a whole new set of charges applies to doing a foreign cash advance on a credit card.

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nutjob2 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

This is misleading. Banks put a fee on foreign transactions, many do this even if the transaction is in the card's native currency.

The card companies always add a margin to FX conversions, usually in the 0.5% range. This is fairly benign since the market rate can move between the transaction and the settlement, so sometimes you save money.