Foreign card fee calculator
Pay by card abroad, and how much more does the purchase cost once it lands on your home-currency statement? Enter the amount, the foreign currency and your card's FX fee—then see what DCC, dynamic currency conversion, adds on top.
What this calculator is doing
When a card purchase abroad lands back on your home-currency statement, two markups are usually hidden in the figure:
- The FX fee: what your card issuer or scheme charges on a foreign-currency transaction, commonly 1%–2%. You can't dodge this layer (unless you use a no-FX-fee card).
- DCC, dynamic currency conversion: at checkout the merchant asks whether you'd like to "see it in your home currency". It sounds convenient—really it means they convert for you and quietly add 3%–6%. Once you agree, that markup stacks on top of the FX fee.
This tool estimates with "home-currency charge = amount × rate × (1 + FX fee% + DCC markup%)" and works out how much more DCC costs than settling in local currency. The takeaway is simple: always decline DCC, and always choose local currency when you pay by card.
The FX fee differs by card, the scheme's posting rate moves day to day, and the DCC markup varies by merchant. This just shows you the scale and the right choice; the real figure is whatever your statement says.
How to use it, and lose less
One iron rule: when a terminal or web page asks "settle in your home currency or the local currency", always pick the local (foreign) currency and leave the conversion to your card scheme, not the merchant. Then check your own card's FX fee—some are 0, some 1.5%, some 2%, and over a year the gap adds up. To understand why exchange carries a spread, read exchange rates and the spread; for a no-FX-fee multi-currency card, see the Wise multi-currency account and how to open a Hong Kong card. Check the mid-rate with the currency converter.