I am interested in knowing how much it costs for a holder of a major credit card such as VISA or MasterCard to pay something in American dollars assuming they live in Europe, England, or Canada. In other words, does your credit card issuer charge you something extra to "convert" your Euros, Pounds, or Canadian dollars? If so, what is the fee or the percentage you are charged?

Hi Karen

In using my VISA (from Canada), there is no extra charge over and above the foreign currency conversion. I have found that I usually get a better rate using my VISA than if I go the bank to change money over.

Don't know about N America but most card issuers in the UK charge a fee for overseas transactions (often 2 or 3%)on debit and credit cards and it varies from issuer to issuer so you need to check with yours. There are still one or two institutions in the UK who don't charge (to attract customers) but not many. Nationwide was a good one until recently but now they have started charging because a lot of people opened an account with them to use only for holidays.

Capital One does not charge a conversion fee but some cards do. I think it would be best for you to contact your credit card company to be sure so you don't get any surprises

I am asking this question because Treasure Beach Foundation might sell some things online. These would need to be purchased with a credit card.

The credit card processor we always use for donations and for villa raffle tickets will accept any currency and convert it into US dollars at no charge. Unfortunately, they cannot handle online sales for us. The processor who would handle the online sales for us will only accept payment in US dollars. What this means is people having non-US credit cards will end up paying their own conversion fees.

We wanted to be sure these fees are not so high as to discourage sales.

Dear Karen,

I use my us-cc in europe - and there is not extra charge on top of it. However if you consider going to Germany for example, have some dollar changed into Euro coins or small bills, when using the train, taxi or metro or just buying some drinks or snacks.hope this has helped.