What it is
Capital One describes a foreign transaction fee as a surcharge for a purchase made with a credit card “outside the U.S. or from a non-U.S. company”, and says it “might also apply to a debit card or prepaid travel card transaction”.
The CFPB’s rule for credit cards counts fees on purchases made in a foreign currency, in US dollars outside the US, or with a foreign merchant, such as through its website.
Who can charge it
Under the CFPB’s rule the fee can come from the card issuer, and from a third party that performs the conversion, such as the card network or the issuer’s corporate parent.
Its example: the network may charge 1 percent and the card-issuing bank an additional 2 percent, “a total of a 3 percentage point foreign transaction fee”. That is an example written into the rule, not a survey of what cards charge.
How much it is
Capital One says fee charges are “generally 1%-3% of the transaction amount”, that not all card issuers charge one, and that it can vary by issuer and by card. It points to the card agreement for a card’s own terms.
For example: at 3%, a purchase of $100 carries a fee of $3.
The exchange rate is a separate part
Visa says that since April 2021 it has used the same exchange rate across authorization, clearing and settlement, and that “there are no charges or fees associated with this change”. Its page does not say what a card issuer adds to the rate, if anything.
Where JetSet fits
JetSet is a wallet app for paying by scanning a QR code, in JETS, a token on the Stellar network. JetSet’s own fee is not set yet. How you get JETS is not decided yet. Nothing here compares it with a card.