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I get my income in euros. I need to pay stuff in USD because I use shops which base-currency is USD such as Dealextreme. I have Visa Debit card so not the real Visa, since I am a student but have stable income streams monthly. I get the following spread-costs with my card:

  • Dealextreme, 9.59%, when paying in euros USD-stuff kun euroina maksaminen ja base currency USD [1]
  • Dealextreme, 2.06%, when paying in USD USD-stuff [2]

I get the current course of one euro in USD from Google.

The spread-cost, 2.06%, is huge. I would like to get it even smaller. Which credit-card does minimize the given spread-cost even more?

2. Is there any other ways to minimize the given spread-cost even more?

I did not use Paypal in buying my shoppings. I am not sure about Paypal's spread-cost, probably worser than directly with the given credit card.

Appendix 

[1]
>>> 24.10/18.74                  
1.2860192102454644
>>> de = 24.10/18.74                # one euro in USD when paying with euros
>>> right = 1.4155
>>> diff = right - de
>>> ave = (right + de)/2
>>> diff / ave
0.09585775978455527

[2] 
>>> 24.10/17.38
1.3866513233601843
>>> de = 24.10/17.38                     # one euro in USD when paying with dollars
>>> right = 1.4155
>>> diff = right - de
>>> ave = (right + de)/2
>>> diff / ave
0.020590377399905716
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Have you looked into doing the currency transfer outside of the credit card transaction? Perhaps if you opened up a bank account intended for international use you would be able to move money into USD and spend it in USD. – duffbeer703 Oct 30 '11 at 19:13
@duffbeer703 Thank you for your point! I knew that there is a more efficient way to do the thing. Need to find out now the most efficient bank account for the given purpose. – Masi Oct 30 '11 at 19:46
@duffbeer703 I opened a new thread about an international bank account which has only USD for a student: money.stackexchange.com/questions/11824/…, to minimize spread-costs in online shopping. – Masi Oct 30 '11 at 20:13
Is there a way for you to get income in USD? – Sun W Kim Jan 2 at 19:12
Not at the moment, but in the future yes. Yes, the best way to avoid the currency exchange costs would be to avoid the currency exchanges. – Masi Jan 2 at 20:07

1 Answer

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The spread cost 2.06% is a surprise for me, since it is for smaller currencies is a little more than 2.5%. There may be a mistake in the values, since I would believe that the cost is 2.5% for USD exchange too. I paid the shoppings by a Visa Debit card from S-pankki registered in Finland.

The main problem of the thread is really the same as here about shopping normally: To minimize the spread costs in shopping in the North or Europe It seems that the currency that needs to be exchanged affect to the thread cost and the currency where you want to pay the shoppings. This thread shows that the selection of the currency where you want to pay shoppings affects the spread.

I just would like that normal stores would allow to pay shoppings in different currencies too in normal stores. It would probably allow to compete and decreases the prices of currency exchanges.

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