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Foreign currency transactions with your credit card
Planning a trip abroad? Use your credit card to safely and securely pay for things. Credit cards are great when you’re travelling because they’re accepted in many locations and can offer competitive currency exchange rates. You may have to pay a transaction fee for using your card abroad or when you make foreign currency transactions. When making foreign currency transactions on your credit card, here are some things to consider.
How foreign currency conversion fees work
Transactions, including purchases and refunds or credits, made on your credit card in a foreign currency — one different than the currency of your credit card — will be subject to foreign currency conversion fees. These charges can vary across credit card companies and even cards from the same company. As a CIBC credit card account holder, you can read your CIBC Credit Card Summary of Annual Interest Rates and Fees disclosure statement, which was provided to you with your CIBC credit card welcome package, before you leave for your trip. This way, you’ll know what sort of charges apply. It’s common for a credit card company to charge a foreign currency conversion fee between 1% and 3% of the transaction amount.
Apply for a credit card with CIBC
Before your next trip, check out our different CIBC travel rewards credit card options and apply online.