Since the decline of the dollar I am trying to find ways to decrease my expenditures. There are two main fees that I am familiar with thus far. The first a foreign transaction fee which get applied when using your plastic in other countries with different currency. The second is the all too familiar cross bank ATM charge. We’ve all experienced the domestic charges before, but the foreign bank ATM charges are even more costly.

Anytime you use a Visa and Mastercard credit card there are foreign transaction fees involved. Usually Visa and Mastercard charge the bank or whomever issued your card 3% of the transaction. On top of that, the credit card issuer also tacts on another 2-3% of their own. Which means by the time we see the charge it is already increased to 5-6%. That is a lot of money to throw away each time you use your card. Luckily I found that CapitalOne not only does not charge foreign transaction fees, but they also eat the 3% that Visa and Mastercard charges.

Another fee that I will most likely face is the notorious and annoying ATM charge. This varies from bank to bank, however there are some banks out that allow a certain number of free cross-bank ATM transactions before they start charge. Even more interesting is that I’ve heard there are banks that don’t charge ATM fees at all. Definitely a plus when traveling. I plan on using my HSBC ATM card for most of Europe and hopefully find another bank that allows a set number of free ATM transactions for the rest of the time.

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