Beware of 28 Degrees Credit Card

BluBoy on 02/01/2017 - 01:43
Last edited 02/01/2017 - 01:44

This pains me a little to post, I've been a big fan of this card and have recommended it several times on here and to family/friends IRL.

However, this is no longer the best international fee free card to use. A change in ownership (GE sold it to Latitude Financial Services) earlier this year has only now introduced a few sneaky (predatory?) tricks to weasel fees from users.

28 Degrees card is usually combined with a a range of insurances ('shoppers protection' and 'travel insurance').
To avoid paying fees, you must pay your card off in full before the statement date, otherwise you'll be charged for the insurances.

Changes introduced by Latitude Financial Services (so far).

  • As some of you noticed, Latitude has introduced a fee for paying by bpay recently. Infact, the only way you can avoid fees, is by paying by their 'preferred method' of using the online portal.
  • The online portal has a hidden caveat, that you can not pay more than your account balance.
  • Policies and procedures have changed (more on this later).

While annoying, none of these seemed like that big of a deal.

Where it all goes wrong

Allow me to walk you through my experience over the last statement period.

A few days before the statement period, I noticed my balance was $2000. I also know that I have a regular bill of $20 due on the statement date, which I should account for.
I want to avoid fees, and use their preferred method of payment, so dutifully log into their online portal to manually make the payment that way.

About a week later I receive a letter advising me that my payment had been rejected. Strange. But I log back into the online portal, quadruple check my details, and make the payment again.

About a week later I receive a letter advising me that my payment had been rejected again. Very strange. I log back in and find approximately $100 in fees and interest charges (5 (FIVE!) seperate items!) on my account for the non-payment. This has gone from strange to annoying at this point.

I phone 28 degrees, 45 minutes and 4 transfers later, they tell me it is a problem with my bank and I should call them.
Phoned my bank, they can't see any payment requests, and confirm the money was available the whole time.
Back to 28 degrees. Another lengthy wait, but this time I google around while I'm on hold. That's when I see other people posting about the same issue. Their conclusion… Any payments made on their online portal that were more than the balance outstanding, were being rejected by 28 degrees system.

I double check my account, and yup. That $20 bill on the way was rounded down to $19.95 this month. I had been overpaying my account by $0.05 and the online payment system was silently rejecting the payment.

I bring this up with the next agent (supervisor) I am transferred to. He has an 'ah huh' moment and says yes, this was an issue on their site.

Fantastic, we had solved the issue, and it was not my fault. It was a known issue that was not mentioned on their website at all…

(A side note, just to compound this issue… As I had an additional card holder, we both make seperate payments to cover our individual spend. Last month we discovered that multiple payments can not be made within 3 days of each other. So when my additional card holder made a small payment to cover her charges that month, it rejected my attempt to pay the remaining large amount until 3 days had passed. As we make our payment just before the statement date, I incurred fees and charges for that month too!)

Where it goes REALLY wrong.

The supervisor advised me that despite all of this, he could only offer me 0% refund on some of the fees and 50% on others (a total of ~$25 off the $100 in fees).
I kindly reminded him what we had discussed, they confirmed that my payment had been attempted before the due date, it was for the entire amount (and 5c) and that there was a known issue with their payment system that silently rejected this payment… He then went to a script, pretty much saying that it was the policy of the company to not offer full refunds for these types of charges.

I want to stress here, that the supervisor was definitely on my side, and was speaking as though the company had a gun to his head.

Summary

28 Degrees have a very laggy timeframe for charges to reach the account.
If using insurance with 28 Degrees, you must pay your account BEFORE the statement date to avoid fees.
28 Degrees have recently introduced payment fees to all methods except if paying via their online portal system
The 28 Degrees online portal payment system, has a known (but not disclosed) bug which will silently reject any payments which are greater than the outstanding amount).
Latitude are enforcing a policy of not refunding fees, even if they are demonstrably at fault.

Conclusion

Their are many things wrong with this, but allow me to focus on a few that really bug me.

28 Degrees appear to be attempting to prevent users from overpaying their account in order to extract additional fees from them.

  • Charges are laggy to appear on the account.
  • Users have to estimate the exact figure their statement will be, before the statement is generated (to avoid paying insurance fees).
  • If the estimate is a few cents off (overpaid!) the payment will be silently rejected by their defective system.
  • Communication from 28 degrees is delayed in order to apply additional fees.

