Find the Best No Foreign Transaction Fee Credit Cards

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A credit card with no foreign transaction fees is an international traveler’s best friend. If you’ve ever felt like you’re getting ripped off when you use your credit cards overseas, you’re probably right: most take an extra 1-3% in fees every time you make a purchase abroad. Thankfully, there are a number of international credit cards with no foreign transaction fees that let you shop, eat and experience to your heart’s content.

It’s becoming standard for travel credit cards to waive foreign transaction fees, so you should look askance at one that doesn’t. Even corporate credit cards that cater to business travelers are jumping on the bandwagon, most notably the AmEx Business Platinum and Capital One Spark cards. Below, we discuss our favorite travel-friendly cards, followed by a more extensive, constantly updated list.

A Few of Our Favorite International Credit Cards

Capital+One Venture+Rewards Credit Card
The Capital One® Venture Rewards Credit Card is one of our favorite credit cards, period. In addition to not charging any foreign transaction fees, it pays 2% back on all purchases. And while this 2% isn’t redeemable for straight-up cash back, it is redeemable for statement credit against travel purchases. Spend $300 on a flight? Use 30,000 miles and it’s gone. This means no restrictions, no blackout dates, and you’re not required to stay loyal to a single airline or hotel, so the rewards system couldn’t be easier. It does carry a $59 annual fee (waived the first year).

Chase Sapphire+Preferred Credit Card
The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is another great travel rewards credit card, and our favorite in Chase’s lineup with a $500 signup bonus. The card gives 40,000 Ultimate Rewards Points, worth $500 of travel, when you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months. In addition, you earn 2x points (or 2%) on airfare and hotels and a 7% dividend bonus every year on the rewards you earn, and points are worth 25% more when you redeem them for travel booked with Chase. You can also transfer these points 1:1 to a handful of frequent flyer and hotel rewards programs. All this in addition to waived international fees (there is a $95 annual fee, waived the first year).

American+Express Platinum Credit Card
The The Platinum Card® from American Express is not a card we recommend lightly, given its $450 annual fee. But for serious globe-trotters, the benefits more than outweigh the cost. You pay no fees on foreign purchases, you get a $200 annual credit toward incidentals on your favorite airline, complimentary access to airline lounges through Priority Pass (worth $400 by itself, if you find yourself waiting in a lot of international airports), and the Membership Rewards Points you earn are worth 20% more when you “Pay with Points” through AmEx. If you spend $1,000 in the first 3 months, you’ll get 25,000 additional points to spend at your leisure.

Credit Cards With No Foreign Transaction Fee

These are all credit cards that charge no foreign transaction fees at all. Are we missing anything? Let us know in the comments below.

List current as of May 9, 2012.

Are Stated Foreign Transaction Fees Representative of Reality?

Now, in addition to what the banks claim they will charge you in terms of “foreign transaction fees”, you are also faced with the exchange rate that your credit card issuer uses to convert the currencies. And if you’re a cynic like me, you may wonder if they charge you hidden fees and unfair exchange rates on top of the disclosed rates.

We reached out to our readers in April 2010′s Hong Kong Dollar FX survey and Euro FX survey, and were able to buy the same item at the same time with 10 credit cards from leading US card issuers. Note that Hong Kong dollars don’t fluctuate much, because they are pegged to the US dollar. The Euro is a different story entirely, especially given the budding European debt crisis.

Conclusion

Surprisingly, everyone keeps it pretty straightforward and honest, so it pays to look for the card issuer with the lowest advertised foreign transaction fee rate.

Foreign Transaction Fee Survey Results

In the tables below, there are a few Amex and Fidelity results that differ from the expected values by a few cents. We re-ran the experiment on a few of these cards with transactions that were closer to $100, and these anomalies disappeared.

HKD survey:

Disclosed FX Fee Estimated Charge for HK$15 Actual Charge for HK$15
Paypal N/A N/A $1.99
Bank of America 3.0% $1.99 $1.99
Citi 3.0% $1.99 $1.99
Citi Amex 3.0% $1.99 $1.99
Chase 3.0% $1.99 $1.99
Wells Fargo 3.0% $1.99 $1.99
US Bank 3.0% $1.99 $1.99
Zion’s Bank 3.0% $1.99 $1.99
American Express 2.7% $1.98 $1.99
Fidelity 1.0% $1.95 $1.95
Capital One 0.0% $1.93 $1.93
HSBC Premier 0.0% $1.93 $1.93
Schwab 0.0% $1.93 $1.93
Exchange Rate at Time of Transaction $1.93

Euro survey:

Disclosed FX Fee Estimated Charge for €2 Actual Charge for €2
Paypal N/A N/A $2.77
Bank of America 3.0% $2.79 $2.79
Citi 3.0% $2.79 $2.79
Citi Amex 3.0% $2.79 $2.79
Chase 3.0% $2.79 $2.79
American Express 2.7% $2.78 $2.80
Fidelity 1.0% $2.74 $2.76
Capital One 0.0% $2.71 $2.71
HSBC Premier 0.0% $2.71 $2.71
Schwab 0.0% $2.71 $2.71
Exchange Rate at Time of Transaction $2.71

Current foreign transaction fees for US card issuers

Issuer Foreign Transaction Fee
Air Force Federal Credit Union 1%
American Express 2.7%
Bank of America 3% (Visa/MC), 1% (American Express)
Barclays 3%
BB&T 3%
Capital One 0%
Chase 3% *
Citibank 3%
Citizens Bank 1.5%
Comerica Bank 3%
Commerce Bank 2%
Discover 2%
Heartland Bank 3%
KeyBank 3%
Fidelity 1% (American Express) 3% (Visa)
Fifth Third Bank 3%
First National Omaha Bank 3%
Horizon Bank 2%
HSBC 3%* (0% for Premier)
Navy Federal 1%
Nordstrom fsb 1%
Pentagon Federal Credit Union 2% (0% for Promise)
PNC 3%*
Schwab 0%
Simmons Bank 3%
Sovereign Bank 3%
State Farm 1%
US Bank 3%
USAA 1%
Wells Fargo 3%
Zion’s Bank 2%

* While HSBC and Chase offer lower charges to a small number of “premier” customers, the majority of their cards charge 3%.

  • Colorpencilart

    1 percent fee I love USAA has been the choice of our family for everything.