I used to be the case that when you traveled abroad, the best way to use your money was with your Visa or American Express. You'd get the best exchange rate. You wo uldn't have to worry to much if it was lost or stolen. You have good consumer protection. Those things are still true today. The big difference is that credit card companies have started charging transaction fees for currency conversion. And the fee is progressive, meaning the larger the transaction, the larger the fee. This is a joke and is takes no more time and costs no more to post a transaction for 1 Euro as it does for 10,000 Euros.

Even knowing this, I'm stunned when I look at my Visa bill and see over 80 dollars in fees for the skiing vacation (condo and lift tickets) that I booked in Whistler (damn, Canadians still have their own money apparently). 80 bucks. That's a lot of money. So what should I do?

I wrote my credit card company, which shall remain nameless (US Bank), and explained my position and demanded that the reverse the fees. I threatened to cancel the card even thought I've had it for years and have no real desire to do so. I said I have a myriad of choices of in the market place today. Why should I stay with a credit card company that is going to charge me 80 dollars in fees for nothing?

I don't really want to change. I've been using this credit card for years, like I said. It's attached the Northwest Airlines frequent flier program and I have accrued almost 200,000 miles, mostly on credit charges amazingly enough. Even little transaction ads up. Just as eery little fee adds up, but this is not little fee. I have to change, so be it. We'll see how they respond.