Exchange rate travel agent is charging is very different than current rate!

Was there a foreign transaction fee listed by AMEX?
I would contact AMEX.

I don't understand why the OP thinks the travel agent is involved in the exchange rate.

hollya, there is no such thing as an official, government regulated exchange rate. The rate you see online or in the newspaper is usually the rate that large international banks get when they do multi-million dollar transactions, posted for your information. You are always at the mercy of whoever you are dealing with, for their rate. Just about every bank or exchange service has a markup in order to make money and pay for the costs of the transaction. Whether the rate you were charged is fair or not is another issue.

In your case, it may have been AMEX that did the conversion, or, if by approving charges, you mean you authorized the Spanish travel agency to charge you in dollars, they got to decide the rate. Again, there is no official exchange rate that regulates that transaction.

Maybe it's a case of dynamic conversion and the local travel partner charged you in dollars. That was my first thought.

I use several no foreign transaction fee credit cards when traveling abroad and their exchange rate is always spot on -- no surprises.

I'd start by calling AmEx to find out whether the charge came through to it in dollars or euros. If it came through in dollars, the problem is on the Spanish end, where they apparently charged you in dollars after using (as is typical) a very unattractive-for-you conversion rate. If you did not authorize them to charge you in dollars, I think you can get that changed. Perhaps AmEx can tell you how to attack that problem.

Of all the eleven European countries I've visited in the last three years, Spain was the one where I had the most trouble with dynamic currency conversion. It was the only country where hotels and restaurants tried to charge me in dollars without my authorization.

Thanks for the reply’s....I just learned a lot! I always thought ( wrongly so) that exchange rates were determined by price of currency traded on exchanges....kind of like the price of a stock.
Silly me!
Thanks so much for the expert advice

One thing Amex protects you from is DCC - only they set the rate if the charge actually was in Euro without the agent(s) somewhere along the line having done a conversion. Whether the rate is any good might be a different issue.

For future reference, there are credit cards out there for which the conversion rate will be quite close to the official interbank rate. It's worth getting one of those for your trip if AmEx uses a poorer rate. I've never had an AmEx card and know nothing about how it does conversions.

The same is true of ATM cards: Some are friendlier to travelers than others. Call your bank and ask what you will be charged when you use your card overseas. If it will charge a per-use fee and/or hit you with 3% extra every time you withdraw euros from a Spanish ATM, you may want to open an additional account at an institution with a different policy.

And as I mentioned in my first response, you need to stay on your toes in Spain any time you conduct a financial transaction. You want to see the amount you owe displayed in euros, not in dollars. If you are paying for hotels as you go, do not wait until you are running for the train station or the airport to check out. Do that when you have time, if necessary, to get the invoice re-prepared to show what you owe in euros. Don't accept anyone's "I don't know how to cancel the transaction" answer. They tried that on me several times. You must stand your ground.

Adding to acraven's remark: Last spring in Barcelona we had a huge argument with restaurant as waiter tried to do DCC without giving me any say on it, I was lucky to be able to notice the screen of the handheld showing "dollars" as he tried to keep it away from me, he was actually trying to approve it for me by simply getting me to nod to the amount. Only got the charge deleted after I threatened manager of restaurant with calling credit card immediately with a fraud complaint.

We have a CapitalOne Mastercard and the Amazon Visa through Chase, both have no foreign transaction fee (this was added to the Amazon last year, so we now take that with also) and for both cards the conversions have been spot-on to the inter-bank rate wherever we have used them. And, they accrue the same bonuses abroad. We have also noticed that the conversion rate is a bit lower on our Schwab card than on our CapOne ATM card (approximately .3 vs .7 of 1 percent, at those rates we spread the ATM withdrawals out both)

Thanks for the reply’s....I just learned a lot! I always thought ( wrongly so) that exchange rates were determined by price of currency traded on exchanges....kind of like the price of a stock.
Silly me!

Well, your original thought is basically correct, many currencies equivalencies are determined on the open market. Some however have fixed rates against another currency, other countries may "set" a rate. However, the end result is establishing an Interbank Rate used for large transactions between financial institutions.

That Interbank rate is not available to you, someone will perform the exchange, and you pay a fee. If you shop around, that can be 1% or less, maybe even not noticeable given fluctuations. 3 to 5% is common for Credit Cards and Bank transactions, 5-10% for a paper currency exchange, but beyond that, anyone can, and they do, charge much more, either in exchange rates or added fees.

....I just learned a lot! I always thought ( wrongly so) that exchange rates were determined by price of currency traded on exchanges....kind of like the price of a stock.......

