Released: July 12, 2006

Read the fine print before charging abroad

Source: By Candace Heckman, Seattle Post Intelligencer

The dollar might not be doing so well, but residents along the country’s borders may still get a good deal on a Canadian or a Mexican vacation.

At least they might if it weren’t for those pesky credit card fees.

Roanne Dunbar lives and works in Seattle, but has a summer home north of the border. So she does a lot of shopping and banking abroad.

Recently, though, she has come to cringe at an extra 3 percent “international transaction charge” being levied against her Alaska Airlines Visa card, issued by Bank of America. Because she spends so much money in Canada, she said she is seriously contemplating getting another type of card.

Question: Where did these fees come from? What card or method can consumers use to avoid these charges?

Answer: Most large issuing banks are now charging this new fee. The “international transaction charge” is usually a separate fee slapped on top of any kind of currency-conversion charge a bank might also levy for expenditures abroad.

The fees started popping up mostly on Visa cards about a year and a half ago. Now, almost all Visa and MasterCard issuers, which are individual banks, include the charges.

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