International (Overseas) Transaction Fee

[aasz1978]

Anyone have a link to these proposed changes on the 18th January?

Citibank Australia

https://citibank.com.au/global_docs/pdf/Citi-Prestige-Signature.pdf

 

[moa999]

I thought Uber was moving entity to an Aus Biller ( initially got hit with it on Wow Qan card before moving to 28Deg but Uber always refunded it)

Sydney Aquarium surprises me, albeit ultimate parent is Merlin Entertainment which operates Madame Tusaads globally and I believe is UK don

 

[albyd]

I've been moving many of my payments to Amex direct issued card. My searching of their site suggests Amex don't YET apply the "conversion" fee to AUD charges. Is that others' experience?

https://www.americanexpress.com/au/content/credit-know-how/using-card-abroad/

I wonder if we get the bonus points for "foreign" spend on these offshore based AUD transactions if the conversion fees are being charged.

 

[Punky]

Secondly, this all appears to stem from what they call "Dynamic Currency Conversion" (DCC), which is a term I first heard in hospitality. Simply put, if say you are an American tourist travelling in Melbourne. At a hotel, when this tourist pays, he/she may be offered to be charged in local (AUD) currency or in their native currency (USD). If he/she then chooses USD (native), then the DCC will trigger resulting in a known charge in USD dollar that is MORE expensive than he/she would have been charged had he/she declined to be charged in USD (native) currency. The key word is he/she MUST opt to be billed in USD (that is, he/she chose to be billed in USD, thus triggering DCC). In short, DCC actually costs customer more but this fact is not disclosed at the time of transaction.

The cancerous growth of DCC is behind all this. WHen DCC was mostly a small irritant, they could probably absorb the charges that they got from Visa or Mastercard. As DCC has infested international transactions, it probably became a bit expensive for them.

FWIW I think Westpac differentiates between a DCC transaction, and a biller that just processes AUD overseas....

 

[greenfrog86]

This has been the case on ANZ credit cards for years - it's only certain merchants who have international billing services (as other users have explained here) and not just any old merchant who does business in other countries. There may be information in some old ANZ forums that explain people's experiences with this type of charge.
I'm not surprised they are doing this as they've obviously looked at the impact of the interchange reductions and have sought every possible way to claw back or introduce revenue to compensate this.

 

[Duffa]

RANT ALERT! If you don't want to hear it; move along!
Just back from Europe.
Bought some shoes in Rome - entered my pin on merchant keypad - clearly stating 94 Euros. All good and the machine starts whirring
No mention of AUD or paying in AUD or a choice of either AUD or €.
Then a printout comes out which I have to sign? I start to read it but get the irritated "hurry the f... up" wave of the shopkeeper's hand. I sign.
Outside the shop with my two pairs of Italian loafers I see that I have accepted that "I was offered to pay in AUD or Euro but chose to pay in AUD, blah blah blah..... final and binding blah, blah, blah"
Also at a cough exchange rate and with a 3% mark-up - about 4.6% worse than the XE spot rate, all up.
Then to cap it off I get home and see that my cc provider has lobbed on an overseas charge of 3.4% - a total penalty of 8% !!!

I watch like a hawk on merchant terminals and always choose Euro of GBP or whatever, never AUD.
Anyway I got stiffed this time and am pretty pee'd off.
My only consolation was that I have two pairs of shoes for $150
And I also rang my cc provider to complain and initiate a chargeback and they offered to reverse their 3.4% fee. I accepted this small win with thanks

p.s. Ryanair are total mongrels at this - I screenshotted everything on their last airfare and they changed me to AUD at the last minute without my permission. Couldn't be bothered following that one up!!