Navagon: I buy through Paypal which effectively levels a similar charge by never using the true currency conversion rate.

Lobsang1979: True, but it's not �1.50 worth of a difference. More like 10-20 pence, which I can accept fine.

cogadh: Speaking of Chase, I just tried using my Chase card to buy a new tent for a family camping trip we are planning this summer. I was buying the tent from K-Mart's website, a well-established and reputable retailer based within the US. I entered all of my address, phone number, e-mail and credit card information exactly correctly (and exactly as it appears in Chase's records), but did Chase allow the transaction? No. They claim they blocked the transaction as part of their normal "fraud protection". How the hell are they protecting me from fraud when all they are actually doing is preventing me from using the card legitimately? I could understand it if part of the information I entered was funny, like an odd address or different phone number, but it wasn't. There was absolutely nothing about the transaction that should have been flagged as suspicious, but they did it anyway. I'm reminded in many ways of the frequent discussions we have about how excessive DRM prevents the legitimate use of games; Chase's "fraud protection" is the credit card equivalent of Ubisoft's "DRM that is not DRM".

Gundato: It depends. I don't buy much camping equipment, but if the tent was noticeably more expensive than what you usually buy, it could be suspicious.
I usually only use my card for buying soda from machines and gas (and, of course, online purchases :p). When I paid for a ticket to a conference (got reimbursed later :p), they actually called me the following day because that was VERY different from what I usually spend.
Now, that then opens the can of worms that our banks/credit card companies are analyzing our purchase patterns, but that is a different argument.