When a machine abroad offers Canadian dollars, choose the local currency.

Your card’s foreign conversion charge is set in your agreement. Paying in Canadian dollars at the counter hands the conversion to someone else, at their rate.

Choosing Canadian dollars looks like avoiding a conversion. It does not avoid one. It moves it. The amount still has to change currency, and the button decides who does it.

The Government of Canada’s travel advice is direct: always choose to be charged in the currency of the country you are in. It says you will pay high conversion rates and transaction fees if they convert to Canadian currency.

When you choose the local currency, your own card issuer does the conversion, on the terms in your card agreement. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) says financial institutions calculate foreign currency charges in different ways. Some convert a transaction directly into Canadian dollars. Some may convert it to U.S. dollars first and then to Canadian dollars. They apply the foreign currency conversion charge after converting the purchase to Canadian dollars.

FCAC says to read the terms of your credit card agreement for the total foreign currency conversion charge. Say yours is 2.5%, an example, not a quote from any card.

One bill, one button. An example.

The Government of Canada’s advice is the one to follow: choose the local currency, every time the machine asks.

A purchase in another currency is converted wherever you are. A subscription, an app or anything else billed in U.S. dollars goes through the same conversion and the same charge from your issuer.

FCAC says that if you return something you bought in a foreign currency, the refund on your statement may be a different amount from the purchase, because the exchange rate changes from day to day.

Some cards say in their agreement that they add no foreign conversion charge. The purchase is still converted, at an exchange rate. What goes is the charge on top, not the conversion.

If such a card has an annual fee, there is one sum. Divide the annual fee by the charge it removes. A $150 fee divided by 2.5% is $6,000 of spending in foreign currencies each year before the fee pays for itself. These are example figures.

At the machine, choose the local currency. It costs nothing and it does not depend on your card.

Tonight, open your card agreement and find the foreign currency conversion charge.

If you are weighing a card with no conversion charge and an annual fee, divide the fee by the charge it removes, and compare it with what you spend in other currencies in a year.

Is a cash advance abroad different?

Yes. FCAC says the fee for a cash advance outside Canada is typically higher than in Canada, and a foreign currency conversion charge may also apply. How cash advances are charged is set out in Cash advances, and what they cost.

What about a U.S. dollar card?

FCAC says a U.S. dollar credit card may work for you if you often buy in U.S. dollars, and that you may avoid foreign currency conversion rates with it.

Every claim on this page was checked against these documents on 28 September 2026.

• Government of Canada, Travel.gc.ca: Travelling and money
• Financial Consumer Agency of Canada: How credit cards work · Choosing a credit card

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The 2.5% Foreign Transaction Fee Isn't the Biggest Cost. Published 9 September 2026. Loads on click. Nothing is requested from YouTube until you ask.

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