Credit card foreign exchange fees: EUR 1.50 to 2.50 per 100

A payment worth EUR 100 outside the eurozone costs EUR 1.50 to 2.50 in exchange commission at the four Belgian issuers checked here. The percentage barely differs from one card to the next. The bill is decided elsewhere: the conversion date, the "pay in euros" screen, and what happens to a refund.

How much does a EUR 100 payment outside the eurozone cost?

EUR 1.50 to 2.50, on top of the exchange rate itself. The commission is calculated on the converted amount, and the card's annual fee adds to it over twelve months.

Over twelve months, that comes to EUR 45.66 for Belfius and EUR 66.00 for Crelan, with EUR 1,500 spent in foreign currency. Crelan nonetheless shows a lower commission than Buy Way and Beobank: its EUR 36 annual fee wipes out the advantage. The calculation is mine, the annual fee plus EUR 1,500 multiplied by the exchange percentage.

Buy Way's Mastercard One has not been offered to new individual customers since 1 November 2022, but thousands of Belgian cardholders still carry it. The Beobank document is a pre-contractual information sheet, a simulation for a EUR 2,600 credit line. It carries no issue date, so the date in the table is that of my reading.

The brochure does not highlight this: the 1.5% to 2% range given by Wikifin, the information site of the Belgian financial regulator (FSMA), page updated on 17 February 2025, already understates Buy Way, at 2.50%.

Who sets the exchange rate: the network or the bank?

Both, each at its own level. Visa or Mastercard carries the transaction. The issuer supplies the starting rate and adds its margin.

At the four issuers in this survey, the starting rate is the European Central Bank's. Buy Way's guide says so plainly: foreign-currency transactions are converted on the indicative ECB rate, plus 2.50%. The ECB reference rates are published every business day. You can redo the calculation yourself.

In the files I handled, the question always came in the same form: why is the euro amount not the receipt multiplied by the rate read on a currency website? The answer took two lines. The rate read was not the ECB's for the right day, and the commission was not in the cardholder's calculation.

Which date is the rate fixed on?

Not the date of your purchase. At Buy Way, the guide uses the rate of the day Mastercard receives the transaction, that is, the processing date.

The gap between purchase and processing is counted in days, and more over a weekend. When the currency moves 1% in the meantime, your bill moves 1% with it, in either direction. Nobody controls that part, neither you nor the issuer. The issuer looks first at the processing date in the clearing file, not at the date on the receipt.

So never compare the amount debited with the receipt of the day. Compare it with the ECB rate of the processing day, plus the percentage in the tariff.

Should you pay in local currency or in euros at the terminal?

In local currency. A terminal that offers to charge you in euros applies a rate set by the merchant or its provider, not by your issuer. Wikifin writes that paying in the local currency is generally cheaper.

Regulation (EU) 2019/518, applicable since 15 December 2019, requires the conversion provider to display, before the transaction, the amount received by the payee in its currency and the amount debited in the currency of your account. The text governs payments within the Union. For a purchase in New York or Bangkok, rely first on your tariff and check the point with your issuer.

The routine is simple:

• read both amounts before confirming;
• refuse "pay in euros" if the rate is not displayed;
• keep the receipt, which shows the currency and the original amount.

What happens to the commission when a purchase is refunded or disputed?

The refund is converted at the rate of the day it is processed, not at the rate of your purchase. You can lose on it.

Take a fictional rate of EUR 1 for USD 1.25 when you buy USD 250. The debit is EUR 200 plus 2% commission, or EUR 204.00. A month later the merchant refunds USD 250, and the euro has strengthened to USD 1.30. The credit is EUR 192.31. You paid EUR 204.00, you get back EUR 192.31, and the EUR 11.69 difference stays with you. Had the euro weakened, the sum would have worked in your favour. It cuts both ways.

The tariffs checked here say nothing about the fate of the commission at refund. Ask for it in writing before disputing anything.

For a dispute proper, the chargeback mechanism through Visa and Mastercard applies to a foreign-currency purchase as well. In the files I handled, the cardholder's first question on receiving the credit was about the exchange gap between the debit and the credit. Keep the debit statement and the credit statement side by side: without both, the file cannot be checked.

Does interest on a carried balance add to the exchange cost?

Yes, if the card is tied to a credit line and the balance is not repaid in full. The exchange commission then enters the outstanding balance, and the balance earns interest.

Take EUR 1,500 spent abroad on Buy Way's Mastercard One, 2.50% commission included: EUR 1,537.50 in all. Left three months on the line, with no repayment, at a 14.50% APR, it produces about EUR 52.94 in interest. At Beobank, at 15.99%, the same spending (EUR 1,531.50) gives about EUR 57.86. These amounts are my calculations, at the equivalent monthly rate, with no minimum instalment.

On Belfius and Crelan, the statement is collected in full each month: no carried balance, so no APR applies. The article on credit card interest walks through the mechanism, and the annual cost of a credit card adds it to the other items.

What can you do if the rate applied does not match your tariff?

Redo the calculation, then write. The check takes three minutes and succeeds more often than people think.

Check four points on the statement:

• the processing date of the transaction, not the date on the receipt;
• the ECB rate published that day, for the currency concerned;
• the percentage in the tariff, added on top of that rate;
• the absence of a second conversion, for instance a merchant that billed in euros a transaction already converted.

If the gap remains unexplained, write to the issuer's complaints department, dating the letter and keeping a copy. If there is no agreement, Ombudsfin, Belgium's ombudsman for financial disputes, handles the case free of charge. A fee set out in the tariff and correctly applied cannot be disputed. A wrong calculation can.

Before signing, you receive a standardised pre-contractual information sheet, which the Beobank sheet links to Article VII.70 of the Code of Economic Law, Book VII, Belgium's consumer credit rules: it is the document cited above. To compare these fees across Belgian cards, see the ranking of credit cards, the comparison tool and the selection guide. The cost of a EUR 100 cash withdrawal is covered separately. This article does not replace advice suited to your situation.

Sources, accessed between 18 September and 10 October 2026. Exchange commission, annual fee, APR and conversion on the ECB rate at the date Mastercard receives the transaction: Mastercard One Buy Way guide, September 2025, accessed on 10 October 2026. 2.10% commission and 15.99% APR: Beobank Extra Mastercard pre-contractual information sheet (simulation, no issue date), accessed on 10 October 2026. 1.50% commission at Belfius and 2.00% at Crelan, annual fees of EUR 23.16 and EUR 36: rates checked at the issuers on 18 September 2026, see our article on withdrawals. The 1.5% to 2% range and the advice to pay in local currency: Wikifin, FSMA, page updated on 17 February 2025. Display of conversion charges as a margin over the ECB rate: Regulation (EU) 2019/518, applicable since 15 December 2019. Reference rates: ECB. Recourse: Ombudsfin. Calculations on EUR 1,500 and on the USD 250 refund (fictional rates): author's calculations, 10 October 2026. No link in this article is paid for.