What a card payment in another currency really costs
Co-founder of Penge · Published 23 August 2026 · 6 min read
You pay for dinner in another country, glance at the receipt and forget about it. Days later a different number turns up in your account. Here is what happened in between, and the one choice on the trip that actually changes the price.
Key takeaways
- A card purchase abroad is converted at the card network's rate, and the bank that issued your card may add a currency markup and a fee on top. You see one number made of several parts.
- When a terminal or a checkout page offers to charge you in your own currency, the shop's payment provider does the conversion at a rate it sets. Paying in the local currency leaves it with your own card, so you pay one markup instead of two.
- In the EU and EEA that offer has to state its cost as a percentage markup over the European Central Bank's reference rate, but only when you are paying in euro or in another EU country's currency.
- The rate is taken when the payment is authorised, so waiting does not move it. The amount can still change, because a hotel or a petrol pump reserves an estimate and charges the real figure afterwards.
- Holiday spending keeps arriving for about a week after you get home, so wait for the settled amounts before you judge the month.
What happens when you pay in another currency?
The shop charges your card in its own currency, and someone has to turn that into yours. Normally the card network converts it at its published rate, and the bank that issued your card adds a currency markup, and sometimes a fee for each purchase. What reaches your account is one number made of all three.
Because the three parts arrive as a single line on your statement, the whole thing feels like one mysterious price. Pulling them apart is the only way to tell whether a card is expensive to travel with. Visa and Mastercard each publish the rate they convert at, and each says the bank that issued your card may add fees of its own on top.[1][2] So the first part is public and the same for everyone paying through that network, while the rest belongs to your own bank, differs from card to card, and sits in the price list rather than in the app.
What are you actually paying for?
Three things, decided by three different parties. The conversion rate comes from the card network. The currency markup comes from the bank or issuer that gave you the card. A fee for each purchase, where there is one, comes from the same place. A fourth charge appears only if you let the shop do the conversion instead.
| Part | Who decides it | Where to look it up |
|---|---|---|
| The conversion rate | The card network your card runs on | The network's own currency converter |
| A currency markup | The bank or issuer that gave you the card | Your card's price list and terms |
| A fee per purchase | The same bank or issuer, where one is charged | Your card's price list and terms |
| Conversion at the till | The shop's payment provider, if you accept it | The terminal screen, before you press accept |
Two cards from the same bank can be priced differently, and a card sold for travel is not automatically the cheap one. The number worth finding before a trip is your issuer's currency markup, stated as a percentage, and whether there is a fixed fee on each purchase as well. Small fixed fees matter most on small purchases, which on a trip is most of them.
Should you say yes when the terminal offers your own currency?
Normally no. When a terminal, a cash machine or a checkout page offers to charge you in your home currency, the shop's payment provider does the conversion at a rate it chooses. Picking the local currency instead leaves the conversion with your own card network and issuer, which is usually the cheaper of the two routes.
This is dynamic currency conversion. It is offered because the conversion is worth something to whoever performs it, and it is presented as a convenience: the screen shows a familiar currency and asks you to confirm. The familiar number is the point. It hides the fact that you are buying a conversion from a party you did not choose.
In the EU and the EEA the offer cannot be silent about the price. Whoever offers the conversion has to express the total charge as a percentage markup over the latest available euro reference rates published by the European Central Bank, and has to tell you that you can pay in the seller's own currency instead.[3][4] That percentage is the number to look at, and it is usually enough to settle the question on the spot.
The rule has a limit worth knowing. It covers payments in euro and in the national currencies of EU countries, so a price in euros, Swedish kroner or Danish kroner comes with the percentage attached.[3] A price in dollars, pounds or baht does not, and there you are choosing without it. The habit that works either way is to pick the currency of the country you are standing in.
Picking the local currency does not make the conversion free. It means one markup, your own bank's, rather than two. That is still the cheaper arrangement in nearly every case, because the conversion at the till is priced by a party you did not choose and cannot compare against beforehand.
It shows up in more places than the card terminal. Cash machines abroad ask the same question, and so do airline, hotel and ticket sites, where the price in your own currency may already be the one on screen. The answer is the same every time.
Why is the amount different a few days later?
Not because the rate moved while you waited. Visa and Mastercard both take the rate from the moment the payment is authorised. What changes is the amount: a hotel, a car rental or a petrol pump reserves an estimate and charges the real figure afterwards, and your bank shows the reservation until the purchase settles.
A few days between the reservation and the settled charge is ordinary, and a weekend or a public holiday stretches it. Until then your available balance is down by an estimate rather than by a fact, which is why adding a trip up while you are still on it tells you very little.[1][2]
Some banks still describe the rate as the one on the day the purchase is settled, which is how it worked before the networks moved to the rate at the moment of authorisation. If your bank's wording and your card network's wording disagree, that is why.[1][2] Either way the gap between the two days is small next to the markup.
The direction is not fixed either. A reservation released in full can leave the settled amount lower than the one you saw. For a budget what matters is that the reserved figure is an estimate and the settled figure is the answer.
How to keep a trip from wrecking the month
Wait until everything has settled before you judge the trip, which is usually about a week after you get home. Compare settled amounts rather than receipts, since a receipt is in the wrong currency and from the wrong moment. If you genuinely spend in a currency, holding an account in it removes the conversion altogether.
- Give the trip its own category or tag, so it is one total rather than a fortnight of scattered charges.
- Leave the month open until the last reserved purchases have settled.
- Count what is still held as well as what has already left, or the trip looks cheaper than it was.
- Bring one card you have checked the price list for, rather than the one nearest the front of your wallet.
- If you spend in the same currency often, an account in that currency beats any card trick.
A trip is also the month where a budget is most useful and least consulted. Setting the number before you leave, rather than reconstructing it afterwards, is what turns the settled amounts from a verdict into a check.
How Penge helps
A purchase made abroad keeps the amount you actually paid. Penge shows the foreign amount as the main figure on the transaction, with what it cost in your own currency underneath, so a dinner in euros still reads as a dinner in euros. Reserved purchases show the same way, so a trip is visible before it has settled, and if you split one with someone you split it in the currency you paid in.
You pick a primary currency in settings. Totals, statistics, budgets and widgets are converted into it, while each transaction keeps its own currency, so an account held abroad counts towards your total without pretending the money was ever in yours. Penge connects to more than 2300 banks in over 30 countries, the connection is read-only, and it runs on iPhone.
Want to check whether your bank is supported? See which banks are supported
Get a full overview with Penge
Connect your bank and let the app categorize and budget automatically.
Frequently asked questions
- Is it cheaper to pay in the local currency or in my own?
- Normally the local currency. Choosing your own hands the conversion to the shop's payment provider at a rate it sets, while the local currency leaves it with your card network and your own bank, so you pay one markup instead of two. In the EU and EEA the offer must state its markup as a percentage when you are paying in euro or another EU currency.
- What is dynamic currency conversion?
- It is the offer to charge your card in your home currency instead of the local one, made by the terminal, the cash machine or the checkout page. The conversion is then done by the shop's payment provider rather than by your card, at a rate that provider chooses.
- Why is the amount on my statement different from the receipt?
- The exchange rate is taken when the payment is authorised, so waiting does not move it. The amount can still change: a hotel, a car rental or a petrol pump reserves an estimate first and charges the real figure when the purchase settles, usually a few days later.
- Does my card cost extra to use abroad?
- Most cards add a currency markup, and some add a fixed fee for each purchase as well. Both are set by the bank or issuer that gave you the card, not by the card network, and they are in your card's price list. Two cards from the same bank can differ.