What cheeses me off

[JohnK]

Often the card company VIsa/Mastercard have a process that transfers any foreign currency transactions from the underlying currency to US$'s and back to the displayed currency. It all involves fees usually involving about 3% for the bank. ANZ will have it covered in their T's and C's and any reference to the AFCA requires you to contact the credit provider first, when they will refer you to their T's and C's.

So you're saying Rentalcars charging me in AUD with no other choice available allows ANZ to slug me 3%?

As I said earlier I will cancel booking, forfeit $29.50 cashback and have ANZ return my $17.87! Please don't tell me ANZ is then going to keep the foreign currency fee if I cancel?

 

[CMA222]

So you're saying Rentalcars charging me in AUD with no other choice available allows ANZ to slug me 3%?

As I said earlier I will cancel booking, forfeit $29.50 cashback and have ANZ return my $17.87! Please don't tell me ANZ is then going to keep the foreign currency fee if I cancel?

ANZ have done what your contracted them to do (process your transaction) so they have earned their fees - as per their T's and C's. Any refund would be a good will gesture.

 

[RealtimeY]

Your choices would be either not to use Rentalcars, or use a different bank card

 

[JohnK]

Your choices would be either not to use Rentalcars, or use a different bank card

I'm still confused. Why are Rentalcars showing and charging in AUD but then ANZ converting the AUD amount to USD amount and then back to AUD amount so they can extort 3%.

But you're right don't use ANZ for any foreign currency transactions even if they are in AUD.

And I'm now curious to book something with QEEQ and see what ANZ does. Free cancellation so it costs nothing to test.

 

[RealtimeY]

ANZ converting the AUD amount to USD amount and then back to AUD amount so they can extort 3%.

They're not converting it - they're just charging 3%.

 

[JohnK]

Thanks @RealtimeY. So it's just a rort.

They say good things happen to good people and I've just checked QEEQ and I can get same car for $540 which is few $$ more expensive than Rentalcars - Cashrewards cashback.

 

[SYD]

They're not converting it - they're just charging 3%.
View attachment 401427

Yep. It’s not the CC providers that should be blamed but the merchants.

 

[RooFlyer]

WCMO are companies who can't get their cough together wrt complaints. The banks seem to (CBA at least) but not my power utility, Aurora.

Cutting out the detail, I got a text saying that I would be getting a new 'smart meter' and use the app to see and control my power usage.

Thereafter for a couple of weeks it was a series of contradictory texts, from different and mostly not identifiable sources, misinformation by phone etc etc. Their 'customer support' e-mail (which I got later) isn't on their web site so I went to 'feedback', length limited and lodged a complaint.

Then a few e-mail exchanges with 'customer advocacy' (who showed no evidence of actually being an advocate for me) and I finally re-iterated my complaint and what I'd like to happen in an e-mail.

Got a reply, beginning: Aurora Energy’s Head of Customer Experience, our Cyber Security leader and the Metering Program Manager have provided the following assurances. So the whole A-team was on it.

Yeah, well, how to completely piss off a customer is to completely ignore the complaints, address something different and concluding: Aurora Energy’s Metering Program Manager has confirmed the process involving your meter exchange correspondence and installation has complied with all regulatory requirements pertaining to the advanced meter rollout across Tasmania.

Right. You've ticked your boxes, so sod the customer experience and their problems. Needless to say they heard about my displeasure and I got a call from a department head, which was good. Comparing the complaint I made with the reply I got, I think he understood the issue!! And investigation the mis-communications, we discovered that the source of the problems was me not receiving two letters they initially set out, explaining what would happen.

I have a PO Box, as there is no household mail delivery where I live. My power bills get sent there. But the two letters got sent to the residential address . Ah, he said. I can see that might be something we need to look at. FFS - yeah.

One good outcome is that I'm looking at alternative providers, as suggested by someone here, another time.

 

[JohnK]

Yep. It’s not the CC providers that should be blamed but the merchants.

Of course never the credit card company.

I never thought about this one too much. Say I accept Dynamic Currency Conversion in SIN and pay in AUD are we then saying that ANZ is going to slug 3% on top and its not ANZ's fault? So take poor currency conversion and 3%? Wow.

This was a nice lesson. I don't have too many overseas transactions but I do book hire cars, hotels and internal flights in Thailand and I'll happily pay 28 Degrees $8/month and not be slugged 3% by ANZ.

I'm just making a booking with QEEQ and I will cancel the Rentalcars booking.

