Hi Folks

I have a UBS Credit Card (have an account with them as well).

I was checking my bill yesterday and realised that they have been charging me 1.75% Transaction fees every time I use the card for purchases overseas. I mainly shop on Amazon UK and Germany. Was quite surprised to see this because I did not see this earlier with my credit cards.

Am wondering if this is normal with CH Credit Cards and if anyone would recommend any other credit card? I do a lot of my shopping overseas ie UK, US and Germany.

Thanks for your help.

Cheers
Logos

__________________
Logotherapy
That which gives reason for being.

Natwest now shows the fee separately, before you used to get a worse exchange rate. Use a UK credit card for UK transactions.

UBS have been doing it for years - only the percentage was lower than 1.75% in the past. Not all credit card companies do this.

This is what I was writing in 2011 about UBS.
They increased all possible fees to compensate for the losses of their gambling strategy.

Cornercard.ch charge 0.9% as do Postfinance.ch

Vote with your feet.

To the 0.9% there is around 3% tax from the exchange rate for both postfinance and cornercard. Totally around 4%. UBS, Credit Suisse& the rest cost much more, so I wouldn't bother to do business with them.

I found this one in Lörrach and I am happy with their credit card.
https://bankingportal.sparkasse-loer...AID=IPSTANDARD

1% for most transactions with a minimal rate exchange difference of a few pips. A swiss credit card is at least 4 times more expansive. Of course, the swiss does better quality in the plastic and the font on the credit card is also better.

Very helpful. Many thanks.
Can you apply for German or UK Credit Cards living in CH? Thought you needed a local address for the same?
Regards
Logos

For the above mentioned bank, that is Sparkasse, you're ok with a swiss address. They have a section on their site for swiss clients.

If you search this forum you will find info on www.dkb.de (German Bank) and how to open an account with them. You´ll get a free account with a €-based credit card, which will allow you to pay (and withdraw) 1:1 in EUR.

There are many alternative German banks offering the same also discussd somewhere in this forum (cortalconsors, dab.com, etc....).

I use dkb.de for all €-transactions and international non-€-withdrawals. For non-€-payments I use www.kalixa.de (no fee, mean-fx rates without surcharge), but those guys are harder to come by (you need a German address).

Moving money from Switzerland to Germany is best done with any of the many online-fx-brokers, of which I prefer www.currencyfair.com, but there are many more.

The more transactions you have in any given country, the more it may be worth to have a local account in that country. UK-banks are specifially stubborn in opening accounts for non-residents, but I managed with Lloyds.

All above mentioned banks/services charge no account keeping fees, and as such save me a lot on transactions. I guess I have to pay with the time needed to manage all of them.

Good luck in your oncoming opening-spree!

Given the goods you are purchasing outside CH are so much cheaper I dont even look at the charge which is tiny

It depends on the spent amount. UBS is about 6%. If it's 10CHF, the fee is 60 Rappen. If we are talking about 10.000CHF, the fee is 600CHF and so on.

Kalixa.de seems an excellent deal, however it needs a german address I suppose. And probably not only an address, but a proof of address.

dkb.de: both debit and credit cards seem to be a good deal. Credit card is more expensive compared to the debit card.

Its actually 1.75% not 6% as stated on their website

so on 10000 that makes about 175CHF which is still peanuts compared what such an item would most likely cost inside CH. If you want avoid this then there is always cash the fee is simply a minor cost of the convnience the cards provide

It's actually 3% on currency exchange andon top of that an additional 1.75% surcharge.

Postfinance is cheaper.
0.9% surcharge on foreign transactions, but they have a cashback bonus which gives you back 1% of the amount spent. You basically pay only the currency exchange spread, which is the same as with UBS.

The amazing part of this entire post is that anyone looks at the interest rate charged to me the card is a convenience there are some fees for that priviledge and if I want to use it outside the country its so I dont have to carryloads of cash.

Generally the final amount is not much different to a straight exchange rate conversion so I dont even look at the fee.

By the way I am not trying to support UBS fee as I dont even have their card

ok ,ubs is not 6% but rather around 5%. Depending on the currency and day.

For 10000 CHF we have about 500CHF fee, which for some people is more than the the pay for a day.
Having a cheap foreign currency credit card is mostly one-time hassle, in my opinion worth to do it. Even only for paying in euro.

For those who like the swiss font there is always postfinance.

Interest rate? These are rather fees: disclosed one (0.9/1.75%) and hidden one (3%). The cheaper credit card is as convenient as the swiss one.

I managed by "changing" the address of an existing credit card to my sister´s address in Germany (same family name, so no delivery problems). Once the statement with this "new" address arrived the kalixa-card was easily ordered. Kalixa accepts German addresses only, even after the card is issued! Moving abroad means the card is cancelled. Handling is done exclusively online. So until there´s a replacement card no mail will be received.

The free debit card can be used like a usual credit card, except you can´t use credit through this facility. Without a German address it´s unlikely they´ll offer you a huge amount of credit in any case. After all they wouldn´t be able to go after you in Switzerland.


Using Swiss cards abroad usually attracts a "handling surcharge" + they give unbelievably bad fx-rates. These fees combined yield a "separate account strategy" pretty lucrative. Especially when it comes to trips outside of Switzerland, using the "withdraw worldwide, free, at mean fx-rates"-feature. Being able to pay for online shopping @ very good rates is only a side effect (which is foiled when it comes to www.paypalsucks.com ).

Overall strategy:

• Inside Switzerland: Local Swiss account
• Outside Switerland: DKB + Kalixa (or cortalconsors, comdirect, dab.com, ing-diba.de, gebuhrenfrei.com ....)
• non-€-countries in which you are often: Open an own account if they are free and you feel that administering them isn´t too much work
• move funds between accounts with transferwise, currencyfair or similar...

An additional side effect is to have some savings scattered throughout the world. Since no-one knows what the €-uncertainty will do to the € and the Swiss Franc it might come in handy one day.


Alternative:

• pay outrageous fees to the Swiss banks for all non-CHF transactions, during trip as well as online shopping.

Wallabies, you may easily be the bank's favourite customer. Not only you do not care about fees (explicit and hidden fees), you also mix up interest rate (for credit) and exchange rate fees, plus "abroad payment fees" (or whatever they are called).

Which is perfectly OK, you are entitled to give 5% of all of your shopping abroad to your bank. Many people do so, in fact, for the convenience.

The point is, however, that the fees are very high, and the fees are not at all transparent. Many people (yourself included) are not fully aware how much they have been charged for transaction abroad.

If banks would have been more transparent with their total fees, it would have been easier for an ordinary user. They keep it non-transparent, however. Because it pays them good money, and people generally don't complain much.

Actually, me neither. Checked those fees once, were horrified, now not availing of them anymore.