I purchased a Bambu Lab A1 during the recent sale. I just checked the credit card statement and in addition to the $469 printer + delivery charge there is a 3.5% additional charge seperate to the printer. My invoice is in AUD so I am not sure why this is. The bank says it is Bambu Lab who is at fault.
Would appreciate any advice on this.
- Are there any extra fees when I buy Bambu Lab products?
It depends on the payment method you choose. The final price may fluctuate with exchange rates if you pay the order with an international bank card. And your bank or credit card issuer may also charge foreign conversion fees.
https://au.store.bambulab.com/pages/payment-help
They're not a local AU store.
That is probably worth clarification.
If you purchase from the Bambu Labs AU store, you are charged in Australian dollars. If you pay in Australian dollars there is no currency conversion fee to pay.
If you purchase from the Bambu Labs AU store, but you pay for it with a card other than Australian Dollars, you will for many cards, be charged a currency conversion fee.
Even if you are not charged a currency conversion fee, you will still pay the hidden cost of the buy/sell difference.
The Bambu AU store does not list things in "approximate AUD", they list them in actual AUD and Bambu Lab takes a hit if they get the currency fluctuations wrong, not the AU purchaser paying in AUD.
I suspect than the OP may have used a card that was not in AUD or for some reason was no longer in the AUD store and hence charged a currency conversion.
The above is my experience of multiple transactions with the Bambu Lab AU store.
Bambu lab says:
"Will I be charged International Bank Fees?
When placing an order, the final total you see during checkout is in XXX currency. Once your bank pulls the funds, they will account for the current exchange rate. Your bank may or may not charge additional fees for international transactions. Please reach out to your bank for more information on any additional charges/fees!"
Which means as long as you purchase in XXX currency and your bank pulls the funds in XXX currency, you won't be hit by a conversion fee. But if you happen to pull funds from a YYY card, the bank has to pay Bambu XXX in XXX currency.
You can tell the currency from the sub domain that Bambu is using e.g. https://au.store.bambulab.com/ i.e. the au at the front.
Bambu also goes one step further than most companies by displaying their prices like $45 AUD
They also say "Are there any extra fees when I buy Bambu Lab products?
It depends on the payment method you choose. The final price may fluctuate with exchange rates if you pay the order with an international bank card. And your bank or credit card issuer may also charge foreign conversion fees. If you have any questions about the fees, please contact your bank or credit card issuer for more details."
They refer to an international bank card which means one where you are paying in a currency other than the store currency.
I used a Commonwealth Bank credit card, which is definitely an Australian card. Not sure why the fees were applied. I used the link from the Ozbargain deal, and my invoice was also in AUD.
International transaction fees are the norm for Australian credit/debit cards. You have to specifically pick one that does not have them.
@buyer-123: Check out the commbank page I linked to above. It says:
(3.5%) is charged when you make a transaction in a foreign currency or make a transaction in Australian dollars:
- In Australia (for example online) where the merchant, or the financial institution or entity processing the transaction, is located overseas.
Also the Bambu Labs checkout page has this in red letters under the amount:
*Foreign transaction fees may be charged by your card issuer.
Bambu says you might be charged, your bank says you will be charged, so that is why you were charged.
You should sign up for one of those fee-free debit (or credit) cards for future purchases like this.
@buyer-123: I used a Suncorp Visa Debit card to purchase my Bambu Labs items if it helps…
I would speak to your bank to see if they have a card that will not incur the fees.
I would also ask them why you are being charged the fee when you purchased items in AUD. That is poor showing from a company that does that. I would attempt to get them to reimburse the fees. Maybe suggest you are thinking about switching banks.
As been mentioned many, many times on here, yes there is international fee involved, the processing gateway is overseas, as much as you complain to the merchant, it’s kind of out of their hands and they (claim) they don’t get any of this fee.
But this is not exclusive to bambu store, many stores are like this such as meta (or at least it was when I bought my quest 2).
The first red flag is when the store does not have a proper .au website (most use an au. Prefix to try and trick users to let guard down)
This is also 1 reason whey I bought my a1 and a1 mini from amazon instead.
There is huge red letters on the checkout page saying overseas transaction fees may apply. I don't know why so many people check out without reading.
It’s understandable I guess, I too was caught up with a wave of euphoria when finally able to purchase a new Bambu printer to really read any fine print
yeah I chatted with support and they pointed this out for me. Still cheaper than amazon (469+16.42 vs 489)..
other than that great printer, been printing PETG from Siddament.
Wow. You saved $3.58 on an original price of $489.
The point is, at least OP didn't pay more than the alternative that was mentioned, i.e. Amazon.
OP really needs to get a credit/debit card with no foreign transaction fees or annual fees.
This has been asked thousands of times across the internet- the merchant is overseas (iirc HK) so despite an AUD figure showing, you are charged an international fee on certain credit cards.
You get warnings to this effective multiple time during the ordering process. If you'd done any research whatsoever beforehand on buying a BL printer in Oz, you would have come across multiple stories of this happening.
Westpac strikes again