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Which plastic gives you the real deal?
Credit cards
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About the author
Tess Vigeland is the host of Marketplace Money, where she takes a deep dive into why we do what we do with our money. Follow Tess on Twitter @radiotess
Toby - As it turns out, using your credit card can be one of the best ways to purchase things overseas, because credit cards typically give you the best exchange rate. The foreign transaction fee is to compensate the banks for handling the foreign exchange for you, a fee which is normally hidden in the (often terrible) exchange rate you're offered by currency changers at the airport. Additionally, credit cards give you an added measure of safety and fraud protection foreign countries where it may be unsafe to carry large amounts of cash.
Credit card companies pull plenty of underhanded tricks, but the foreign transaction fees are really pretty reasonable.
Best credit cards? Have you checked with your credit union lately? My card has 10.90% interest (I pay it off every month) and they haven't changed my limit since I got it (years ago). Why does anyone deal with commercial banks at all any more, with all the services offered at credit unions? It can't be the solid reputation of some banks in the news lately.
Just wondering why it's so hard to get information about plastic's dirty little secret: the "hidden charge" for int'l travelers. Almost every card except Capital One seems to charge a Foreign Transaction Fee of 1-3% on EVERY purchase made overseas. Yet I never see this mentioned anywhere, neither by the cards nor by consumer-research folks -- even Capital One didn't advertise that it is one of the only cards NOT to charge this fee! I found out the hard way with another card, and then through a word-of-mouth recommendation for Captial One. Any ideas why is this such an undiscussed card feature?
