Mistake No. 15: Ignoring foreign transaction fees
Here’s another dangerous kind of fee that many (but not all)cards charge: foreign transaction fees. Without this feature, if you spend money abroad or with a foreign-based retailer, you’ll be charged currency-exchange-related fees, and as with many fees, you won’t even know about it until you see the fee charges on your statement.
If that happens after a lovely three-week vacation abroad where you spent a lot of money, this fee, which is often around 3%, can really whack you. If you spent $10,000 on your vacation, for example, you might end up paying an extra $300. Fortunately, more and more cards, especially travel-oriented ones, don’t feature this fee.