How to Avoid Foreign Transaction Fees (3 Money Rules for Travelers)

You are losing money on almost every swipe abroad, and most of the time you never see it happen. The fees hide inside your exchange rate, tack onto your ATM withdrawal, or sneak in when a card machine asks a friendly-sounding question at checkout.

After nearly ten years of traveling close to full-time, these are the three money rules we never break. They are small habits, and they save real money on every single trip.

The 3 rules at a glance

1. Use a travel credit card with zero foreign transaction fees
2. Use a debit card that reimburses ATM fees or gives strong exchange rates
3. Always decline the currency conversion

Here is why each one matters.

1. Carry a credit card with no foreign transaction fees

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Most everyday cards charge around 3 percent on everything you buy abroad, and Chase's own guidance puts the typical range at 2 to 5 percent. That is a few dollars on dinner, a few more on a hotel, and it adds up across a whole trip without ever showing on the receipt in an obvious way.

The fix is simple: travel with a card that charges zero foreign transaction fees. Cards from Chase Sapphire, Capital One, and American Express all have no-fee options, and many of them earn travel points on top. Check the specific card rather than assuming, because the same issuer often sells both kinds. Set one up before you leave, since approval and delivery can take a week or two.

2. Get a debit card that reimburses ATM fees or gives great rates

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You will still need cash in plenty of places, and no single bank has ATMs everywhere you go. Withdrawal fees pile up fast when you are pulling out cash in a new country every few days, and they usually arrive in layers rather than one charge. Chase's published schedule, to take one example, is 5 dollars per withdrawal at a non-Chase ATM outside the US, plus whatever the machine's owner adds, plus a 3 percent adjustment on the converted amount. Three charges from three parties on one withdrawal.

Two ways to beat it. Some accounts reimburse those ATM fees entirely. Charles Schwab Bank Investor Checking rebates ATM fees worldwide and charges no foreign transaction fee on the debit card, and Betterment Checking reimburses ATM and foreign fees too. Two details worth knowing before you apply: Schwab's checking account has to be opened as a linked account alongside a Schwab One brokerage account, and its rebates cover ordinary local-currency withdrawals rather than dynamic currency conversion charges. Betterment is not itself a bank, and the account and card are issued by nbkc bank.

Separately, a multi-currency account like Wise handles the exchange rate itself differently. Wise converts at the mid-market rate, the same one you can look up on Google, and charges a visible conversion fee rather than burying a markup inside the rate. That fee varies by currency and starts at 0.23 percent, checked on 19 August 2026, and Wise's own pricing page carries the current numbers. Many travelers carry both: a fee-reimbursing debit card for cash, and Wise for spending and transfers.

3. Always decline the conversion

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This is the one that catches almost everyone. When an ATM or a card terminal asks whether you want to pay in your home currency or the local one, it is not doing you a favor. Choosing to pay in your home currency, often called dynamic currency conversion, lets the machine set its own exchange rate, and that rate includes a markup you do not get to see.

The rule is easy to remember: always pay in the local currency. Say no to the home-currency option every time. That hands the conversion to Visa or Mastercard at the network's own rate instead of the machine's, which is the better starting point. Your card issuer can still add its own foreign transaction fee on top, which is exactly why rule 1 comes first. Declining costs you nothing and takes one extra tap, and Visa is explicit that saying no cannot stop you making the purchase or the withdrawal.

Small habits, big savings

None of this requires you to be a points expert or a spreadsheet person. Set up the right cards before you go, keep the ATM fees in check, and decline the conversion at every terminal. Do those three things and you stop leaking money on trips you already paid good money to take.

Money is only one piece of getting a trip right, though. The rest is the stuff that is harder to look up: the visa and entry rules for your passport, the local apps that actually work, the scams to watch for, and the money and banking quirks specific to where you are headed. Instead of stitching that together from old blog posts the night before you fly, TravelReddi builds you one personalized pre-trip checklist around your passport and your destination, so you land knowing what to do.

Handle the fees with the three rules above, and let us handle the rest. Safe travels.