Best VISA Debit Card for Exchanging US Dollars

jonesMUFCforever

Inactive wrote: »

Seems a long time to wait to prove a theory.. :rotfl:

I suggested June 1st as now statements showing transactions for that date will shortly be landing on your doormat or can be viewed on online statements.

Inactive

I can always check the exact rate I get with Nationwide within a day or so.

will-in-estoril

tom.daniel wrote: »

I dont think you are right, whether a bank charges a set % or not they are making money in the spread between when the market trades and what they give as a rate, so therefore they all set whatever rate they want. if it is all the same, why do i always get a far better rate with my Nationwide card rather than my Barclaycard????

I suggest you read Martin's article. http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money#topcards45

1. Visa or Mastercard set the rate.
2. The card provider applies a loading, typically between 0 and 3%.
3. The card holder charges a fee, or not.

Hope this helps.;)

benjus

As will-in-estoril pointed out, the answer is on this site!

For transactions outside of Europe (as per Visa's definition of "Europe"), Visa charges the issuing bank 0.84% on top of Visa's exchange rate. It was due to rise to 1% but Visa reversed this decision recently. Nationwide passes this charge directly on to customers, whereas other banks add their own charges on top of Visa's.

So - the exchange rates charged by different banks will be different, but they are not made up by the banks - they are fixed percentages added on to the rate set by the card provider.

Note that this discussion only covers credit and debit cards - international bank transfers and currency exchange facilities are separate topics.