Best Card for Spending Abroad

Worth more, if

These rates are real, but each needs something done first. They are listed apart from the ranking because a rate you cannot act on at the till is not an answer.

Chase Freedom Flex — up to 10.25¢ per dollar if Quarterly categories you must activate.

Citi Custom Cash — up to 9.5¢ per dollar if Your top eligible category each billing cycle, picked automatically.

Business Gold — up to 8.0¢ per dollar if Your top 2 of 6 eligible categories, picked automatically each cycle.

Citi Strata — up to 5.7¢ per dollar if Your self-select category, changeable once a quarter.

Discover it Cash Back — up to 5.0¢ per dollar if Rotating quarterly categories you must activate.

3 further conditional rates exist on cards not shown here.

Why the fee decides this one

Abroad, what a card earns matters far less than what it charges. A 3% foreign transaction fee costs three cents on every dollar — more than almost any earning bonus is worth — so a card paying 1× and charging nothing beats a card paying 2× and charging 3%. The figures below are net: what the card earns, minus what it takes. Some are negative, and those cards cost you money to use overseas.

The full ranking

Sorted by net cents per dollar after the fee. The multiplier column is there so you can see how often the bigger number loses.

Foreign transaction fees confirmed from the issuer for 52 of 80 cards. The other 28 are listed below rather than ranked: no issuer page states their fee, and assuming a card is free because nobody wrote it down is how you end up paying 3% on a holiday.

Fee not confirmed

No issuer page states a foreign transaction fee for these, so they are not ranked. Treat them as unknown rather than free, and check before you travel.

Blue Business Plus · Citi Double Cash · Chase Freedom Unlimited · Ink Business Unlimited · Chase Freedom Flex · Ink Business Cash · Hilton Honors Business · Business Platinum · Citi Custom Cash · Autograph · Autograph Journey · Alaska / Atmos Rewards Business · Marriott Bonvoy Bevy · Marriott Bonvoy Business · The Ritz-Carlton Card · AAdvantage Aviator Red · AAdvantage Executive · AAdvantage Platinum Select · Citi / AAdvantage Business · JetBlue Plus · Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus · Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business · Delta SkyMiles Gold Business · Delta SkyMiles Platinum Business · Delta SkyMiles Reserve Business · US Bank Altitude Connect · US Bank Altitude Reserve · Venmo Credit Card

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How this is worked out

Each card's rate comes from the issuer's own page, recorded with the date it was checked. That rate is multiplied by what a point in its programme is worth to get cents back per dollar. The point values are The Points Guy's published valuations — borrowed, and credited. The arithmetic and the ranking are ours.

Where an issuer advertises a combined figure, only the card's own share counts. Cash-back cards are valued at one cent per point, which is why a 6% cash card can rank below a 4x card earning transferable points.