If you’re a foreigner that’s been making purchases on Amazon, you would have noticed that they are now starting to do their own currency conversions based on your credit card’s country of issue.

“Wow! Convenient! No more poor credit card exchange rates!”, you might say.

But… please… DON’T.

It’s a bloody ripoff.

What this is, is amazon trying to squeeze more profits out of each deal by giving you shitty conversion rates.

I’ve calculated that if you were to use Amazon’s of Currency Converter’s rates, you would be charged about 4-5% more. In comparison, most credit cards you use will probably give themselves a 1-2% margin of the market’s exchange rate.

Long story short – if you use Amazon’s service, you’ll be paying a ridiculous amount in exchange fees. Avoid it.

Exceptions

From what I know, there are some companies that charges a specific fee on top of the currency exchange margins. I’ve personally only read about it once with regards to some Australian credit cards, so do give it a check and if that’s the case and if the total amount you’re spending isn’t huge, it may be a good idea to use Amazon’s currency converter.

This is not a problem for Singaporean cards.

 How To Ensure That You’re Not Getting Amazon Currency Converter Rates

1. Credit Card Currency Settings

You may have noticed recently that Amazon’s been asking you to confirm the native currency of your saved credit cards. Just select USD and it will disable the currency converter once you’re at the confirm screen.

2. ‘Switch Currency’ at Checkout Confirmation

If you prefer to set the proper currencies for your cards, then the currency converter will be enabled. You can still pay in US Dollars – all you have to do is click on ‘Switch Currencies’ when you’re at the final confirmation screen, as shown by the picture at the right, and choose USD.

Amazon’s still a great way to get great products at lower prices, though it is still important to keep an eye out for shenanigans such as this.

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