Up until this month, I have over paid this (and my other) credit card. Sometimes it was just to round the figure, other times it was because I knew I'd have a large spend next month.

Options

While fee free foreign transactions was nice, at some point they intend to catch you out if you pay with their online system. A $2,000 debt incurs ~$100 worth of fees in a single statement period. This undoes any other savings almost instantly.
If you choose to continue paying by bPay, this card is no longer free fee, as it will be costing you ~$12 per year in fees. While this isn't terrible, it is no longer the best option for fee free banking!

Please have a look at other options before considering this card. Bankwest and Citibank products are also well regarded around here.

If you have been charged fees due to their faulty website as well, I'd suggest taking it to the Financial Ombudsman for review.

Financial

Related Stores

Latitude Financial
Latitude Financial

Comments

    • retiredfeline on 02/01/2017 - 10:49
      +1

      Wasn't this discussed in this thread and the conclusion was it's just a change from Visa to MC and no charge changes?

    • MT2010 on 02/01/2017 - 12:37

      Sorry guys- you are correct - I was just referring to a link from James.

  • BluBoy on 02/01/2017 - 10:42

    OP here, just a few quick comments…

    • With bPay, the card is no longer fee free. Although $11.40 a year is extremely cheap
    • The have introduced policies to NOT refund the customer (even when they are at fault). At some point you may need to have charges investigated, or fees refunded…
    • Direct debit works only if you disable shoppers protection. Without shoppers protection, you may as well go with someone with better service.

    28 degrees. Bankwest Zero Platinum and Citibank transaction accounts all offer the same foreign transaction rate (no fees).
    From my experience, Bankwest has the better customer service (as well as a being a genuine credit card, with insurances as well), however using a foreign ATM will incur a minimum $4 charge.
    Citibank has an ok customer service level. But is just a common debit card. On the upside, they charge no fees for using a foreign ATM.
    For comparison, 28 Degrees have terrible customer service now, have introduced fees and policies to ensure you get stung at some point. They also charge a foreign ATM fee of a minimum of $4.

    TL;DR: If you don't intend to withdraw cash from foreign ATMs a lot, look at the Bankwest card to keep a similar set of features. Otherwise, for high foreign ATM usage, checkout the citibank card. EDIT: Thanks MT2010.

    • Colombian on 02/01/2017 - 11:09
      +3

      AFAIK, Bankwest does not offer price protection insurance. I have been with28 degrees for 2 years, no issues. Payment through their online system works well for me too. Price protection insurance is very good I keep using them all the time when I need to buy electricals and appliances.

        • kawinuyo on 02/01/2017 - 18:49
          +3

          I can't see price protection from the link you provided

          Edit: found this information elsewhere, yes it does but the minimum drop before you can claim is $75, 28degrees is $10. I claim all the time on clothing that have had $10 drops, like yesterday uniqlo shirt went from 29.90 to 19.90 and I claimed it…

        • dazweeja on 02/01/2017 - 18:57

          I don't see where on that page is says that the Zero Platinum has price protection insurance?

        • dazweeja on 02/01/2017 - 18:58

          @kawinuyo:

          Can you please link to the information?

        • BluBoy on 02/01/2017 - 20:21
          +2

          @dazweeja:

          Follow my link, click on the 'features' tab.

          Provider Minimum claim Maximum Claim Days since original purchase Conditions
          Bankwest $75 $1,000 25 Lower price from a geographically close brick-and-mortar retailer
          28 Degrees $0? $600 182 Lower price from the SAME retailer.
        • kawinuyo on 02/01/2017 - 20:38

          @dazweeja:

          http://www.bankwest.com.au/library/pdf/PDS_20060801-154923.p…

          Page 4 has a graph of which cards it is on, it just says platinum mastercard, so assume zero platinum would be under it. Then page 56 says the $75 minimum with 21 days, also has the caveat that it must be a printed catalogue, within 25km and no online stores… seems like pretty poor price protection

        • sky blu on 03/01/2017 - 00:47

          @kawinuyo: can you shed some info on the insurance claim? Like is it an easy process? How long is the turnaround time for a claim to be approved? What merchants can't you claim (e.g. ebay possible?)

