# US currency credit card vs Canadian currency credit card while travelling



## JaneRo (Feb 22, 2014)

We have a significant amount of US dollars in a CIBC US dollar savings account. We have a CIBC US currency credit card and a CIBC Canadian currency credit card. When travelling in Europe or Asia, is it more beneficial for us to use the US credit card or the Canadian credit card, keeping in mind that we are eager to use our US dollars without converting to CAN currency?


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## wendi1 (Oct 2, 2013)

Well, this one is easy. Ask CIBC what their exchange rates are based on and what their currency conversion fee is for each card. 

I would bet they come out pretty close, but I also bet that you will be astonished at how much you pay for purchases in a non-US, non-Cdn currency.


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

If you get the Amazon.ca Visa, they don't charge foreign exchange fees, so that would be better than either of the options you mentioned.


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## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

Thinking about this card for U.S. travel and abroad, would like to avoid annual fee though:

http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/produc...redit-cards/view-all-cards/us-dollar-card.jsp

Do you think they could waive that?


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## fraser (May 15, 2010)

When we were receiving USD monies we maintained a USD bank account at CIBC and had a USD credit card. The card cost about $30. but more than paid for it since it allowed us not to pay exchange to convert our USD check to CAD and we avoided the 2.5 percent surcharge on Visa. We were/are spending $7-10K year in non CAD transactions through our credit card. If we used our CAD VISA that would result in $175-250. worth of credit card FX exchange fees per year. In some years the spend, and thus the saving on fees was considerably higher. 

The only time we don't use the card is when we book on certain US airlines in USD. Some of the airlines, such as American, actually give us a better conversion rate that the FX rate so we use their conversion service and get billed in CAD. You have to watch out for retail stores in Florida. If you use a Canadian Visa, some will ask you very casually if you want to be billed in Canadian dollars. That is code for we will convert your US charge to CAD and charge you 3 percent for doing it. The cruise lines often try to do the same thing, as did Avis on our December trip.

Now that we no longer get USD cheques we have switched a Chase Visa card (Amazon, Marriott, etc). Some of these cards carry no annual fee. Chase Visa does not add on any significant FX fees. We have used it in the US and Asia. The conversion factors are almost identical to the FX exchange numbers for the day.

It is working well for us.


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

My Own Advisor said:


> Thinking about this card for U.S. travel and abroad, would like to avoid annual fee though:
> 
> http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/produc...redit-cards/view-all-cards/us-dollar-card.jsp
> 
> Do you think they could waive that?


Why would you want to use that one abroad? Since they don't mention anything, I would assume you'd pay a 2% fx fee outside the US.


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## Echo (Apr 1, 2011)

Spudd said:


> If you get the Amazon.ca Visa, they don't charge foreign exchange fees, so that would be better than either of the options you mentioned.


+1


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## richard (Jun 20, 2013)

The Amazon card has a 1% reward (as long as you can spend it at Amazon), so even if you have USD income if you can convert it at less than a 1% fee that works out better than a USD card. Plus it works for other currencies too.


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## fraser (May 15, 2010)

Absolutely agree. We happen to use the Marriott Chase Visa card. It has a fee but it also comes with a free night at certain Marriott properties. We will use this.

The sign up bonus was a free year, a free hotel night (which we have already used) plus 30000 Marriott points that will get you one or two more nights.

We had both and then cancelled the Amazon one. The very odd thing was that the Marriott card gave us a significantly higher credit limit than did the Amazon card. And we needed the higher limit. I think Amazon was only $5K.


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