This is a warning about using your Chase Visa or MasterCard outside of the United States. Many travelers are told that using a credit card overseas guarantees the best currency conversion rate for purchases. That is often true, but with any credit card issued by Chase, just the opposite is true.
Chase gives one of the worst conversion rates for foreign currency and on top of that ADDS a 3% SURCHARGE on top of all purchases! Chase is the third largest American bank, yet their rate is worse than credit cards issued by small regional banks. Chase's rate was even worse than the rate offered by my local mom & pop bank (I know, because I used both cards overseas)!
As mentioned, despite one of the worst conversion rates, Chase adds a whopping 3% fee on all purchases (so if you charged $1000 overseas, Chase would simply add $30.00 to your bill just for fun (and profit of course). Chase's crummy rates are bad enough, but Chase resorts to lies and obfuscation when confronted on the issue of the 3% fee. Three separate Chase telephone rep's (two of whom were supervisors) told me that the fees are imposed by Visa/MasterCard International and that Chase has no control over them.
Chase just passes the fees on to the customer. Lies, lies and more lies. Some smaller credit card issues (like Providian) and mom & pop banks (mentioned above) don't impose these fees at all and I am sure they are not eating the fees to keep customers happy.
The truth is, there is no such thing as a mandatory 3% fee, except the one Chase greedily chooses to impose on its customers. We know this by Chase's own WRITTEN admission, which contradicts what the phone reps claimed. Chase writes that after the foreign currency is converted, [Chase] then charges an additional 3%. Thus, despite terrible conversion rates, Chase chooses to add insult to injury and impose a 3% fee.
They admitted this much in writing. Chase must think it's a quasi-government who can add an additional tax on your purchases! Being the third largest American bank, I am sure they negotiate excellent rates for themselves and then give the customer a very bad rate pocketing the difference. Not happy with this deceit, they then add another 3% to your whole bill.
Yet despite these underhanded and avaricious techniques, Chase still isn't profitable. Morningstar gives them the grade of D for profitability (banking industry average of Chase's peers is a grade of B and even many of the troubled airlines enjoy a C rating from Morningstar). So LOL! These crooks & liars, despite their deception, still can't turn a profit. You're always warned about pickpockets when traveling abroad, but all travelers beware and use a credit card other than one issued by Chase which is nothing more than a corporate pickpocket.
I am not the only one alarmed about this problem; check out this story from Rick Steves on abcnews' website: abcnews. GoDOTcom/Travel/RickSteves/story? Id=913681 put a.in the place of DOT when you put it into your browser.
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