Best Credit Cards With No Foreign Transaction Fees for December 2022

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The Bank of America® Travel Rewards credit card doesn’t come with foreign transaction fees or an annual fee. You’ll earn 1.5 points for every dollar you spend, with no limit. The introductory APR offer can provide you with some wiggle room to spread out your card payments without incurring interest charges.

See our full review of the Bank of America Travel Rewards card for more information.

While most travel credit cards focus on flight and hotel purchases, the Wells Fargo Autograph Card also provides rewards on purchases of taxis, subways, tolls, restaurants, phone plans and gas stations. You earn the standard 3x rewards rate on all of those categories plus popular streaming services. Plus, you can earn 1x points on other purchases.

The welcome bonus is also more generous that what you’ll get from most credit cards with no foreign transaction fees or annual fee though it does come with a higher spending threshold. For a limited time, you can earn 30,000 bonus points — worth a $300 cash redemption value — when you spend $1,500 in purchases in the first three months (offer expires 1/10/2023).

For more information about this card’s offer, see our Wells Fargo Autograph Card review.

The Citi Premier Card and the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card have the same $95 annual fee. The Citi Premier Card offers higher reward rates on everyday spending categories as well as general travel purchases, however. You’ll earn 3x points on air travel, hotels, restaurants, gas stations and supermarkets. If you redeem your points as a statement credit via Citi’s thankyou.com website — instead of directly through your online account, which will result in a lower redemption rate — your points will be worth 1 cent each.

And the welcome bonus is among the best available, though the spending threshold is on the higher side: 80,000 bonus points — worth $800 in gift cards at thankyou.com — when you spend $4,000 in the first three months. And, of course, there are no foreign transaction fees.

For more information, refer to our Citi Premier Card review.

Capital One loads the Venture Rewards Credit Card with plenty of travel perks to offset the $95 annual fee. Travel anywhere without any foreign transaction fees and earn 2x unlimited miles on all purchases. In addition, Capital One awards you up to a $100 statement credit forGlobal Entry or TSA PreCheckto help you speed through the airport lines. Venture Miles earned can be redeemed on flights and hotels or used to pay for Amazon.com and PayPal purchases. You can also transfer miles to over 15 hotel andairline programs.

Check out our full review of theCapital One Venture Rewards Credit Card.

The Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card offers flat-rate rewards on purchases, making it a good everyday credit card that you can also use on trips abroad. You’ll earn 1.5% on all purchases — and 5% on car rentals or hotels booked via the Capital One Travel portal. The sole travel benefit is no foreign transaction fees. But you can still take advantage of the competitive introductory APR and welcome bonus.

For more information, see our Capital One Quicksilver review.

For a credit card with no annual fee or foreign transaction fees, the Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card delivers competitive rewards. You’ll earn 3% cash back on a handful of major categories: Dining, entertainment, grocery stores (excluding superstores like Target and Walmart) and popular streaming services. Entertainment purchases cover movie theaters, sports promoters (professional and semi-professional live events), theatrical promoters, amusement parks, tourist attractions, aquariums, zoos, dance halls, record stores, pool halls or bowling alleys.

For more details about the rewards, welcome bonus and introductory APR, see our Capital One SavorOne review.

The Discover it® Miles* card offers an excellent welcome bonus after your first year as a cardholder. All Discover cards have no foreign transaction fees, but this one ensures all your international spending is optimized for rewards — you earn 1.5 miles per dollar on all your purchases. While you don’t have to meet any minimum spending thresholds to unlock this welcome bonus like with most other credit cards, you do have to be patient to earn it. Discover will match all of the miles you earn over the course of the first year at the end of your first year.

The Discover it® Cash Back* card is a bit high-maintenance and best for occasional overseas travelers. It doesn’t have any travel perks beyond no foreign transaction fees. And the rewards program features a rotating rewards category that aren’t particularly travel-oriented, like grocery stores, gas stations and Amazon.com. You’re required to manually activate the rotating category through your account each quarter to earn 5% cash back for up to $1,500 in spending (then 1%).

For Oct. through Dec. this year, the rotating category includes all Amazon.com purchases and purchases made using a digital wallet. For orders through your smart device, simply select to pay via the Apple Pay, Google Pay, Garmin Pay or Samsung Pay app.

The Discover it Cash Back also offers the Unlimited Cashback Match welcome bonus. For more information, see our Discover it Cash Back review.

Most cards with low fees and perks are reserved for individuals with stellar credit. The Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card fills an important gap by giving people with limited or fair credit a chance to get started or build with responsible use. Use this card wisely — you’ll automatically get considered for a credit limit increase as soon as six months from approval, potentially boosting your credit score. Spend wisely, enjoy the cash back, make your payments on time and take advantage of unlimited access to your credit report through CreditWise. You’ll start to see over time how good financial decisions can impact your credit.

Card issuers or banks charge foreign transaction fees to cover the cost of exchanging a purchase from the foreign currency to US dollars. If you make a purchase in foreign currency, it’s likely you will be charged for the conversion unless you have a no-transaction-fee credit card.

One way to avoid having to pay a foreign transaction fee when you’re traveling abroad is to choose to pay in US dollars. Many store credit card terminals will recognize your foreign card and prompt you to choose whether you’d like to pay in the local currency or US dollars. If you choose local currency, you may have to pay your bank or card issuer the transaction fee to exchange it. However, if you choose to pay in US dollars, there is no conversion to be performed.

Keep in mind that if you choose to pay in US dollars, you may save on the transaction fee but the foreign merchant bank may still tack on a commission for the exchange. The best way to avoid unnecessary fees is to pay with a credit card with no transaction fees.

Mastercard, Visa, American Express and Discover are the four majorcredit card processors. Visa and Mastercard are the two most widely accepted credit cards across the world and your best bet if you intend on traveling overseas and paying for goods with a credit card.

American Express may be popular in the US, but it’s not as widely accepted abroad. Discover is even less accepted than American Express outside of the US. To be safe, it’s a good idea to carry a Mastercard or Visa as a backup if your primary card is an American Express or Discover.

Most of Europe has adopted the chip-and-PIN credit card system, which eliminates swiping of magnetic strips and signatures. Instead, card readers will prompt you to insert the card (or tap it for touch-free transactions) to read the chip and prompt you for a PIN as a form of verification. Before you travel overseas, ask your card issuer for a chip card. Otherwise, you may have trouble using a mag-stripe credit card for purchases abroad.