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.