Visa, MasterCard, or American Express charges your bank a 1% fee for the service of converting the foreign currency, and then your bank will likely add on a mark-up of another 1-2% for facilitating this transaction.

FORBES: How Foreign Transaction Fees Cost You

Then in 2011, all three of the above bank holding companies saw modest year-over-year increases in service charges on deposit accounts.

FORBES: Overdraft Rules Mean Consumers Will Pay Up, or Get Out