        • kawinuyo on 03/01/2017 - 05:39
          +2

          @sky blu: it's just an online claim form, very easy to do. The only annoying part is you have to do each item individually and each claim you have to re-enter your details (credit card number, dob, email etc, very easy process.
          Turn around they say is about 3 business days for approval, this is generally true although sometimes it is a few days longer during busy periods (end of financial year sales, Christmas and boxing day dales) , money can take a week to come into your account though.
          I haven't really needed to submit any documentation backing up my claims but I store them just in case (receipts and screenshot of where I see the discount).
          There was a claim once where the assessor couldn't find my purchase on my card sent me a letter stating the claim was rejected due to purchase not being on card (they send rejections by post), I sent in my receipt as proof and they approved the claim.
          I have successfully claimed on ebay purchase, I think it is okay as long it is a store item and not an auction etc, it shows up on the credit card statement as the store name doesn't say ebay. So I bought a graphics card from Futu online, which is only available online (one of the tech 20% off), a few months down the track the same card was cheaper and there was another 20% sale going so I submitted a claim. As the credit card statement had the shop as Futu and no mention of eBay I just put in the claim the shop was Futu

    • Baysew on 02/01/2017 - 11:55
      +2

      TL;DR: If you don't intend to withdraw cash from foreign ATMs a lot, look at the Bankwest card to keep a similar set of features. Otherwise, for high foreign ATM usage, checkout the citibank card. EDIT: Thanks MT2010.

      MT2010 is misinformed.

      Otherwise, for high foreign ATM usage, checkout the Citibank card.

      (Citibank Plus Account)

    • Rick Sanchez on 02/01/2017 - 21:22
      +1

      Be careful of the advice received from Bankwest employees, we were advised incorrectly that our Bankwest Zero card had no overseas withdrawal fees (and got this in writing), only to receive numerous fees and needing countless emails for them to reverse it.

      Even when they did reverse the charges, they sent us a letter which stated that even though they refunded the money, we had no proof of our claim. Good way to get your customers to hate you. Had this happened now, we would have headed straight to the ombudsman.

      Terrible experience.

  • rinbond on 02/01/2017 - 11:20

    The 28card is still a cheap option for a line of credit for what it is.The problem here is that all the whingers are generally stingy titearses who want everything for free,but always want top dollar for shit that they sell.The best way to pay is still via bpay although will cost a misely sum of $11.40 p-yr which is cheaper than a basic bank visa card which is $30 a yr and gives you nothing.Also anything that is applied to the account after statement close date,ie regular direct debits, is billed in next cycle so no need to pay for it till next cycle.

    • BluBoy on 02/01/2017 - 18:13
      +3

      1) Why pay $11.40 when you can get it free (Bankwest)? Infact, you get additional interest free days with Bankwest too.

      2) If you have shoppers protection with 28 Degrees, you need to pay the card in full BEFORE the statement date, so direct debit is not an option

      3) My biggest concern is that their customer service are being leaned on by LFS to minimise any refunds, without consideration for the reason. So while you may be happy paying $11.40 per year now, should you ever have an issue, don't expect a sympathetic response.

      • muncan on 02/01/2017 - 19:09
        -1

        Someone, somewhere is paying for the refunds.

        • BluBoy on 02/01/2017 - 19:38
          +2

          If they admit that they have a faulty system, why shouldn't they issue a refund?

        • muncan on 02/01/2017 - 22:17

          @BluBoy: No I mean somebody is paying for the shoppers protection refunds. I'm pretty sure the banks aren't paying for it from their bottom line.

  • driver33b on 02/01/2017 - 11:38
    +2

    Dunno where the OP problems triggered from…I forgot a $547usd charge that went on to the card and went $473aud over our limit…they honoured the debt sent me an SMS to say I exceeded our limit….I Direct Debited $500aud within a minute of the SMS, and had no fees charged.
    On the run I paid a DD of $2000aud, knowing it was $1800 odd, still no fees. When I went to pay our latest Statement of $487.13 it would not let me enter that amount and a 'drop down' had either $500 or $2000 in it…paid the $500…so far still no fees.

