QFor a trip to Paris, I charged my first night's lodging and two tickets for the Paris Opera on my Bank One Visa. My billing statement from Bank One included an "exchange rate adj" for the charges. A customer-service agent informed me that the bank charges 2 percent and Visa charges 1 percent on foreign currency exchanges. Do all Visa cards charge these fees?
Thomas Otto
Washington
AVisa and MasterCard both charge a 1 percent currency conversion fee, so that's always going to be a minimum fee for all purchases made in a foreign country. But additional fees charged by the issuers of those cards vary considerably. American Express and Diners Club, which issue their own cards, charge a flat 2 percent.
Consumer Action (415-777-9635, www.consumer-action.org), a nonprofit consumer watchdog group, conducted a survey in May of 140 charge cards from 45 issuers and found that 26 added their own currency conversion fees, up from 17 the previous year. The average fee was 1.56 percent. The study said Capital One, Fleet Bank and MBNA were among the larger issuers that do not assess an additional fee for currency conversions. Check with your card issuer before traveling.
Also, when you use an ATM in a foreign country for a cash advance, you may also be hit with a fee from the owner of that ATM. But credit card fees are still often cheaper than the fees banks charge to exchange U.S. cash into foreign currency.
Can you recommend any great cooking schools in Italy?
Jon Weintraub
Bethesda
Italian cooking schools are very popular, with scores of choices. Most are held in the spring and fall. ShawGuides (212-799-6464, www.shawguides.com) is a good resource for finding the right school. Several that get consistently good reviews include:
