So you come back from your fantastic holiday relaxed, happy and ready to return to the normality of life. So you have overspent somewhat whilst away, but no worries it was worth it plus you have kept a record of what you had spent on both your credit and debit cards. Then you receive your bank statement or you may check online. You ask yourself what are all these international purchase transaction fees?  

An international purchase transaction fee can best be defined as a fee for every purchase made by either your credit or debit card that is in a foreign currency. For example you pay for a meal on your debit card at an American restaurant in San Diego, your bankthen converts the amount from your home currency (e.g. pounds) to a foreign currency (e.g. dollars). The bank will then charge you for having to make the conversion between the two currencies.

Also note that buying items online from other countries generally occurs these charges because obviously you are paying for the goods in a foreign currency.

Looking at ways to minimize and prevent this can save us quite allot of money. Firstly the obvious is to use cash for everything while on holiday, this is not good in terms of security and regardless of how much money you take you generally at some point return to using the cards. Also there is the old fashion way of using travellers cheques though secure it can be a pain and an extra chore to find somewhere that exchanges them and then having to wait for that place to open. Though these are two options while on vacation they would not prevent an International purchase transaction fee for shopping abroad on the internet.

So how can we address or minimize this from continually happening? Firstly we can shop around to find out which banks and credit card companies offer the lowest charges and what banks even waiver all transaction fees. Search the internet thoroughly to see what is the best option for you. 

Prepaid credit cards are another option to look at as some are designed for specifically traveling abroad and occur no transaction fees at ATM’s. Also most prepaid credit card companies offer a much better rate of exchange than the majority of high street banks. Furthermore most of the cards are now designed with chip and PIN whichcan be useful when in another country.

Financial institutions such as www.currencyuk.co.uk offer alternative ways to send money or purchase items from abroad. They also offer no charges on receiving foreign currency into any of their accounts so you can relax knowing you are not about to receive any hidden charges. This is good if you are working abroad and need to send money back home and you are worried that your salary will be diminished due to charges and fees from the handling of foreign currency.

You could consider changing banks as exchange rates vary between them and on some accounts they will have benefits for the international traveller. This should only be looked into if you regularly travel and shop abroad.

These are just a few ideas to consider when tryingto control the amount of fees that can occur when you are shopping and traveling abroad. Arguably the most cost effective way to prevent this is to take large amounts of money out each time you use an ATM. By doing so you will minimize the amount of times you will withdraw money or pay via card transaction. This in turn this will result in lower amounts of costs and fees.

Currency UK is a company that offers services for moving foreign currency around the globe. They are also a player in the foreign exchange market.