BIRD TALK

Dear Bird Talk,

Here is another suggestion. We obtained a Discover credit card in Florida using our winter address, which was completely acceptable. Discover is good in the U.S. only, as far as we know. If you have a U.S. winter address, then you have a zip code and we use it when buying gas. Yes, there is an annual fee, but the card we have gives us an annual rebate on our purchases. By using the Discover card exclusively while in the States, we quickly cover the fee, and because we live in a border city, we use it other times as well.

Perhaps not all Canadians using Canadian credit cards outside of Canada realize that there is a bank charge on every purchase which is converted to Canadian dollars.

Jan Eggett
Sarnia ON

Response:
Ed: Another good solution! Many of those Canadian credit cards not only have a bank charge, but they give you poor exchange rates, as well.