    • Rick Sanchez on 02/01/2017 - 21:27

      the whole system is definitely set up to make you end up paying fees
      - if one of your payments are rejected the bank payment is disabled for 6 months unless you dispute it
      - bpay now incurs a fee
      - if you set up automatic payments you can't avoid paying the price protection fee
      - etc.

  • grasstown on 02/01/2017 - 11:53
    +2

    I have had my payment rejected but it is not silent as you say. As soon as you try pay more than your balance on your card on the online portal (to avoid the 95 cent BPay fee) , it tells you the msximum the online portal can take is the balance, so you have to resubmit.

    • BluBoy on 02/01/2017 - 18:14

      This definitely was not the case when we did it last month.

      • grasstown on 02/01/2017 - 18:18
        +1

        Really? You may be right as I have never tried paying more for many months. That is super dodgy if that's the case. They used to warn

        • eug on 03/01/2017 - 17:07

          I tried paying more through the online portal at least two months ago and I did get the warning.

    • MeesusEff on 04/01/2017 - 11:57

      i just paid off my balance yesterday + $2, it went through and now I have a $2 credit. No pending transactions, maybe it doesnt reject everyones?

  • mmd on 02/01/2017 - 12:12
    +1

    Thanks for the heads up OP, but wouldnt it be wiser and more ozbargainy (if thats a word) if you have just paid the amount due for that month? i.e. I have $34.50 outstanding for a purchase I made in November. I transferred said amount via the online portal on the 5th December (well before the due date as transferring from a savings account may take a few days).

    • BluBoy on 02/01/2017 - 18:17

      The issue with this, is that if you use the card again before the end of the statement period, you no longer have a zero balance when your statement is generated. This means you will pay insurance fees for that period.

      You are basically damned if you do pay it early, and damed if you pay it 'on time' according to the statement due date (and doubly damned if you pay it later than that!)

      • Ahan on 02/01/2017 - 21:29

        I only use 28 degrees if I forsee that item is going to reduce in price. So I probabaly only had once I need to make a purchase on/close to the statement period end day.

  • kmwa on 02/01/2017 - 16:01

    I've never paid ANY fees on my 28 Degrees Credit Card.
    I've got a direct debit arrangement, which allows 28 Degrees to collect the full balance each month - so I don't have any worries about late payment.
    No fees, even for foreign currency transactions on Aliexpress or DHgate.
    Very happy with it.

    • BluBoy on 02/01/2017 - 18:18
      +1

      Please read the OP. If you select shoppers protection you MUST pay the amount in full BEFORE the statement is generated to avoid paying insurance fees.

      If you do not have the shoppers protection enabled, direct debit is fine.

      • kmwa on 03/01/2017 - 02:50
        +1

        I did read it, I don't have "shoppers protection", I've never paid any fees whatsoever to 28 Degrees (I once got a $20 bonus just for using it!), and I still maintain that the 28 Degrees Credit Card is the best international fee free card.
        Sorry that you've had such a bad experience with them, BluBoy, but perhaps if you had read their Terms and Conditions you might never have got yourself into this situation.

  • RocketSwitch on 02/01/2017 - 18:47

    If the Bankwest card is better in all areas, then why does the 28 Degress Credit Card still apply?

    • SBOB on 02/01/2017 - 18:49
      +1

      better price protection, lower minimum earning to apply

      not sure if theres any other major differences

      • dbui8743 on 02/01/2017 - 19:06

        what this guy just said.

      • cheesecactus on 02/01/2017 - 20:51

        So why even use the 28 degrees? The coles card is even better in both of those aspects.

        • SBOB on 02/01/2017 - 20:54
          +1

          coles card isnt good for forex

        • cheesecactus on 02/01/2017 - 20:59

          @SBOB:

          For travel isnt the Citi Plus card better than the 28 degrees card? (assuming thats what youre talking about)

        • moonphase on 03/01/2017 - 12:26

          @cheesecactus: for cashing out from your account, yes. It is indeed better option.

      • kawinuyo on 02/01/2017 - 20:56
        +1

        I would beg to differ in that it has a better price protection. You can only claim if the price drop is greater than $75, that for one is a major set back. Claiming small price drops really does add up over time, games, books, clothes etc

    • kev98 on 03/01/2017 - 01:13
      +1

      28D used to have lower income requirement so one reason

  • bjdchwr on 02/01/2017 - 19:13
    +1

    It seems Coles card uses the same company behind….

    https://apply.latitudefinancial.com.au/eapps/Apply.faces?car…

    latitudefinancial……… sounds familiar?

