Foreign transaction fees
Monday, February 13th, 2006Now that credit card companies are charging extra fees for foreign transactions, you need to know where online companies are physically located. For example, did you know that Abebooks, an online aggregator of bookstores, is based in Canada? We found out when we bought books from them and found our credit card statement littered with foreign transaction fees. The ironic thing is that the book actually shipped from the U.S. (from Amazon.com, in fact). Of course, there’s not much Abebooks can do about this, but you need to calculate the extra costs into the transaction to see whether you’re still getting a good deal.