Here are some ways credit card fees make your trip more expensive, and how to avoid some of them with an EQ bank card.
How to increase the cost when using a travel credit card
If you are an avid traveler, you may have a travel credit card. They provide convenience and allowances. But these benefits often come with costs, and even before the holidays begin, the costs can start to increase.
Before travel
Most travel credit cards charge an annual amount ranging from about $120 to $799 per year, with the highest advantage. It’s a lot of money to just open an account.
That’s not all. When you are preparing to plan your trip, you can book flights, accommodations, or tours using the online booking engine. For bookings outside Canada, when you call “books”, you may pay an additional foreign transaction (FX) fee, and most credit cards add about 2.5% per fee.
hint: You might think you can choose to pay in Canadian dollars to solve this problem, but if you do, you will pay a dynamic currency conversion fee, which adds a surcharge to the currency exchange rate. Ouch!
In your destination
Once you land at the airport, the fees will not stop either. Usually, the first thing you have to do is get local currency. You might think using a banking machine is the easiest option, but it may cost you.
When you withdraw cash using a debit card abroad, not only are there usually an additional FX fee, but some debit cards also have a currency conversion fee of up to 3.5%. Even bringing cash to exchange at the airport can be expensive. Generally, airport kiosks tend to offer poor exchange rates, and you guessed the FX fee.
Eventually, you will leave the airport and start the best part of your vacation, but if you use a credit card, you will pay for the privilege. Each foreign currency purchase (meaning taxi, dining, entertainment and shopping) pays an additional 2.5% FX fee in the case of most regular credit cards.