  • congo on 02/01/2017 - 19:35

    Price protection? So when I purchased the XB1 S from Microsoft for $350, it then later dropped to under $300, I could have claimed a refund of $50 from 28 degrees?
    What proof do you need to provide?
    How far apart is the price drop for it to be eligible for price protection?
    How long do you have to claim the price protection?

    • SBOB on 02/01/2017 - 19:42
      -1

      So,
      1) you need to be enrolled for price protection (it costs $ based on your account balance at the end of each month)
      2) i think the minimum $ drop is something like $200, so a $50 price drop would not qualify

      • lovesabargain77 on 02/01/2017 - 20:42

        In the PDS it doesn't seem to mention a minimum price reduction amount in order to make a claim.

        https://www.28degreescard.com.au/pds/pds

      • congo on 02/01/2017 - 20:44

        Thank you for the info.
        $200+ drop rarely happens to me as I normally buy close to historical low.
        Do you know what the % extra cost is for the price protection?
        Thanks.

        • cheesecactus on 02/01/2017 - 20:53

          For the coles mastercard (offered by the same company as 28deg):

          Claim within 2 years of purchase
          Maximum $600 refund per claim with max $2000 per 12month period

          Costs 1% of closing balance or $50 (whichever is lower).
          BUT - this fee is waived if your outstanding balance is $0 just BEFORE the statement is printed.

        • kawinuyo on 02/01/2017 - 20:53

          0.05% of your balance when your statement is printed, hence if you pay off your card before the statement comes out costs $0. It used to be a drop of $10 or more… but now it seems that wording has been removed from their PDS. WOOHOO. Now I will go try make a claim for 7.99

        • congo on 02/01/2017 - 21:39

          @kawinuyo: minimum $200 drop?

        • kawinuyo on 02/01/2017 - 22:06

          @congngo: used to be $10 now it doesn't say there is a minimum, I think you are looking at the example they give where they claim 200,that is an example not the minimum drop. I regularly claim $10 drops from them.

          Edit: I see you got that impression from a previous comment. Different cards have different minimum drops, 28degrees was the lowest, you can see a chart comparison here https://www.canstar.com.au/credit-cards/2-litte-known-but-gr…

          Also, the max refund is per item, 28degrees you can claim up to 2000 dollars per year

        • congo on 02/01/2017 - 22:40

          @kawinuyo: Thanks! I shop online quite a lot, so this 'seems' to be worth having.

        • kawinuyo on 02/01/2017 - 22:48

          @congngo: I love the price protection on 28degrees, but it seems Coles is the same (same underwriters - latitude) but with 24 months length so I will be applying for one

    • MeesusEff on 03/01/2017 - 14:46

      28 deg - 6 months from purchase date, as long as the price drop is $10 or more you can claim, so in your situation yes you could have claimed the $50 difference :)

      I have done a fair few claims and never had to submit any proof , receipt or sale link/picture. Makes me wonder how well they check it but I keep screenshots of sale prices just in case :)

  • rinbond on 02/01/2017 - 19:43

    @blueboy,unfortunately all good things come to an end,here are some issues that piss me off but need to get over them,, vicroads charge a fee to pay your rego with a credit card, thieving banks drop house loans only 0.15 when reserve drop 0.25,airlines charge a fee to book,vicroads charge stamp duty on top of the gst component of your rego renewal,ticketek charge 6.95 to print out your own tickets for any event you book,So 95c to pay 28deg is nothing to get upset about.

    • Rick Sanchez on 02/01/2017 - 21:23
      -3

      hey want to send me 95c weekly, surely you'd be cool with that

  • potm on 02/01/2017 - 20:08

    I have all 3 cards, bankwest platinum, 28D and citi plus.
    The reason I still keep the 28D around is that the bankwest card can be overzealous in blocking transactions, especially for booking flights overseas. 28D is my backup.

  • DiscoJango on 02/01/2017 - 20:49

    thanks for the post op, will deff avoid them in future

  • cheesecactus on 02/01/2017 - 20:54

    For travel: Citi Plus

    For price protection: Coles (same company as 28 deg, but better policies)

    Daily use: idk, bankwest or something. Maybe amex even.

