The Financial Blog

We’re well into this year’s holiday season and Fool.co.uk take a look at the best fee-free foreign exchange credit cards.

The basics of foreign exchange is that you typically pay 2 per cent to use your credit card abroad; so that’s added to whatever you spend; for example if you spent £100 then it would cost you an extra £2.

However, Fool.co.uk say there are around 6 credit cards that do not charge you for making purchases abroad.

Nationdwide and the Post Office offer 0 per cent interest on purchases for 3 months and 0 per cent interest on balance transfers for 10 months; subject to a balance-transfer fee. Abbey is different because it does not charge a balance transfer fee, although the interest-free period is just 6 months.

Head of Personal Finance at Fool.co.uk, David Kuo, says: “It started as a unique selling proposition for one credit-card provider, but cards that don’t sting customers when they use them abroad have now grown to half a dozen.”

“Charging customers for using their cards overseas is tantamount to being surcharged for using cutlery in a restaurant. It is preposterous. But it is pleasing to see six companies taking a stand against it.”

“It is a nonsense that any credit card provider should want to penalise customers when they pay for goods overseas. Card companies already make a profit on the difference between the buy and sell spread on currencies.”

“So, when you go abroad, make sure you leave your fee-charging credit card behind. After all, if a restaurant dared to charge me for a fork, I’d tell them where to stick it.”

>>Click here to compare credit cards and find the best deals on Foreign Exchange charges

This entry was posted on Monday, June 23rd, 2008 at 4:46 pm and is filed under Credit Cards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.