Information about Credit Cards

Whether traveling for business or pleasure, insuring you have the best international credit card at your disposal is important. Not only is ensuring your card will be accepted outside of the country important, but fees for using your card overseas can vary greatly and can significantly affect the cost of purchases made when abroad.

It’s not uncommon for credit cards to impose a fee when cardholders make international transactions. International transaction fees, which are also commonly known as foreign transaction fees, are determined as a percentage of the purchase being made, by the cardholder, while outside their home country. Visa and MasterCard both charge their cardholders a standard 1 percent international transaction fee. In addition, the card issuing company can tack on their own processing fee.

Surprisingly, Capital One is one of the few credit card companies that actually don’t impose any international processing fee. Not only do they not charge their own processing fee, but they also eat the fee imposed by MasteCard and Visa. Discover too does not charge an international fee; however, their acceptance outside of North America is sometimes limited. Other cards range in fees from 1 to 3 percent. For this reason, it’s not only important to determine if your card type is accepted globally, but also what fees you’ll be charged, to determine which is the best international credit card.