Please pay attention that if you pay with Australian card, your banks (e.g, ANZ) may charge you cross-border transaction fees, even if you pay in Australian dollars.

LOL. ANZ the only bank referenced but I'm sure it's the rest as well.

 

[SYD]

Of course never the credit card company.

I never thought about this one too much. Say I accept Dynamic Currency Conversion in SIN and pay in AUD are we then saying that ANZ is going to slug 3% on top and its not ANZ's fault? So take poor currency conversion and 3%? Wow.

This was a nice lesson. I don't have too many overseas transactions but I do book hire cars, hotels and internal flights in Thailand and I'll happily pay 28 Degrees $8/month and not be slugged 3% by ANZ.

I still blame the merchants for not clearly declaring what currency they’re actually charging.

DCC is different again. The POS machine does that and the merchant gets a cut. It can be of the order of 6% (regardless if using a fee free card!).

 

[Cossie]

Managed to lock myself out of the house. No problem, I have a cunning plan, Lock box secured in an unusual spot contains garage key. Done, next into the garage where I have another lock box, hopefully well hidden. Open box, doh, no keys inside….

Fortunately I took my phone, very rarely do this, loathe and detest them with a passion…. SWMBO is in Vancouver. So call a friend that hopefully has keys, yay she does, at my place in 30 minutes.

Last time I did this, up on the roof, move tiles, then down through the manhole. Sigh, getting too old for that and I hurt my ankle last time…..

 

[serfty]

LOL. ANZ the only bank referenced but I'm sure it's the rest as well.

This has been happening for over a decade. There is a thread here about it when most legacy banks introduced it.

You didn't Iike it then and obviously don't like it now.

 

[JohnK]

This has been happening for over a decade. There is a thread here about it when most legacy banks introduced it.

You didn't Iike it then and obviously don't like it now.

Mate I can't remember what happened yesterday let alone what happened 10 years ago.

So my mind is obviously blank and I was really surprised when I saw $17.87 on top of the car rental but it's there in the fine print.

I still blame the merchants for not clearly declaring what currency they’re actually charging.

DCC is different again. The POS machine does that and the merchant gets a cut. It can be of the order of 6% (regardless if using a fee free card!).

I'm going try this with a small purchase next time I'm in Thailand and see if ANZ also takes another 3%.

 

[serfty]

I'm going try this with a small purchase next time I'm in Thailand and see if ANZ also takes another 3%.

Of course they will.

 

[Pushka]

Mate I can't remember what happened yesterday let alone what happened 10 years ago.

So my mind is obviously blank and I was really surprised when I saw $17.87 on top of the car rental but it's there in the fine print.


I'm going try this with a small purchase next time I'm in Thailand and see if ANZ also takes another 3%.

That would be setting yourself up to be angry.

 

[SYD]

I’m going try this with a small purchase next time I'm in Thailand and see if ANZ also takes another 3%.

Why? If it’s a CC with 3% int tx fee, it’ll be 3% regardless of 1 Baht or 1m Baht.

Your original complaint (which I agree is a PITA) is merchants showing price in AUD but actually processing via a foreign currency and your CC provider does what they say they’ll do - charge 3%.

If you know in advance or they just show USD (or whatever), we’d use an appropriate fee free card…

 

[JohnK]

That would be setting yourself up to be angry.

Nah not angry at all. Curious.

By the way this was an excellent lesson and lucky I did check. QEEQ was way more expensive when I made this booking and when I checked today QEEQ was $100 cheaper and I should end up $60 in front and I only paid $1.51 today with the balance to be paid 2 days before hire car commencement.

I think thats a good win. What's the bet that ANZ tries to hang on to the currency conversion fee when I cancel the booking? These are evil organisations and the people working in them are not much better.

 

[serfty]

I think thats a good win. What's the bet that ANZ tries to hang on to the currency conversion fee when I cancel the booking? These are evil organisations and the people working in them are not much better.

You will likely lose out (unless there is a serious devaluation in the AUD). Refunds on international transactions rarely cover the original cost.

 

[JohnK]

You will likely lose out (unless there is a serious devaluation in the AUD). Refunds on international transactions rarely cover the original cost.

How are they going to wiggle out of this one? There is no reference to a foreign currency amount anywhere on my booking or ANZ statement. So they have to refund total booking amount + mythical currency conversion.

By the way AUD has dropped 1 baht in the past month so either my full money back or a profit, right?

 

[Flashback]

You will likely lose out (unless there is a serious devaluation in the AUD). Refunds on international transactions rarely cover the original cost.

AMEX refunds the fee, at least in the UK.