UK/EU buyers: question

A question for UK/EU buyers, how do you (or maybe you don't) avoid the fees for making oversea purchases with Logos? Are you always purchasing from Sterling/Euro to the Dollar which incurs a transaction fee every time, or do you have a particular set-up that works for you?

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Stephen McCracken

Jordan

there are credit cards that do not incur fees for international purchases. I have one just for FL. So if you are a UK user, look at Aqua Reward Credit Card as an example.

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1054791#Comment_1054791

Jordan

there are credit cards that do not incur fees for international purchases. I have one just for FL. So if you are a UK user, look at Aqua Reward Credit Card as an example.

There's a guide to credit cards that don't have international fees here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/travel-credit-cards/

There's plenty to choose from.

Dave Couch

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1054792#Comment_1054792

You can also use a service like 'Curve' that allows you to use any card transaction free [:)]

Jan Krohn

I don't think it's possible to avoid all fees. The banks perform a service for you, which requires some form of payment.

When I dissolved my USD bank account two years ago, I converted the remaining balance into Logos credit. That's almost used up now, so I will be back to optimizing my purchases very soon...

PayPal has no annual fees and no transaction fees. But beware, the currency exchange fees are at about 4% to 5%, plus for FL it's also quite an expensive option. Avoid!!!

Finding a credit card with low fees is definitely a better option. I have one with Targobank in Germany (no annual fees, no currency exchange fees, no flat transaction fees - only 1.85% per international transaction).

Another option is opening a USD bank account with credit or debit card. This is what I will likely be doing. The UK based service "Transferwise" allows for all of that without annual fees, currency exchange fees or flat transaction fees. The variable fees depend on the currencies, but for filling the USD bank account with Euros, they charge only 0.4%. Transferring money back to a "real" bank account costs a fee of 1.00 pound. (I do have an invitation link. If anyone is interested, I can send it by PM, but I'm hesitant to post it here publicly.)

Paul Caneparo

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1054792#Comment_1054792

Jordan

there are credit cards that do not incur fees for international purchases. I have one just for FL. So if you are a UK user, look at Aqua Reward Credit Card as an example.

There's a guide to credit cards that don't have international fees here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/travel-credit-cards/

There's plenty to choose from.

I've got the Halifax Clarity card mentioned on that link. I use it for all Faithlife purchases and foreign travel as there are zero bank charges and the exchange rate used is favourable too. As you see from "favourable" I'm UK based.

Martin Folley

Fees are not always a problem. In some cases, the exchange rates of the non-fee cards are poorer than those with a fee ... thus it is not always cheaper to have a non-fee card ... and it is almost impossible to discern the actual exchange rate that a card will use.

Last month I deliberately made two different orders from Logos within about five minutes of each other ... using two different cards. I tracked down each order on the two statements and found that ... roughly ... below £75 I should use the non-fee card but above £75 I should use the fee card.

Obviously it depends on the cards, rates at the time etc. but the principal that non-fee is cheaper does not always hold true ... somehow the banks do not seem to be at a loss!

James McAdams

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1054803#Comment_1054803

I'm a big fan of Monzo for my "pocket money" account - interest rates are negligible but on every other count they seem pretty great to me.

Stephen McCracken

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1054822#Comment_1054822

This is a helpful discussion. Thanks

Jordan Litchfield

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1054859#Comment_1054859

Thanks to everyone for their input - it has been very helpful. Apologies for only responding now, but I've been on holiday and behind on correspondence.