How Can You Tell When You'll Be Charged a Foreign Exchange Fee on Credit Cards?

Bronica on 19/02/2020 - 19:47

Hi guys,

Is there any easy to tell when you'll be charged a international transaction fee on credit cards? I try to put all my obvious international purchases on a card that will get points, and everything else on 58 Degrees to avoid these charges.

However sometimes there is no easy way to tell if they will charge you a fee or not util it's gone through. I bought some clothes from https://www.ctshirts.com/au/home, and it has an AU link and all prices are in AUD but i got charged a fee. On the credit statement, it will say something like:

19/02/2020 *PAYPAL *CTSHIRTS 35315369005 GB

And i can tell from the GB that i will get charged. I believe i have also gotten charged when i buy on ASOS, which is annoying because the price is already converted from GBP to AUD on the site, and i pay the listed AUD then get charged extra.

Financial Credit Card

Comments

  • spackbace on 19/02/2020 - 19:56

    It's hidden but it's there

    We make all our shipments direct from the Charles Tyrwhitt Warehouse in the UK.

    • [Deactivated] on 19/02/2020 - 20:03
      +3

      Shipment location shouldn't matter. It's the country the payment is processed in. I bought eBay Plus and for some reason got charged international transactions fees. I'm pretty pissed off about it and eBay refuses to accept that it's their fault.

  • Rescue 26 on 19/02/2020 - 20:08

    I've just gone through the same thing ordering a bike computer from cotswoldoutdoor.com.au (an Ozbargain deal). The price was in AUD, although I knew the product was coming from the UK. I didn't even consider international transaction fees, however my cc account shows $12.30 was added to the cost (works out at 3%). Thanks ANZ. I would have used Latitude 28 card (no fees) had I known it was considered to be an international purchase.

  • HighAndDry on 19/02/2020 - 20:58
    +2

    https://www.ctshirts.com/au/home

    That's a "/au/" link, not a ".au" link.

    That's not an Australia site, that's the Australian portal/section of an international site.

    • Bronica on 19/02/2020 - 21:03

      Not sure that matters, as user above got charged for an item he bought from 'cotswoldoutdoor.com.au'

      I sold some stuff on eBay so needed to pay their final value fee. Even though i was on the ebay.com.au site, i got charged for an international transfer fee.

      • HighAndDry on 19/02/2020 - 21:05

        It's not foolproof, but it's an indication since in your OP you said it had an AU link.

        But yeah, you'd have to see the location of the payment processor and that's not generally easy to find if at all, so indications are all we have.

        • Bronica on 19/02/2020 - 21:06

          No worries, i thought there would be something obvious that you could check like, as you mentioned the location of the payment processor.

    • AdosHouse on 19/02/2020 - 22:21

      That doesn't always hold true. Try going to the Qantas website.

  • spacebanana on 19/02/2020 - 21:06
    +2

    I also find this very annoying, I havent found anyway to reliably know.

  • wendellX on 19/02/2020 - 21:46

    If you're using PayPal, there is a choice in the payment option to either use Paypal's currency conversion (i.e. Paypal will take AUD from your bank and send GBP or whatever to the merchant) or you can choose to charge the foreign currency (e.g. USD, GBP) directly to your bank and allow the bank to do the conversion. If you have free international transactions on your card, then there should be no fee, and unless your bank are assholes they should use a fair exchange rate.

    Don't let PayPal do the conversion. e.g. https://www.maketecheasier.com/prevent-paypal-overcharge-for…

    • netjock on 19/02/2020 - 22:19

      If it was Paypal AU and the default when you pay is AUD (you don't need to select whether it is AUD/GBP).

      It is very hard to tell whether a merchant is using overseas payment processor.

  • toniyellow on 19/02/2020 - 22:59

    Australian Sites that can incur a fee for transactions Your first site is not listed, but ASOS is

    • Bronica on 19/02/2020 - 23:01

      Thanks this is helpful but not sure how correct it is. I don't get charged on Amazon, even though it was shipped by Amazon US.

  • wannagrababargain on 20/02/2020 - 16:49

    It's not a foreign exchange fee, it's an overseas transaction fee. I have had an issue with this type of fee ever since it became a thing, for ANZ that was around 2010, there is literally no way to know until after the fact. Seems to come down to what 'location' the payment processer computer is claiming to be from. This type of charge should have it's own royal commission!

  • Ryk on 23/02/2020 - 10:54
    +2

    use a card that doesn't charge overseas transaction fees, If you do any reasonable amount of shopping it will save you heaps.

    there are many of them to choose from;

    Bankwest platinum credit mastercard
    Macquarie Bank debit mastercard
    Up Bank debit mastercard
    Citibank debit mastercard
    CUA Visa debit
    UBank Visa debit
    and more

    also, ING Visa credit and debit cards with a hurdle of $1000 deposit and 5 txs/mth required

    • flux on 23/02/2020 - 13:20
      +1

      "I try to put all my obvious international purchases on a card that will get points, and everything else on 58 Degrees to avoid these charges."

      None of the cards you have mentioned get points (mostly debit cards)

    • VeeKTOR on 29/05/2021 - 18:43

      Hey I've been looking around but can't seem to find the info, wondering if you might know.

      I wanted to know how Macquarie convert international transactions for a DEBIT card. All I can find is https://help.macquarie.com.au/s/article/How-is-the-final-for… . Not sure if it means debit and credit card are treated the same

      If so will this mean they stick to the rate as on here: https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/personal/get-support/convert…

      Citibank and HSBC both have a web page that give their own rates and at time of writing both are worse when buying USD. I opened a HSBC account for a promo and 2% cash back.

      Ta

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