The Foreign Service Journal, June 2005

8 AFSA NEWS • JUNE 2005 BOOKFAIR Donation Time The Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide need your donations for BOOKFAIR, an October event for 45 years. Artwork, rare books only, stamps and coins would all be gratefully accept- ed. Handicrafts from around the world are especially welcome, as such items are extremely popular every year and sell quickly. In the Washington area, donations may be dropped off at the Bookroom, located in Room B816 of the Truman Building, Monday through Friday from noon to 2 p.m. For other options, contact Bookroom Manager Robin Jones at (202) 223-5796 or bookroom@aafsw.org. Art objects may also be brought to the bookroom. To request a pick-up of art objects, please contact Dianne Bodeen at (703) 536-2235 or artcorner@aafsw.com. If you are overseas, please do not send books. Art objects may be pouched to: “BOOKROOM, B816 HST; DOS — by unclassified pouch.” Congratulations to AFSA Student Merit Scholarship Winners AFSA has selected the winners of the 2005 Merit Scholarships. This year, the 23 winners of the Academic and Art Merit Awards will receive a total of $26,750 in scholarships funded by the AFSA Scholarship Program and by four donors who have established merit scholarships in their names. To see the list, go to www.afsa.org/scholar/index.cfm, or look for them in the July AFSA News. A total of 71 Foreign Service high school seniors submitted applications in this year's competition. On May 6, the awards will be bestowed. Twelve individuals from the Foreign Service community served as judges, including members of AFSA's Committee on Education. For more information on the AFSA Scholarship Program, contact Lori Dec at AFSA, either by phone: (toll-free) 1 (800) 704-2372, ext. 504, or e-mail: dec@afsa.org. AFSA President Heads West John Limbert visited Seattle in April and spoke to the Foreign Service retiree association there. He was impressed with how well organized retirees in the area are and how, despite their distance from the capital, they remain very engaged in both AFSA and foreign-policy issues. They were very pleased to see AFSA hard at work on issues of special concern to retirees, especially the annuity overpay- ment issue. John also met with The Seattle Times editor and with graduate students at the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Affairs. Among those attending was a Hubert Humphrey Fellow fromAfghanistan, who will be returning to Kabul after his program to join that coun- try’s reborn Foreign Service. Credit Card Foreign Transaction Fees Members considering opening new credit card accounts, or evaluating their cur- rent spending habits, would be wise to consider the fees that some credit card companies charge for transactions made in foreign currencies. For overseas card users, both MasterCard International andVisa International convert the transaction into a U.S. dollar amount in accordance with their own company currency conversion policies. Both companies then customarily increase this conversion rate by 1 percent. Some issuing banks then increase the conversion rate provided by either MasterCard or Visa by an additional 2 percent. USAA and the State Department Federal Credit Union confirmed that they do not charge a fee on top of what Visa and MasterCard charge. Some banks may have arrangements with either MasterCard or Visa not to charge the customary fee. Some banks do not show a breakdown of the fees for each transaction, only the total fee charged for transactions made during a cycle, making it harder to track the fees charged. American Express practice is to determine the currency conversion rate and then charge 2 percent of the transaction balance as a fee. The Discover CardWeb site explains how it bills transactions in foreign curren- cy. The explanation is at www.novusnet.com/discover/data/faq/outside_us.shtml. Discover Card states that it has no currency conversion fee. It is important for members to read their card-member agreement to find all fees and charges associated with the use of their credit cards. Some cards do not list their foreign transaction fees in abbreviated materials sent to entice you to sign up, but the information may be found in initial disclosure statements. When choosing what credit cards to use overseas, AFSA advises you to make an informed decision! r AFSA NEWS BRIEFS Continued from page 3 JOSH