Gang, glad this article was helpful. On my AMEX small business credit card they didn't list the transaction fee below, just checked my statement from 7/03. Maybe they started doing it on the personal AMEX cards but not business? I don't know if it's hidden or not but looks like we were getting the GBP for 1.69 to 1.71. AMEX has a class action suit against them for hidding the fee BTW.

I thought I got a notice from AMEX that they would be starting to itemize the fee but don't quote me on that. I'll try to find the notice in my file, not sure I kept it though. As of 5/04 they weren't doing it on the statement from our St. Barts trip. Our trip last February to St. Maarten I used cash because the dollar was still in the tank and I had read that most of the restaurants took USD cash - the dollar 1:1 Euro so that's what we did.

My Continental Chase Mastercard was the culprit. Right below the transaction it shows:
(TRAN AMT: 153.19 PND STRLG or $257.96 + FOR. TRAN. Fee $5.16). Whew, they made a bundle on us on that trip.

We had checked into the USAA credit card since my hubby is retired military, but they only issue that to active military, so that didn't work.

I'm not sure what to think about Captial One reporting to all three agencies. I guess if you pay your bills it shouldn't matter. I don't understand why it should affect your credit score if they check all the agencies. Captial One used to have the reputation for issuing credit cards to less than credit worthy customers but they tightened up their standards around 2001 which reduced their delinquency rate making Wall Street analysts happy.

If any of you figure out which one of the Captial One credit cards looks the best, please post here.

KarenM