[Cpoll]

> It's nice to have one card as a backup, and some hardcore churners / points collectors are going to want 5 or 6 cards and use different cards for different categories... but they're real niches, it's not something that a mainstream, mass market consumer is going to want to manage.

I don't think this is the case. I think the average person has several credit cards (and is probably in the red on all of them).

On the other end of the spectrum is the financial-savvy user that also has multiple credit cards: One that gives them a gas discount, one for their Costco membership, one for restaurant cash-back, one for general purpose cash-back, one that waives the foreign currency conversion fee, etc.

[thaumasiotes]

> one that waives the foreign currency conversion fee

I have a credit card for precisely this purpose (it's also general-purpose cash back). It's not as useful as you might expect -- most places in China that accept foreign credit cards do so only through an agreement with a chinese bank that imposes a ridiculously disadvantageous exchange rate. (But there's no "conversion fee" -- the bank generously bills you in USD. How nice of them.) They don't seem to be able to bill your card in yuan directly even though the card supports it.

On the other hand, my debit card from the same bank that also has no foreign currency conversion fee works perfectly to get cash from ATMs.

[Cpoll]

I use that card for online shopping, where cash isn't an alternative. It's a fair point that exchange rates vary.

[voltagex_]

>my debit card from the same bank that also has no foreign currency conversion fee

I'm assuming they're making money on the exchange rate, then?

[thaumasiotes]

Quite possible, but when I checked it was something like 0.5%, more than an order of magnitude better than the "convenience" of having a chinese bank bill your card in USD.

I asked them (my bank) about it, got a response I don't remember, and decided I could live with 0.5%

[Symbiote]

There are several cards available in Britain which use the VISA/MasterCard spot rate, and add no further fees.

The cards tend to have no other promotion, whereas comparable cards might include travel insurance, or some gift vouchers when you sign up.