New App Alert: Mercez Helps You Pick the Right Card to Use Abroad

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Add this to apps you should download.

I love handy travel apps and saving money, and this one really impressed me.

Mercez lets you add all your credit cards, and then tells you which one has the best exchange rate abroad!

Mercez lets you add all your credit cards, and then tells you which one has the best exchange rate abroad!

What’s Mercez?

It’s a small app, about ~9MB, that lets you add all your credit cards. They’re all there. Seriously.

Then, you can select the country you’re in and how much you want to spend.

Mercez tells you the exchange rate on each card and highlights your best option.

a screenshot of a phone

How cool is that?

I randomly selected a few cards: a Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and AMEX card.  All of them have NO foreign transaction fees except the AMEX EveryDay Preferred, which has a 2.7% forex fee.

I entered in a country on the Euro, Belgium, and a random amount of 614 Euros to see what would come up.

All of the cards, to my surprise, had different exchange rates. Nothing earth-shattering, but you can save ~$22 by using the Chase Sapphire Preferred as opposed to the AMEX EveryDay Preferred (another win for Chase).

The app doesn’t seem to track the forex fees on the individual cards, which kinda sucks. It would be awesome if they could build that into the service at some point.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred even beat out the other 2 no forex fee cards, including the Barclaycard Arrival Plus by about $17. If you’re going out and eating out a lot in another country (which duh, you are), this could add up to save you some serious cash on your trips overseas.

Color me impressed!

It’s a free app so you have literally nothing to lose by downloading it. For now, you’ll just have to remember which of your cards do NOT have forex fees.

A quick poke around on their website shows they’re working on a couple of new features for the app (Swap for currency exchange and Lifeboat, presumably to track your options for returns/damaged goods overseas), so it’s very much a work in progress, which is really cool.

It’s nice to see some transparency brought into this area. I’ll definitely keep the app on my phone to compare options next time I travel internationally.

The only other thing to consider is category bonuses, as it might be worth spending an extra buck or two if you really want the points at restaurants, gas stations, etc.

Bottom line

Mercez is a cool little app that’ll help you save money overseas by telling you the best exchange rate based on the cards you have and the country you’re visiting.

They’re based in Atlanta, and seem to be working on a few more features to add to the app in the coming months. If you travel and have a smartphone, this is a great app to have.

Very useful!

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About Harlan

Just a dude living in Memphis, traveling, and working toward financial independence.

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  1. Where were you last night?!? I met at least 6 people at the event who were hoping to see you and talk to you about some of your informative blog posts! 🙂

    • Awww really?! 8/26 was my birthday! I was mostly incapacitated the entire day lol. I would’ve been a mess!

      Wish the meetup could’ve been a day sooner or later (although I was super hungover on 8/27). I didn’t RSVP cuz I wasn’t sure what the day would bring. I’ll definitely be at the next ones though!

      Would’ve been great to meet new peeps. But yup, now I’m a year older.

      Hope you’ve been well – want to see you again soon!

  2. Hey Harlan! I’m the Founder at Mercez. Appreciate the post 🙂

    One clarification I’d like to make is that the app includes foreign transaction fees if that is what you meant by forex fees.

    Cheers!

  3. Hi! If you’ll ever need an online service to keep you informed about your wanted exchange rates, check out this one http://exrate.today/. Just sign up easily, set alerts and get free notifications in the inbox.

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