Why exchange rates matter even when you’re buying coffee abroad

Suppose your card provider charges a 3% foreign transaction fee. 

Spend £20 abroad, and that’s 60p. 

Spend £200, and it becomes £6. 

Spend the equivalent of £2,000 across a trip and a 3% fee alone would equal £60 — before considering the exchange rate used for those transactions. 

That’s why the real cost of FX isn’t always one dramatic charge. 

It’s often lots of small ones. 

How can you reduce the cost of exchanging money abroad? 

There are several ways travellers approach foreign currency. 

1. Exchange cash before travelling 

One option is to buy the currency you need before your trip. 

Cash can be useful, but it also means deciding how much you’ll need in advance — and carrying it around once you arrive. 

The rate you receive can also vary between currency exchange providers, so it’s worth looking beyond a headline saying “0% commission” and checking what you actually receive for your money. 

2. Use a card without a foreign transaction fee 

Some cards don’t charge an additional foreign transaction fee when you spend abroad. 

That can remove one potential cost. 

But “no foreign transaction fee” doesn’t necessarily tell you everything about the conversion itself. 

The exchange rate still matters because it determines how much of your home currency is needed to complete the purchase. 

Which brings us to another option. 

3. Hold and exchange multiple currencies yourself 

If international currencies are already part of your financial life, a multi-currency account can give you more control over when and how you exchange. 

Instead of waiting until the moment you make a purchase to think about FX, you can manage different currencies from the same account. 

And if you already bank with iFAST Global Bank, you already have that capability. 

You already have 11 currencies in your iFAST account 

Your iFAST Global Bank Multi-Currency Current Account lets you hold and manage 11 currencies: GBP, USD, EUR, HKD, SGD, CNY, JPY, CHF, AED, CAD and AUD. 

And when you want to move from one supported currency to another, iFAST does not charge an exchange fee for conversions within your Multi-Currency Current Account. 

You can see the exchange rate before confirming your conversion, helping you know what you’re getting before you exchange. 

That means less focus on hidden extras — and more control over how you manage your currencies. 

Why does the exchange rate matter so much? 

Because “no fee” and “good value” aren’t necessarily the same thing. 

When exchanging currencies, it makes sense to look at the whole picture: 

What exchange rate am I getting? 
Is there an additional conversion fee? 
And how much will I actually receive? 

Those are more useful questions than looking at a headline fee in isolation. 

With iFAST Global Bank, rates are refreshed regularly and displayed before you exchange, while conversions between the supported currencies in your Multi-Currency Current Account have no separate exchange fee. 

So you can make the decision with the numbers in front of you.

Before your next trip, look beyond the price tag 

That coffee in Hong Kong might only be one transaction. 

But holidays are made up of hundreds of little transactions — coffees, meals, transport, shopping and everything in between. 

And small FX costs can become much more noticeable when they’re repeated again and again. 

So before your next trip, take a look at the currencies already available in your iFAST account. 

Because when it comes to international spending, what you pay matters. But how your money gets there matters too. 

iFAST Global Bank does not charge an exchange fee for eligible currency conversions within the Multi-Currency Current Account. Exchange rates and applicable product terms should be reviewed before completing a transaction. T&Cs apply.