Using north american credit card in foreign country?”
The credit card company will decide some slightly outrageous exchange rate and even take a commission from the exchange for “convinience” in other words.. It is highly recommended to take money out of the bank and exchange it in an exchange office and use cash. When I was in Israel, at one point I purchased a plane ticket using my american credit card (Master card) they told me that since this is an international transaction they can take out the money in dollars rather than NIS (Shekels the currency of Israel). They told me I would save money from the money being taken as USD versus NIS. But in none of the other transactions I made was this ever an option (unless I was at the duty free in the airport). In other words, when you use a credit card… it takes out money which is converted into whatever currency you use… In your credit card statement it might show up as ruppees but this is how many ruppees were exchanged into dollars–the money the store wanted. To be more clear because
Hi ssnader, I have a Visa (Police Co -Op) credit (debit) card. I have used it all over the world. I traveled around the States for 2 months using the card for everything and had no troubles. The amount is shown on your statement in the currency that you are using, e.g. in India it would be in rupees. It is then corrected to show the amount in your native country, dollars (US.) It depends on the currency’s current valuation against other currencies. The US dollar is usually fairly high so it gives you more spending power. Always check your accounts. They may charge a fee for the conversion.
