Question
Yesterday's mail brought the new terms and conditions for the MBNA Amtrak Mastercard, and today's bought me those for the MBNA AAA Visa Credit Card. The bad news: The Amtrak card will indeed incur the 3% currency conversion fee. But the good news is that the AAA card will not incur that fee:
Sumary of Change: We are changing the way that you will be charged for transactions outside the United States and transactions in a foreign currency. There will be a new 1% Foreign Transaction Fee on these types of transactions. Your statement will list the transactions separately from the Foreign Transaction Fee. For transactions you make in a foreign curency, the conversion rate will be reduced by one percent compared to the way it was previiously determined.
Amendment:
We are adding the following to your Account Terms Transaction Fee section. Effective for all transactions outside of the United States, or in a foreign currency, that post to your account on or after May 25, 2005, we will assess a transaction fee (FINANCE CHARGE) Equal to 1% of the U.S. dollar amount of each such Foreign Transaction. This fee will be in addition to any other applicable transaction fees.
Not having ever incurred a finance charge, I do not know the consequences of this fee being considered such a charge. Does it incur interest charges? Does it invoke the minimum finance charge stated by most credit card agreements? Does it screw up the benifits of paying off the account entirely on time? Any thoughts? Any hard information?
You can read about the AAA card on the Free Cards page of the Credit Card section of my website, Free Frequent Flyer Miles (http://www.freefrequentflyermiles.com/index.htm). It offers 5% back on gasoline purchases, capped at 2% of all charges on the card.