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Comment by GreaterFool | Hacker News Reader

I lived in Singapore and I still have a bank account there. A year ago my bank bumped foreign transaction fees on credit cards to 3.5%. This is a robbery. I immediately cancelled that card. I recall the website said the most of the fee is what Visa (or Mastercard) imposes on them. Either way that's not acceptable.

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In the U.S., Visa charges banks a 1% foreign-transaction fee. However most banks in turn charge their customers either 2-3% (tacking on another 1-2% themselves), or on more premium cards, eat Visa's fee and charge the customer 0%, while advertising it as a "no foreign transaction fee card".

I saw a couple of American Express cards in US with no foreign transaction fees. As an expat and nomad I really wanted to get one of them. Unfortunately no financial services in US are available no non-residents* (bank accounts, stock trading accounts, robo advisors, credit cards, etc)

* please don't complain that jobs and profits are going abroad if your country won't do business with foreigners. It is often hard to order products from US because almost nobody ships abroad (Amazon does, but not all products). Anyway, this is off topic, sorry about that.

They are available to non residents; but only if they were allowed to get an SSN.

The Visa/Mastercard fee is nowhere near 3.5%. Your bank is trying to make profits for itself.

"Visa and MasterCard each charge 1 percent of purchases as a foreign transaction fee. Most banks add an additional 1 percent or 2 percent, leaving your total fee at 2 percent or 3 percent. "

That's the number I came up with after doing some calculations too. 1% VISA 2% Bank charges Whenever possible, I try to avoid using the cards.

All those promotion gimmicks they give to people to sign up for the cards, and all the spend-this-get-this-gift are all cheaper than the fees. Go figure.

Have 3 credit cards in Singapore. Don't get charged additional fees on foreign purchases. I get raped on cash advances tho.

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