Credit card for use in the US

C

colin79ie

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Travelling on a US holiday this year and planning for any eventuality.

I have revolut and plan to take cash also.
However, I would like to have a credit card as backup in case of any issues or in case of emergencies like medical or whatever (have travel insurance)

I'm wondering which credit card to get or are there cards that have low or no fees for foreign transactions?
 
You've probably had a bit of a look around already as well - as far as I can see, non of the credit cards on offer in Ireland come without non-Euro transaction fees.
Even the amount seems to be pretty same'ish around 2%.
 
Just watch out - AIB have different charges for Europe and Rest of world.

Also, there is no cap on the charge applies for Credit card, whereas there is for Debit cards.

For USA I think the conversion charges are as below. All the banks use FX rates set by visa or MasterCard.
  • PTSB Visa 1.75%
  • Ulster Mastercard 2%
  • KBC Mastercard 2%
  • BOI Mastercard 2.25%
  • Avant Card 2.65%
  • AIB Visa 2.75%
 
N26 have low FX fees but only offer a debit card.

If you have a Revolut card, and your ATM/debit card, and cash, and if this is your 4th level back up for a major emergency then maybe FX fees are not that important if the chances of the card actually been used at all are very low.
 
Not quite on topic, but mention of a revolut card in the US caught my attention.

I got my revolut card specifically for a trip to USA in June 2017. The card didn't offer the benefit I hoped for for a couple of reasons.

1. I was limited in the amount of cash I would withdraw at an ATM. IIRC it was EUR 200 in one month
2. USA is, IMO, a few years behind Europe for debit cards, POS devices & contactless
3. This one may be more me than a systemic issue, but I occasionally hit an issue with POS devices in supermarkets. The device prompted me to specify if the card was a Debit or a Credit card. Sometimes a device identified the revolut card as a Credit card, other times as a Debit card.
 
On a recent trip to USA I used a AIB Credit Card, AIB Debit card and a Revolut card on the same day to determine which provided the best FX rate. I was surprised by the results, which I set out below, using a transaction amount of $100 to show the Euro cost.

AIB Credit card: $100 @ 1.14211 = €87.55
AIB Debit card: $100 @ 1.13754 = €87.91
Revolut card: $100 @ 1.13797 = €87.88

Given that the AIB credit card incorporates a currency conversion fee of 2.75%, compared with 1.75% for the debit card, I was surprise to see that the final euro cost of the credit card was the lowest. Perhaps VISA have better access to more competitive FX rates?

One feature of the Revolut card that I do like is that you receive an immediate "push" notification on your phone advising you of the Euro cost.

As Revolut is a totally free card I do not understand how their model proposes to make money. I top up my Revolut card with my credit card, which means that VISA must be charging them a merchants fee of at least 1% (VISA do not charge me a "cash advance" fee for transferring money to my Revolut card.)

Jim Stafford
 
Last edited:
Jim Stafford said:
AIB Credit card: $100 @ 1.14211 = €87.55
AIB Debit card: $100 @ 1.13754 = €87.91
Revolut card: $100 @ 1.13797 = €87.88
Click to expand...

Just pointing out the obvious that unless the transactions are carried out at the exact same time, the comparison are obviously not fair as the market FX rate will vary.

Brendan Burgess said:
  • In general, use your debit card rather than your credit card for transactions over €20.
  • In general, use your credit card for purchases under €20
Click to expand...

Good advice back in the pre-Revolut days. These days you are best using Revolut above or below 20 EUR.
 
Get a Curve card. It will take the US transaction convert it to Euro at the market rate and then recharge it to your Irish credit card
 
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