Credit Card Currency Exchange Rates

Hi moneyland.ch team,

I checked out the credit card comparison on moneyland.ch using the Shopper profile for a one-year term and found that there is a difference in the foreign transaction costs of the Cumulus Mastercard and the Coop Supercardplus.

Coop: CHF 82.85
Migros: CHF 96.35

That is a big difference for two cards which both have a 1.5% foreign transaction fee. The reason given is that the euro exchange rate is different for each card.

It was also surprising to see that the Postfinance Visa Classic card has similar costs, even though the foreign transaction fee is just 1.2%.

I assume that the reason for this is that the issuers use different currency exchange markups on the interbank rate when converting foreign currencies into Swiss francs and vice versa.

Personally I find the stated foreign transaction fees of 1.5% or 1.2% misleading, because the actual costs of using the cards to pay for foreign purchases is much higher. If I calculated correctly, the actual cost is at least double that much - taking the currency exchange into account.

Where can I find information about the currency exchange rates used for your comparison and how accurate the comparison is? I know that Postfinance uses the UBS forex exchange rates, but the comparison shows different costs for Postfinance and UBS cards.

I look forward to your feedback on this.

Hi there,

The credit card comparison on moneyland.ch accounts for both the foreign transaction fees charged by issuers, and the markup on interbank rates used by issuers when converting curencies (CHF to EUR). You can find clear information on how foreign currency exchange costs are calculated in the guide to credit card foreign transaction fees.

Postfinance credit cards do use the same currency exchange rates as UBS credit cards (Postfinance debit cards do not). However, Postfinance has a foreign transaction fee at 1.2% which is lower than the foreign transaction fees of UBS credit cards (between 1.75% and 2%).

Currency exchange rates are subject to change on any business day, and the conversion may only occur on the billing date and not on the transaction date. Every year moneyland.ch updates the EUR/CHF exchange rates used by the comparison based on the arithmetic average of rates observed over a period of several weeks and also obtains rates from credit card issuers on a regular basis. The reason for this is that issuers (with the exception of Swisscard AECS) do not openly publish their exchange rates.

The most recent data collected by moneyland.ch shows an average UBS/Postfinance rate of EUR/CHF = 1.09561. The average exchange rate of Swisscard AECS (issuer of the Coop Supercard credit cards) is EUR/CHF = 1.09507 and the average Cembra Money Bank (Migros Cumulus Mastercard) is EUR/CHF = 1.10039.

For the sake of comparison, the average EUR/CHF interbank rate (Oanda) was 1.07836 over the same period. The markup on the interbank rate, which is known as the spread, typically ranges between 1.5% and 2.5% of the amount transacted, and represents a hidden cost on top of the foreign transaction fee.

Best regards from Moneyguru

More on this topic:
Credit card comparison
Credit card foreign transaction fees explained

Hi there,

After several comparisons of the best credit cards and a long search on the banks and CC issuers websites looking for the avg exchange rate or the average mark ups, I found out this post here in moneyland.ch.

As I'm someone who spends most of the time, thus purchases as well, outside of Switzerland and mostly in Euro countries, I was trying to find out the best credit card to sign up which does not have annual fees (looking at you Swissquote multi currency card!).

I am still hugely divided whether to pursue the Swisscard Cashback Amex or Coop Supercard. Because in the end it all boils down to the exchange rate and its respective mark-ups as the lower abroad purchase fee on one is balanced by the extra cash back on the other (mostly).

Thus as I was looking to find the exchange rate and compute its mark up for the Coop Supercard, I found that it is now issued by Topcard and not Swisscard AECS as mentioned in this (outdated) post, which actually now issues the Swisscard Cashback Amex card. But Topcard refers to UBS for their foreign exchange rate plus the corresponding surcharge, which seems to be 1.70% that would add on top of Topcard's own mark up of 1.5%. So that would be ~3.20% total extra fee on the Coop Supercard.

With Swisscard AECS and their published average exchange rates I computed what seemed to be a mark up of around 1.5-1.6% which would go on top of the abroad purchase fee of 2.5%, making it an approx total of 4.1- 4.2%.

Am I missing something here or does this make sense?

Plus, what would be your advice on how to untie my decision whether to go for one or another (or both?) since the comparison really left me a tie-breaker.

Note: withdrawals abroad do not count for my comparison as those are not an option for me and I do eventually spend some time and money in Switzerland every now and then.

Thank you in advance for your help!

Good day

The interactive credit card comparison on moneyland.ch actually answers your question, because it shows the most current data. Both the current foreign currency transaction fee and the exchange rates are in the comparison. The exchange rates in comparison are based on the average of the last reference dates. You can select "Individual profile" under "User profile" and exclude cash withdrawals, for example.

Another note: Significantly cheaper for foreign currency transactions than traditional credit cards are the new cards of smartphone banks such as Neon, Wise, etc. The reason is the much more favorable exchange rates. However, these cards are not credit cards, so they are not included in the credit card comparison. More information about the neobanks can be found here.

A credit card is still recommended if you are traveling, as the debit or prepaid cards from neobanks are less accepted than traditional credit cards in some situations.

Best regards