  • [Deactivated] on 02/01/2017 - 21:24

    I'm still holding on (for now) and interestingly even though I have Shoppers Protection and in the past haven't been able to pay off more than the outstanding balance, last month it allowed me to pay more using the Direct Debit. So now I'm $31 ahead :)

    But another gotcha I found is that you have to wait 5 business days between being able to make payments with the OSC. So if you make a payment within 5 business days, then you buy something else or another transaction comes up before the end of the month, you have no way to pay it off in time to avoid the Shoppers protection fee.

    I'm glad that you already know that he Ombudsman is the way to go.

    I will be moving away fairly soon anyway.

  • lainey13 on 02/01/2017 - 21:53

    I'm holding onto my card purely for international transactions. The bpay fee has pushed me into signing up for a AMEX and a HSBC Platinum CC, both of which have no annual fee and additional types of insurance and other goodies like offers, points etc.

  • JimmyF on 02/01/2017 - 22:25

    So to save $1/month you now have clocked up $100 in fees? or 100 months worth of fees, or 8 and a bit years of bpay fees….

    ouch

  • garetz on 02/01/2017 - 23:50

    Not to mention if you use their payment portal it takes 3-4 days to process, so if you pay 2-3 days before the due date, you are more than likely paying passed the due date and they are charging late payment fees and additional interest. While using bpay i can pay the day that it is due, and it is processed same day, with 95 cents fee.

    So yeah lots of dodgy shit

    • Colombian on 03/01/2017 - 07:00

      I always pay using their online system a day before the due date and so far no issues.

  • grang on 03/01/2017 - 01:29

    I had a similar failed direct debit deduction issue 3 times on their side. For an $18 bill. Huge fees. Lost do much time with them on the phone. Did not want to refund their error initially.

    Very likely to cancel given this pattern

    We should report to financial services umbudsman

    Total lack of empathy in customer support… And in my case / imho they and their systems were incompetent.

  • davidl2 on 03/01/2017 - 05:33
    +1

    time for CitiBank/BankWest deals on OzBargain!!

    CitiBank/BankWest…..do you hear us?
    Potential new customer here! blink

  • jtc13 on 03/01/2017 - 07:20

    Hi all - I used to have this card just for overseas spend and the Coles MasterCard for local spend to get points. Coles then offered the same no international transaction fee free feature on their card so I scrapped the 28 degrees card. I think this is only on the top level Coles MasterCard and annual fee is 89 bucks but I am getting around $600 of free shopping each year from having the card so don't mind that. 2 flybuys points per dollar spent. Worth looking into if you always pay in full.

    • cheesecactus on 03/01/2017 - 13:51

      I THINK the no fee platinum card also might have no intl transaction fees. Maybe.

      I cant find anything online that mentions it, but in my account on the website it says no itl transaction fees even though the regular no fee card does have fees.

      Havent actually got the card yet, so ill wait and see

  • Trying2SaveABuck on 03/01/2017 - 09:14
    +1

    I got a 28 degrees card it is disappointing to hear this going to get a citi plus card on my next trip

  • x d on 03/01/2017 - 10:12
    +1

    I currently have 2 fees from 28 degrees which I will be disputing. They were $38.88 labelled as cash advance and now a $19.27 for interest on the cash advance. However, I have never used the card to withdraw cash from an ATM.

    My wife contacted them and was told that the payment we made to airBNB (payment as credit card) was considered as cash advance!!!

    I will be disputing this when we get back to Australia from Japan.

    Anyone else had this?

    Thanks.

    PS does the financial ombudsman have much power. What if we contact Mastercard corporation as it is a "mastercard" card. I think alternatives will be considered.

    • garetz on 03/01/2017 - 19:39
      +3

      airBNB is known for charging cash advances through credit cards purchases, thats got nothing to do with 28 degrees, you need to complain to airBNB for charging the transaction as a cash advance.

      • x d on 03/01/2017 - 23:56

        Thanks for that. I have found this
        https://www.reddit.com/r/AirBnB/comments/5eo1wo/airbnb_cash_…
        which suggest that it doesn't happen for everybody.

