Choose a bank that skips the fee

Regarding “Here a Fee, There a Fee, Everywhere a Credit Card Fee?” (Travel Insider, June 22): Author James Gilden distinguishes between the 1% currency exchange fee charged by credit card companies such as Visa and MasterCard, and the transaction fee for using a card in a foreign country, charged not by the company that converts the currency but by the banks that sponsor the credit cards.

The transaction fee is often 2% or higher. If you don’t charge much overseas, this is a small amount. But what if you prize your airline miles and have a credit card that gives you a mile for every dollar spent? The usual rough estimate of the value of one mile is 2 cents. If your sponsoring bank charges a 2% transaction fee, your net benefit per dollar charged is 2 cents minus 2 cents, which equals zero.

I have a MasterCard whose sponsoring bank, Capital One, not only charges no transaction fee but pledges in writing never to charge one.

I have saved at least 2% on all my foreign currency purchases since I got it.

Look at your next statement with a foreign currency transaction on it, and decide if you’d rather benefit your sponsoring bank or yourself.

Gordon Reiter

Torrance