No, you are absolutely correct and Paul is correct. When you use an ATM in Europe here is the level of service providers and fees charge:

ATM owner/provider - general no fee in Europe but common in the US for owners other than your bank to add a fee - maybe one to two dollars. Your request for money at an ATM does not go through the local bank.

NETWORK - General Cirrus, Plus -- they batch the funds, and buy currency on the open market so they get the prevailing rate at the time of purchases. Multi-purchases are made through the day so the rate varies a bit with each purchase. This is commonly referred to as the Interbank rate. To this rate, the network adds a fee of less than 1% and that is the exchange rate presented to your card issuer and will show on your debit/credit statement.

Card Issuer/Bank - Your statement will reflect the above exchange rate plus any additional charges added by the card issuer. This can run from zero to maybe 5% and/or a single usage charge of perhaps $5. This is commonly referred to as the foreign transaction fee. Even if charged in dollars you will be hit with the transaction fee.

It is really pretty straight forward and does not vary between debit or credit or the brand of card.

The concept of ATMs charging fees in Europe seems to be taking hold. It's really important to read the ATM screen so you know what is going on. I've seen fees that appeared to be flat amounts (including 5 euros, which isn't exactly chump change) and others that must surely have been percentage-based, because they were oddball amounts like 4.42 euros. The city where I bumped into the most such ATMs was Barcelona, but there were certainly machines that didn't charge fees, even in that city.

The only place recently that I have seen fees charged is in Spain. I have not seen it elsewhere but I haven't been everywhere either.

I am being charged 1.3 Euro but it seems the current rate is closer to 1.24

I don't really see a problem. 1.3 charged, if was really exactly 1.3, vs "closer to 1.24", if it really was 1.24, is a credit card discount of 4.8%. Most big bank credit cards charge 3% for the currency exchange; I don't know what AMEX charges.

If I buy a Bahn ticket on the internet for 124€ with my Wells Fargo credit card, I pay $127.72 to Wells Fargo. I don't know what the exact Interbank rate, and what you paid were on that day, but everything looks pretty close.

The card carrier has the discretion of using any Interbank rate in effect for something like 24 hours ±.

Most big bank credit cards charge 3% for the currency exchange

There are many that don't charge anything. See https://www.bankrate.com/credit-cards/no-foreign-transaction-fee-cards.aspx. I'm surprised anyone uses cards that charges them a foreign transaction fee when there are so many choices in credit card products.

The dollar rate is not that good Lee. That 124€ bahn ticket is going to cost you at least 154$. It has been steadily dropping over the last year or so.

I don't think it is much of a difference and certainly would not worry about it , just the variance on that particular day or so. now had it been a 10-15% difference then I would be asking about it.

You're right, Jo. I meant to say a ticket that cost 124€, when paid for online with my Wells Fargo card, would cost me 127.72€ (before conversion to USD), because WF takes 3% for foreign transactions. Or, a charge of $124 (after conversion) would be $127.72 after the 3% transaction fee.

And, by the way, that foreign transaction fee (which can include currency exchange) is charged by your bank whether the original charge is in USD or in euro, which is why Dynamic Currency Conversion doesn't help you. You pay the 3% to the card company regardless of whether the charge is in euro or USD, but the "vendor" adds his own rate to convert from euro to USD, so you get charged twice.

So, if the current exchange rate is 1.24 $/€, when you pay with a card that takes 3% as an international transaction fee, the exchange rate you get is 1.2772 $/€.

the current exchange rate I googled

"Current when you googled it, or current when you made the purchase? And what website did you find with Google? Oanda.com not only gives you accurate rates, but allows you to see the rate for any day in the past.

I do know that when I book a 'pay at the counter' hotel or car reservation for a different country, it's common to see a note that any amounts displayed in dollars should be considered to be estimates and that the final amount billed may be slightly different due to fluctuations in exchange rates or how your band/credit card processes the transaction.

I bet the prices were all quoted in Euro, but then the local travel agent simply rounded off the exchange rate you would have gotten (in their favor) and put through the charges all in USD. This would cover their expense when exchanging funds to send to the "travel partner in Spain".

On your credit card statement, is there a line detailing the exchange for each transaction? If the transaction was done in Euro there will be. This can help identify where the upcharge occurred.

As far as if this is standard procedure? No, not in my experience. The travel agents and tour companies I deal with (all US based) all quote everything in USD and I decide if that amount of dollars is reasonable for what they are offering or not. The USD price can vary, but no exchange rate fluctuation to worry about when I am paying for things here.