        I can also verify that after that one episode I have switched from using 28degrees, and used my citibank signature visa card for 2 more airbnb payment in Japan. Guess what, no charge on citibank statement, no international conversion penalties.

        I will be chasing this up with 28 deg and also airbnb on return.

        I have the signature visa card for rewards but looks like I may have to apply for a citibank plus visa account or a bankwest card for international travel use.

        A warning also to airbnb users.

        • Munnie on 07/01/2017 - 20:32

          I have a Citibank signature card too. Can I confirm that there are no fees at all for purchases in foreign currency? So basically I can use it as a 28D substitute even when I'm overseas? (as long as I don't withdraw cash)

        • bluesky on 07/01/2017 - 20:50

          @Munnie: No, that is a credit card which has foreign fees. Only the CitiPlus debit card has no fees.

        • Munnie on 07/01/2017 - 22:33

          @bluesky: I have the Citibank plus as well, but it makes much more sense for me to use the signature card as it is a credit card. From the comment above, it seems like xd managed to use the Citibank credit card (signature) and it didn't attract any foreign conversion fees. I've never tried the signature card for foreign transactions. I think from 1 March there would be foreign fees, but I'm travelling feb so if there's no fees with signature then I'll use that instead of my 28D

        • bluesky on 07/01/2017 - 22:54
          +1

          @Munnie: Perhaps xd will clarify. It sounds to me xd is saying using Signature card for airbnb transaction, will avoid it being treated as cash advance, (and perhaps even avoid international conversion fee). But I don't think xd is saying Signature card is universally free of foreign fees.

          xd continued to say:

          I have the signature visa card for rewards but looks like I may have to apply for a citibank plus visa account or a bankwest card for international travel use.

          Presumably, implication is that these will avoid foreign fees.

        • x d on 07/01/2017 - 22:55
          +1

          @Munnie: Hi.
          Blueky is correct. The signature card if used for overseas transaction does attract conversion fee.

          For airbnb it looks like we were charged in AUD as our membership is Aus and we booked through airbnb AU.

          Cheers.

          [edit - what I am doing currently is using the 28d for shop purchases in Japan without issues. To withdraw cash I just withdraw from any Cirrus ATM using my ANZ savings bankcard and just pay the $5 fee. The rate is bank rate and I don't think there is conversion fee. Not as cheap as a citi debit card though totally acceptable]

        • bluesky on 07/01/2017 - 22:58
          +1

          @x d: Thanks for clarifying :-)

        • x d on 07/01/2017 - 22:58
          +2

          @bluesky:
          Just posted my response then saw yours.

          You are absolutely correct.

          (posted from Japan!!!)

        • Munnie on 08/01/2017 - 02:06
          +2

          @x d: cheers for the clarification bluesky and xd! Enjoy Japan!

        • bluesky on 08/01/2017 - 07:18
          +1

          @x d: Thanks for info. Enjoy Japan!

  • sli on 03/01/2017 - 10:40

    Thanks op.
    Closed my account and will use a different option next time i travel.

  • sergun on 03/01/2017 - 10:42
    +7

    Your fees were used to hire Alec Baldwin to advertise Latitude.

  • minijumbuk on 03/01/2017 - 11:14

    Had an issue with their Bpay charges as well. I'm more lucky, I decided to cut my losses early and just move on. Cancelled the card.

    It's unacceptable they charged you so many fees for their system's faults. Thanks for the heads up.

  • frozenkuku on 03/01/2017 - 11:26

    i use bpay and i always only get charged $0.95 per month
    which is about right, $12 per year

  • notevasive on 03/01/2017 - 12:49

    I really would like to change to something else. It always takes 3-4 days for them to update the balance and payments. Very frustrating exercise.

    Besides Bankwest Platinum, is there another good CC for fee free international transactions?

  • Davo1111 on 03/01/2017 - 13:58

    yeah i dropped them last year when they introduced the bpay fee.

    2 negs was enough to push me away from the card

  • JuryWheel on 03/01/2017 - 14:15

    hi all
    ive had this card for years but very very rarely use it now (dont buy much from overseas) so was thinking i should cancel it purely due to needing to apply for a new home loan in the next couple of months. Am i better to cancel all together or just reduce to $1000 limit? Cheers

  • itbargainhunter on 03/01/2017 - 15:57
    +1

    I know most people try to pay the balance before statement is generated as the fee for Shopper's Protection costs 0.5% of the monthly closing balance.
    And OP obviously try to reduce the fee to $0 by pay up the estimate statement balance but failed and leaded to all this drama.

