I use an Visa tied to an American bank every day for groceries in NL. I only have ever had issues using a card at a very small record store, I just make sure to carry 100eur in cash just in case. I do have more issues online when something only takes iDEAL though.

I'm sure you're aware of this - though others may not be: another trick US banks use is gouging you on exchange rates. My bank was charging something like a 0.5% fee visible fee and then an invisible fee several times that in exchange rate gouging. I found trying to use US banks abroad an absolutely painful experience, to the point I swapped my banking abroad which is itself a huge PITA thanks to FATCA and other stuff making Americans borderline persona non grata at most foreign banks.

Banks all over the world make healthy margins on cross-border transactions involving a currency cross. It is not unique to American banks at all.

My EU bank charges less than 1% currency exchange fee. US banks have charged me 5-8%. It's not the same.

No way a US bank charged you that amount unless you made the purchase in an esoteric fashion.

It was not a purchase, it was a money transfer. They converted it to EUR for me at really bad rates. It was not an explicit fee.

Ok well we are talking about something else entirely -- credit card purchases with an FX cross.

You get 95% of it back in the form of rewards, so it's not really a tax at all.

In exchange for signing away usage of your personal data/legally agreeing to participate in ad targeting.

It seems kind of like a scam, though, credit card rewards. I don’t know enough about it, I generally don’t like participating in those sorts of things. Do you have a ref on the 95%?

Let’s just take 95% as a true figure … first of all the 5% you don’t get back is a straight up loss. The rewards you get at the end of the month are fine (eg cash back) but you’ve missed out on earning interest on the money you “get back”

Card network fees (the part credit card users don't get back) are about the same for the European payment systems. For card users on net there is essentially no difference.

The interest argument of course is nonsense because the opportunity cost ia outweighed ~50x by the interest benefit you receive from the entire purchase going on credit vs just the 2% interchange.

“Of course”.

Thanks for responding — can you clarify this interest benefit you are talking about?

You are able to buy now, but not pay until 30 days later, paying no interest unless paid in full. Which means YOU earn interest on your money during that period...

Oh duh! Pardon my ignorance; that makes perfect sense, I guess my mind was elsewhere

If you don't know anything about it, why would you call it a tax?