guinness,

The government has nothing to do with the charges. The credit card companies are adding 3% and more to foreign conversions because they can. If their card holders do not protest the charge or do not use another card when traveling abroad they will continue to keep adding on charges. Most are jumping on the bandwagon and socking it to their customers. Many CCs that I have, recently sent me notices that they are adding this charge. What I did was keep an eye on all the CC offers that are mailed to me daily and picked one that does not have that fee. For me it was a Capital One Platinum MasterCard. Since it is a business card they also cover the CDW on my car rental for 31 days as opposed to 15 days on a regular card.

Michele