hoskib

iTrader: (1)

planing to buy something from america and was wondering how it's done?
will my credit card work out an exchange rate and automatically convert from sterling?
if so am i charged a fee? and will it take longer for the american buyer to get their money?

any info much appreciated.

midget1500

they just work out the exchange rate at the time

Markus

CC works out the exchange rate and auto converts dollars to sterling. Some cards may have a separate fee for this, or it could be built into the exchange rate.

Should not take any longer for the buyer to get their money. Only thing to note is that some online places will only accept cards issued from US/Canada, or if they do accept international cards, they might make you jump through a few hoops to verify the card, for example:

I used otherworld computing to purchase a new battery for my iPod. I used my UK card, they needed to perform an international verify, basically means they need a pic of the front and rear of your card and picture page from your passport (no I'm not kidding) or other photo ID, and then you fax this over to them and that'll verify you are the owner of the card.

That's the only place I've ever been asked to do that with, most places just accept it, so it's nice in an odd way. Anyway, I don't have a fax/scanner so it would have been hassle to do the verify, so I phoned them up, explained that it's a UK card, I'm living in Canada, so that's why the billing address is UK and shipping address is Canada. They asked me to verify info on the card and then allowed transaction to be processed, plus made a note on my file about this, so the next time I ordered something, it went through with not problems.

hoskib

iTrader: (1)

cheers guys will contact the company to see if any checks need to be done.

ta

Smiler

If not paying in sterling there is only one card to have. A Nationwide CC, it's the only one that doesn't charge a fee of some description.

Freak

echo the nationwide comment

if you pay for something on your Nationwide debit card in the US in $, then they dont fiddle the rate to take a cut- they give you the actual exchange rate on your statement, so it truly is commission free.

Trout

iTrader: (1)

Having used both my Visa and Amex to pay for stuff in the US I have found the exchange rate to be better than the tourist rate and have paid no commissions or fees.

Never had a problem using them in Oz or the US for mail order.