    Can we, pay MOST of the balance and reduce the fee?
    I mean, just underpaid estimated monthly closing balance, by say $10, with their portal payment method (with no charge).

    This should make sure pre-statement payment go thru and attract the least fee ($10 leftover balance x 0.5% x 12month = 60cent fee per year)

    Would this works?

    Just don't want to cut this card loss yet as it has been my good travel companion for many years.

    • sky blu on 03/01/2017 - 16:04

      Sounds solid. I want to know if this works too.

    • deadpoet on 03/01/2017 - 17:11

      Not sure what you're talking about regarding "underpaid". Why would you underpay your closing balance instead of just paying your full closing balance at the time?

      Anyway, to answer what I suspect you're asking: if you have shopper's insurance with the 28 Degrees card, then you should try to pay off the balance approx 2 working days before the statement date (the statement date is when you get charged the 0.5% fee for the insurance). This should give enough time for the money transfer to go through.

      However, if you make another purchase during this brief time period, then that will end up on your balance, so you'll get charged 0.5% of whatever you spent during this time. Basically, you can minimise the 0.5% fee, but if you're constantly using your card and making purchases all the time, you probably can't eliminate the fee altogether. It will usually end up being a very small amount though, just a few cents, unless of course you made a big purchase.

      Note that the free money transfer payment method in the 28 Degrees OSC can only be used once every 5 days — you'll get an error if you attempt to use it again within this time.

      I believe the BPAY method allows you to "overpay" to cover any eventualities, so you should be able to avoid the 0.5% fee, but BPAY attracts a $0.95 fee itself from 28 Degrees.

      • itbargainhunter on 03/01/2017 - 17:34

        I meant underpaid the "estimate" closing balance (refer to OP), before the statemnet is actually generated.

    • BluBoy on 03/01/2017 - 19:51
      +1

      While what you are saying would work, here is why I don't like it.

      1) You are still paying a fee for a fee-free card. There are other cards that don't charge these fees for simply trying to pay your own card off.

      2) You would need to log in twice a month to pay your card off (once before the statement, and once after the statement to pay off that remaining ~$10)

      3) Let's say you use the online service portal to pay your card off (less ~$10) the day before the statement date. When the statement gets issued you can see you have $9.95 due. If you attempted to pay it then and there, the payment would fail as you can only make one online service payment every three days.

      4) Again, the customer service operators are being forced to deny commonsense refunds. While you may be happy now, just think about the crap-storm you will enter should anything go wrong (even if it is their fault, or no fault of your own).

      • Colombian on 03/01/2017 - 22:16
        -2

        You have two weeks between the close statement date and the due date. I don't understand why you can't make two payments that way. I only pay by the close statement date and never had issues.

  • fallentenshi on 03/01/2017 - 16:31

    wow, sounds like they try to catch u on payment fees. There's no way you can estimate the amount before Statement been issued to avoid fee.
    My friends have recommend 28Degrees to me and I was thinking of signing up. But after reading these posts, i'm having second thoughts.

    Any other Mastercard options out there that is similiar to 28 degrees? I need it for my Europe trip soon.
    I'm going to sign up for Citibank for cash withdrawals anyway.. but was thinking whether I need a credit card as well…

    • T-man on 04/01/2017 - 09:06

      As many people have mentioned above, Coles card is probably the best option for you.

  • MeesusEff on 03/01/2017 - 16:59

    Just wondering, for the 28 deg price protection :

    Returned items
    We may recover from you any amount we pay in respect of a Price Protection claim for any item that is subsequently returned for a
    refund of the purchase price. We may, for example, deduct such amounts from any future claims paid under this policy

    if the item returned doesnt go back to your credit card (ie. bought a present for a friend, but they returned it and I didnt know and filed a price protection claim) do they go back to the merchant that issued the receipt and do a check?

  • bargainchampion on 03/01/2017 - 17:19

    Left 28 Degrees due to their shitty customer service team long time ago. Moved to Bankwest Mastercard Platinum with the same benefit ($0 annual fee and 0% international fee). Cheers.

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