Ok, I'll probably split the payment between two cards then -- I'm not familiar/comfortable with international money transfers, and I'd like to avoid abnormally long check clearing times.

American Express does have higher-than-average fees, but they've been the only company willing to give me a reasonable credit line, so they're what I use mostly. (I have good, but limited, credit -- I do prefer to pay cash.)

tanstaafl, I've had problems with trying to use credit balances for large purchases in the past -- I've caused a sufficiently large credit balance to occur, and then tried to charge something over the credit limit, but under the credit balance + limit. It didn't work. I called the card company, and they said that any single charge over the limit would be declined, even if there was a sufficient credit balance on the account. I don't know if this was just this one issuer or a more widespread thing, but it didn't work in my case, and I haven't tried since.

Alex