There are ingenious ways to save money by swiping cards for overseas travel.

Nowadays, bank cards, especially international dual-currency credit cards, are gradually becoming the main means of payment for China people in consumption abroad. The national brand of bank cards in China, marked by UnionPay, has also followed the footsteps of Chinese people and extended to a wider world.

At present, the United States, Germany, France, Spain, Malaysia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Luxembourg, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and other countries and regions have accepted UnionPay identification cards issued by domestic banks.

Is UnionPay card different from VISA or Master card in consumption abroad? Which is more cost-effective? China Merchants Bank professionals believe that it is more economical to use UnionPay cards, because compared with other international cards, UnionPay card domestic cardholders do not need to pay currency conversion fees for overseas transactions, which can save cardholders about 2%-3%.

"Is it better to spend money abroad by credit card or by cash?" This is a problem that many people care about. Financial experts said that the exchange rate settlement of international credit cards is based on the exchange rate of large purchases of foreign exchange by international credit card organizations, which is more favorable than the exchange rate used by individuals to purchase foreign exchange. Therefore, swiping a card is more economical than buying foreign exchange by individuals. In addition, you can usually get a tax refund for shopping abroad. If a credit card is used, the tax refund will be paid directly to the credit card account, which is simpler than the tax refund procedure after cash consumption.

For a long time, Hong Kong, Macao and Southeast Asian countries have been relatively concentrated destinations for mainland tourists to travel abroad. According to professionals, when UnionPay cards are used in South Korea, Thailand and Singapore, the currencies for cash withdrawal and consumption are all local currencies. After the withdrawal and consumption are completed, "China UnionPay" will convert the amount into RMB according to the market exchange rate on the trading day and provide it to the mainland card-issuing bank. The card-issuing bank will deduct the cardholder's account balance immediately, and the cardholder has no exchange rate risk. The procedures and operations of using UnionPay cards in the above countries are basically consistent with domestic consumption.

When citizens apply for dual-currency credit cards, the vast majority will choose US dollars as the settlement currency. Financial experts believe that if a cardholder has a US dollar deposit, it is best to repay it in US dollars after consumption abroad, which is a good way to reduce exchange losses under the background of RMB appreciation.

If citizens travel to Europe, they can also use euro credit cards, because American credit cards are denominated in euros in European countries, and each time they swipe their cards, they have to pay an extra "exchange fee", while euro credit cards use euros as their bookkeeping currency, which can avoid exchange losses. According to statistics, the per capita consumption of China tourists in Europe is about 2,654 euros, so it can be calculated that swiping euro cards can save about 300 yuan RMB on average than swiping US dollar cards.