Navigating FX fees: How to manage foreign currency spend on business trips

Business travel doesn’t stop at borders – but crossing them often means your budget feels the impact.

Paying in the wrong currency. Unexpected conversion fees. Transactions that don’t quite match what was approved. By the time month-end arrives, foreign spend can be one of the hardest categories to reconcile cleanly.

The good news is that FX doesn’t have to be unpredictable.

With the right setup, you can control how your team spends abroad, reduce unnecessary fees and keep everything visible in real time. Here’s how to manage foreign currency spend with Pleo from the moment a card is used to the moment expenses are exported.

Key takeaways:

• Pay in local currency to avoid hidden conversion costs at checkout and reduce unnecessary fees.
• Understand how FX fees and exchange rates affect each transaction so there are no surprises later.
• Use multi-currency accounts to hold and spend in the currencies your business uses most.
• Let Pleo automatically track exchange rates and conversion fees instead of calculating them manually.
• Capture and categorise foreign spend in real time so reconciliation becomes a review step, not a clean-up exercise.

What are FX fees – and why do they add up so fast?

A foreign transaction fee, or FX fee, is an extra cost applied when a payment is made in a different currency or processed through a foreign bank.

That cost doesn’t always appear as a single line item. It’s often a combination of:

• The exchange rate applied at the time of purchase
• Additional fees from the payment network or provider
• Extra charges when paying in your home currency abroad

One of the most common mistakes is choosing to pay in your home currency when prompted. It might feel simpler, but it often leads to worse exchange rates and additional hidden fees.

With Pleo, foreign transactions use Mastercard’s exchange rate, and any applicable FX fees are applied automatically. That means you don’t need to calculate conversions manually – but understanding how these costs work helps you control them more effectively.

How to manage foreign currency spend with Pleo

1. Always pay in local currency

When paying abroad, you’ll often be asked whether you want to pay in the local currency or your home currency.

Always choose the local currency. Paying in your home currency can trigger dynamic currency conversion, where the merchant sets the exchange rate. This often results in higher costs and less transparency.

Paying in local currency ensures the exchange rate is handled through your card provider, helping you avoid unnecessary fees.

2. Use your Pleo card abroad

Once activated, your Pleo card can be used globally for both payments and ATM withdrawals.

When you spend abroad:

• Transactions are automatically converted using Mastercard’s exchange rate
• Any applicable FX fees are applied and recorded
• Expenses appear in Pleo in real time

There’s no need to manually calculate conversions or track exchange rates separately. Everything is handled within the platform and reflected in your expense data.

3. Enable multi-currency accounts

If your business regularly spends in foreign currencies, enabling multi-currency accounts is one of the most effective ways to stay in control.

To enable multi-currency:

1. Go to Cash Management
2. Access your Account
3. Click More
4. Select Enable Multi-Currency

Once enabled, you can hold and manage funds in multiple currencies, including EUR, GBP, USD, DKK, SEK and NOK.

This allows you to spend directly in the relevant currency instead of converting funds for every transaction.

Note: Multi-currency setup is only supported when using Visma e-conomic, Exact Online and NetSuite as your accounting integration, or when using CSV export (Custom Format or pre-made CSV templates).

4. Fund and manage your currency balances

After enabling multi-currency, you can add funds to each currency account as needed.

To add money:

1. Go to Cash Management
2. Click Add money
3. Select the currency
4. Confirm the transfer

You can also convert funds between currencies within your account. Any conversion fee will be shown clearly before the transaction is completed.

Holding balances in the currencies you use most often reduces repeated conversions and gives you more predictable control over FX costs.

5. Issue multi-currency cards

Once multi-currency is enabled, any new cards you create will automatically support multiple currencies.

For existing cards, you’ll need to replace them:

1. Go to the People page
2. Select the cardholder
3. Choose which cards to replace
4. Freeze and Destroy the card
5. Replace the card:
• For virtual card, the employee needs to activate the new virtual card
• For physical card, order a new one
• For vendor card, create a new one

With multi-currency cards, transactions are automatically charged from the matching currency account when funds are available. This removes the need for constant conversions and simplifies international spend.

6. Track FX fees and export clean data

Every foreign transaction in Pleo includes the relevant exchange rate and any associated fees.

This means:

• FX costs are visible in real time
• No manual calculations are required
• All data is captured and ready for export

When exporting to your accounting system, you can include conversion fees alongside the transaction data. Setting up a contra-account per currency ensures everything is recorded accurately and consistently.

The result is clean, structured data that reflects the true cost of international spend.

What this means for finance teams

Foreign currency spend is often treated as a separate problem to solve at month-end. In reality, it’s just another part of your overall expense workflow.

When FX is handled manually, finance teams are left:

• Checking exchange rates after the fact
• Calculating differences between expected and actual spend
• Chasing missing context from employees
• Fixing inconsistencies across reports

With Pleo, that work disappears into the background.

Exchange rates are applied automatically. Fees are recorded in real time. Transactions are categorised as they happen. By the time you reach month-end, the data is already complete.

Instead of untangling foreign spend, finance teams can simply review and export it.

FX best practices for business travel

Managing foreign currency spend well comes down to consistency.

Focus on these fundamentals:

• Always pay in local currency to avoid hidden conversion fees
• Set clear expectations with employees before they travel
• Use dedicated Pleo cards instead of personal cards and reimbursements
• Hold balances in frequently used currencies where possible
• Review FX costs regularly instead of waiting until month-end

These small decisions add up to better control, cleaner data and fewer surprises.

Take control of FX spend with Pleo

Foreign currency spend will always be part of doing business internationally. Exchange rates change. Fees exist. Complexity is unavoidable – but confusion and manual work don’t have to be.

With Pleo, FX handling becomes part of a connected system. Payments happen in the right currency. Conversions are tracked automatically. Fees are visible from the moment a transaction occurs.

Employees can spend confidently wherever they are. Finance teams retain full visibility without needing to step in. And month-end becomes a simple review of data that’s already complete.

Because when foreign spend is managed properly from the start, there’s nothing left to untangle at the end.