The financial institutions issuing traveller's cheques earn income in a number of ways. Firstly, they charge a fee on sale of such cheques. In addition, they can earn interest for the period that the cheques are uncashed, while not paying any interest to the cheque holder, making them effectively interest-free loans. Also, the foreign exchange rate commonly used on traveller's cheques (generally based on rates applicable at the time of purchase) is less favourable compared to other forms of obtaining foreign currency, especially those on credit card transactions (which use a rate applicable at the transaction date). In addition, the setup cost and the cost of issuing and processing traveller's cheques is much higher than for credit card transactions. The cheque issuer carries the exchange rate risk, and normally pays a fee to hedge against the risk.