What fx to pay in using credit card for foreign transaction

[ZZF]

Anyone knows which is cheaper?

Suppose I am in SG making a online purhcase for hotel in europe. Should I pay IN SGD or EUR (the base currency of the transaction)?

Suppose I am in europe, should I pay in SGD or EUR (the base currency of the transaction)?

I am using a singapore bank credit card.

Based on what I read online, many financial sites advocates selecting in the foreign fx. Based on my own experience, its seems cheaper to pay in SGD.

Any idea anyone?

[brattzz]

i heard from radio 89.3 that always chose the "local" currency.. due to the many fees imposed by the credit card co.s, they can it stacking..
or just bring the hard cash foreign currency..
that was a radio program on friday morning.

[BlueKelah]

Its a lazy sunday and I'm not in the mood to type too much so this is good article to explain in details, though its a bit old article but the system is still about the same.
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/inv...-best-deal

[Mr Murthy said it tends to be more costly for you to charge Singdollars instead of foreign currency when you are overseas, simply because of the unfavourable exchange rates used by the merchants.

Always say no to paying in Singdollars when you shop overseas.

"When making online purchases, always check the terms and conditions to find out if payments are collected or processed overseas," he added.

You could look for cards to stretch your dollar, he said, noting that for CIMB, the 1.4 per cent administrative fee is waived for the CIMB Platinum MasterCard and CIMB Visa Signature Card.

"For these two cards, the fees are 1 per cent for Visa and 1 per cent for MasterCard. For all other CIMB cards, 2.4 per cent for Visa and 2.4 per cent for MasterCard still applies." Mr Murthy stressed that consumers must watch out for foreign transaction fees when they travel and spend overseas.]

[choya]

Agreed with Blue Kelah.
CIMB Platinum MasterCard and CIMB Visa Signature Card are the best card to use for foreign currency transactions and it is free for lifetime (i.e. no annual membership fee)

[Porkbelly]

All credit card transactions in currencies other than the
currency where the card is issued will be converted to USD then
into the currency where the card is issued.

If in EU, the transaction will be recorded in EURO,
converted to USD and converted again to SGD.
The exchange rate is set by VISA and is usually very different
from bank forex rates.
https://usa.visa.com/support/consumer/tr...ator.html/

On top of that, there will be forex fees, admin fees.

For hotel bookings, try to elect to pay on check in
in cash. But that means a whole lot of cash to bring.
( They will still swipe your card for damages or last minute charges)

If buying luxury items, the shop may ask your prefrence to
pay in your home currency. Always decline, for reasons as stated
earlier.

If renting car... no choice but credit card. Most
reputable car hire companies never accept cash.

Use cash as much as possible. Unless company expense paid.

[d.o.g.]

I prefer to use credit cards in lieu of cash whenever possible because if there is a problem you can take it up with the bank who will fight the merchant for you. As for choice of currency, I always use the foreign currency whenever possible. I have never seen a case where the SGD rate offered was better than the converted rate even after adding the 1-2% conversion charge.

Note that some cards will ADD 1% if you charge SGD from overseas e.g. Airbnb will charge you in SGD but uses a foreign gateway so it's considered an overseas transaction, my card issuer (DBS) penalizes me an extra 1% on my Airbnb bookings. No way around this unfortunately as Airbnb no longer allows you to choose the currency you are charged in (previously you could change it to EUR or USD for instance).

Also, unless you get discounts for paying cash, it's worthwhile to use credit cards to either get cashbacks (which I used to do) or points (which I now do). Bonus: if these are claimable expenses, you are getting cash/points for free unless your company wants to go to the hassle of clawing back the cashback/points.

As usual, YMMV.

[ZZF]

Why i posted is cos: I used agoda in sg to book hotels in europe and i tried both SGD and EURO settlement.

Somehow the SGD was cheaper and EURO was super ex.

All in, the bank charged me 1.70 for euro to sgd (including bank fees). If i used SGD on agoda, it was the rate of 1.62+ to 1.63 (agoda's own conversion) plus 1% charged by bank.

[d.o.g.]

Why i posted is cos: I used agoda in sg to book hotels in europe and i tried both SGD and EURO settlement.

Somehow the SGD was cheaper and EURO was super ex.

All in, the bank charged me 1.70 for euro to sgd (including bank fees). If i used SGD on agoda, it was the rate of 1.62+ to 1.63 (agoda's own conversion) plus 1% charged by bank.

1.70 is really bad, that's nearly 5% off the current mid-market rate of 1.625 shown on xe.com.

As an aside, when searching for hotels I find that sometimes prices vary a lot between the search engines, so it's a good idea to try Booking.com, Agoda, Expedia and a few others. I use Kayak, it seems to search several different engines at the same time. Different engines are cheaper for different hotels. I am not in love with any hotel chain so I'm willing to change brands if the price/location is better. Anyway usually I prefer Airbnb, I like the bigger space (often an entire apartment for less than the price of a hotel room) and don't mind not having new sheets every day.

Also, the Singapore versions of the search engines sometimes don't work as well as the generic sites. For example, Expedia.com can sometimes find flights that Expedia.com.sg can't. Strange but true.

[HitandRun]

On the topic of fx fees, I wonder if anyone had any experience with this DBS's product:

DBS Multi Currency Account

Apparently, no fx fees, but not sure really no fees or not.....

[yeokiwi]

If you have not tried RateX, you should give it a try.
The conversion rate is the best that I have ever seen.

https://www.ratex.co/how-it-works


I just tried in Amazon and the rate that was offered.
Exchange rate: USD1 to SGD1.3349