CREDIT CARDS COMPANIES ARE THE NEW EVIL EMPIRE!

Just having returned from Canada, and after all the new legislation I had read about with credit card companies looking for new ways to generate revenue, I was shocked to experience higher credit card fees firsthand.

The exchange rate between the U.S. and Canada used to be very appealing. Only 3 years ago, it was 75 U.S. cents for every Canadian dollar. The exchange rate made traveling to Canada almost as inexpensive as Mexico. Flash forward 3 years and 1 massive recession later and the U.S. dollar is doing poorly up against the Loonie (We call a U.S. dollar a "buck" the Canadians call the Canadian dollar the "loonie" - I'm not making this up). Right now it's 95 U.S. cents for every Canadian dollar or nearly a 1:1 valuation.

So off to Canada I go happily charging hotel rooms, transportation, lift tickets, ski rentals, and dinners on my Chase Visa card. Now I understand that transactions done between banks between foreign countries comes with a cost. And I do think that given a 5% differential between the U.S. and Canadian exchange rates that the bank is entitled to take a modest 2% in fees and leave me the minor illusion of "saving money" with a 3% gain on the dollar versus the loonie. But imagine my surprise when I came home and added up all my "foreign transaction fees" (a nebulous enough line item) to find out that even with a favorable exchange rate between the U.S. and Canada, it cost me more money to vacation in Canada than it did in the U.S.! My $989.03 Canadian dollar vacation cost me $960.27 in U.S. dollars, but with the foreign transaction fees, my real expenditure was $965.22 USD. Granted that's only a $5 dollar difference, but with a 5% exchange rate, shouldn't those numbers be reversed?

I love travelling overseas, but when it costs more to go to Canada than the U.S., what is my credit card bill going to look like travelling to Germany with the Euro? Or the worse, England where the pound/dollar exchange rate is definitely not in my favor? It will be hugely expensive, which leads me to my next point about future overseas travelling, I will have to try to pay for as much up front as possible. The days of just charging everything overseas is over.