which channel to choose for overseas travel credit cards
Try to use UnionPay channel to swipe your card
When you pay by credit card abroad, sometimes the store will ask you whether to choose UnionPay or other channels, such as visa, master and AmericanExpress. Why?
overseas credit card spending and unionpay line will not generate handling fees. If you take the route of international organizations, the currency used is the currency contained in the card itself, such as USD (RMB-USD dual currency card), and there will be no handling fee. You need to pay back US dollars or deposit RMB to purchase foreign exchange.
if the currency of the card itself is not swiped, such as Japanese yen and Korean won, international organizations will charge a 1.5% exchange fee when doing currency conversion. Since the credit card consumption abroad will be settled in US dollars, if the consumption amount is not US dollars, there will be an exchange fee between the two currencies, which is 1.5% of the transaction amount. Foreign exchange charges will be collected by banks on behalf of international organizations. If the consumption amount is USD, there is no handling fee for settlement of foreign exchange.
What do you mean?
China cardholders use the UnionPay channel to swipe their credit cards overseas, and the bank will not charge other fees.
If your credit card is a dual-currency card and supports UnionPay and visa (or master) at the same time, you should pay in US dollars when you pay the bill. No matter through UnionPay or visa (or master), the bank will not charge any other fees.
however, if you travel to Japan and stay in a hotel, the hotel does not support UnionPay channel, but only supports visa. When you pay the room rate, visa will charge 1.5% exchange fee. The room rate is 1, yen, but what you actually paid is 1,15 yen, which is 15 yen more.
when applying for a full-currency credit card, the bank will not charge any other fees regardless of the currency used when swiping the card.
: Matters needing attention when using credit cards abroad
1. Unlike debit cards that convert foreign currency into RMB at real-time exchange rate, credit cards do not convert the amount into RMB on the day of consumption for bookkeeping, but only convert the amount of consumption into RMB on the day of repayment for deduction.
what do you mean? For example, you spent 1 euros on a bag in France on March 6th. On that day, the exchange rate between euro and RMB was 7.8:1. Do you think this bag is worth 78 yuan? It's not. The repayment date of your credit card is 5/23, and the exchange rate between euro and RMB is 7.9:1, so the actual price of this bag is 79 yuan instead of 78 yuan. But if RMB appreciates during the repayment period, the exchange rate between Euro and RMB is 7.58:1. Congratulations. The current price of this bag is 758 yuan, which saves you 22 yuan.
of course, in most cases, the fluctuation of exchange rate during the two months is very small and can be basically ignored. However, if the RMB continues to depreciate and the consumption amount is particularly large, we need to consider how to offset it. For China tourists who shop abroad, RMB appreciation can save money, while RMB depreciation will lose money.
You must pay attention to this information when traveling abroad. I hope it will help you. In addition, don't expose your property easily when traveling abroad, and you must protect yourself.