I had been ordering from merchants located in Canada, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Hong Kong and Japan using the same Citi credit card and was charged absolutely no Foreign Transaction Fee whatsoever. These purchases were placed online and were also charged in US Dollars by the merchants.
I carefully read all my credit card statements each month. I've noticed that Citi started charging 3% Foreign Transaction Fee on my January 2009 statement for all purchases whose merchant accounts are located outside of the U.S. even when they took place in the USA and were in US Dollars. According to a supervisor I spoke with on the phone, she said it is their "New" terms.
My Citi Dividend Platinum Mastercard Card Agreement clearly states that the Foreign Transaction Fee applies to a "purchase made outside of the U.S." (quoted from agreement). This means I will only incur a Foreign Transaction Fee if I travel abroad. It does not state that the junk fee apply to purchases made anywhere from a company whose merchant account is located outside of the U.S. I think these are two completely different things. Guys please review your Citi Cards / Citibank credit card terms and conditions. This is definitely a ripoff.
offer2004 said: My Citi Dividend Platinum Mastercard Card Agreement clearly states that the Foreign Transaction Fee applies to a "purchase made outside of the U.S." (quoted from agreement). This means I will only incur a Foreign Transaction Fee if I travel abroad. It does not state that the junk fee apply to purchases made anywhere from a company whose merchant account is located outside of the U.S. I think these are two completely different things. Guys please review your Citi Cards / Citibank credit card terms and conditions. This is definitely a ripoff.
This is a card not present transaction. For a card not present transaction, merchant account's location outside the US is exactly what makes it a foreign transaction. Now if you were buying from a foreign company that had merchant account inside the US and still were charged the fee, you would have certainly had a case.
offer2004 said: These purchases were placed online ... even when they took place in the USA and were in US DollarsThey did not take place in the USA.
offer2004
Broke Member
posted: Jan. 16, 2009 @ 7:46p
I'm making a lot of foreign purchases in US Dollars every month. I did checked my last 12 months Citi Cards statements for purchases made with the same merchants. These merchant account's locations are all outside of the US and the foreign transactions were processed in US Dollars. There were no Foreign Transaction Fee on my last 12 months statements. Citi just started charging the 3% Foreign Transaction Fee on my January 2009 statement. I don't know if the new terms only apply to Citi Dividend Platinum Mastercard Card or all other Citi Cards / Citibank credit cards.
Many banks don't disclose the 3% fee. They just convert it to dollars, and add the 3%, and you'd be none the wiser. They consider the 3% their "spread" Citi is one of the few banks that discloses it. I used wachovia while I could, but not anymore. Cap1 is where it's at now.
leedsutd67
Senior Member
posted: Jan. 17, 2009 @ 7:48a
SUCKISSTAPLES said: Citi has been charging foreign transaction fees on paypal purchases that happen in different currencies too.
Just use a Penfed card
and Capital One or better still Charles Schawb 2% Cash Back
PolarDude said: Many banks don't disclose the 3% fee. They just convert it to dollars, and add the 3%, and you'd be none the wiser. They consider the 3% their "spread" Citi is one of the few banks that discloses itIf they charge a fee, all CC and DebitCard issuers are now required to break out and disclose it your statement. But if the issuer does not add any % for themselves, they are not required to break out the 1% fee that MC or VISA charges them.
TheManWithout
Ancient Member
posted: Jan. 17, 2009 @ 10:46a
quick data point - got hit with a $0.11 foreign transaction fee yesterday on my Citi PremierPass Elite for a purchase from Hong Kong based DealExtreme.
the annoying part was that i had deliberately paid down my balance on this card before the statement cut and they only applied the transaction fee as part of the statement generation, so despite my efforts it is shown as carrying a balance (albeit miniscule) although that balance is not showing on the credit reports as yet.
lampy2k4
Senior Member - 1K
posted: Jan. 17, 2009 @ 10:52a
PolarDude said: Many banks don't disclose the 3% fee. They just convert it to dollars, and add the 3%, and you'd be none the wiser. They consider the 3% their "spread" Citi is one of the few banks that discloses it. Pretty sure everyone is now disclosing it after a huge class action lawsuit from a couple years ago.
OP, how do you know your merchant is charging in US dollars? If there is a separate transaction for currency conversion fee then they probably aren't. What is the fee labeled as, exactly?
kiasuchick
Senior Member
posted: Jan. 17, 2009 @ 10:59a
hence why i have the schwab card now. just used it in the uk for $2000 of purchases..no fees.
BargainPrince
Happy Member
posted: Jan. 24, 2009 @ 3:04p
I did see charge on my citi premier elite card for purchasing calling card from rebtel. I spoke to the customer service manager to waive those fee. He said those are new charges from 2009 Jan. I told him its Citi Cards(citibank) duty to inform me before they charge something new. So he agreed to waive the charges for this month and he mentioned he will send me the email regarding the new changes. Which I never got so far after 8 hours. As per citi premier pass card even now it says "3% of each purchase after it is converted into US dollars". which means they cant charge for the purchase made in USD even though the merchants are in other countries.
mttatkns
Thrifty Member
posted: Jan. 24, 2009 @ 3:38p
BargainPrince said: which means they cant charge for the purchase made in USD even though the merchants are in other countries.Sounds right, on my last statement I had a charge that posted in USD from Israel and I was not charged a foreign transaction fee. However, I do believe others have had experiences to the contrary, being charged for purchases from DealExtreme, etc. Maybe their system thought IL meant Illinois.
I booked two tickets with China Airlines online and i was charged in US$. The charge shows up on my Citi Platinum card correctly. But the 3% Foreign Trans. Fee arrived separately later. I had no idea they would charge me this fee since it was conducted in US currency and I wasn't physically buying something in a foreign country. Do I have any recourse in this matter?
I got nicked for 3 percent on duty free smokes, paid for in dollars, and an airline I purchased from Lan Chile's website, also in dollars. I have a low-end card so they refused to waive the fee. I cancelled the card and notified Phillip Morris that Citibank was messing with their duty free sales. If they can't stop it, who will?
pablo7871
New Member
posted: Feb. 5, 2009 @ 7:38p
I got nicked for 3 percent on duty free smokes, paid for in dollars, and an airline I purchased from Lan Chile's website, also in dollars. I have a low-end card so they refused to waive the fee. I cancelled the card and notified Phillip Morris that Citibank was messing with their duty free sales. If they can't stop it, who will?
For Citi customers, I'd recommend being careful using Paypal for purchases from companies located outside the US. One strategy- use a prepaid debit card, with a limit that's just over or equals your "foreign" purchase. Sometimes Walgreens offers a rebate on the (typically) ~$5 issuance cost of such prepaid cards.
Checked my last statement and didn't see any additional fees for Dealsextreme
01/10/2009 PAYPAL *DealExtreme 4029357733 CA $3.18 01/10/2009 PAYPAL *DealExtreme 4029357733 CA $6.10
Those that got nicked for DE, did it say CA or HK for the purchase?
GUCCI8B
Member
posted: Mar. 3, 2009 @ 4:59p
I used to be able to slide by in Bermuda with Citi Dividend and have no foreign transaction fee, but recently got hit so stopped using all togther in Bermuda - as of December. --Citi's loss as now I use a competitors card where I can slide by apparently. 1BMD = 1USD so I think there was some confusion there even though I was outside of USA.
lampy2k4
Senior Member - 1K
posted: Mar. 6, 2009 @ 8:56a
Wow, Citibank is out of control. I just got $0.80 "foreign transaction fee" on my statement, and it looks like it is for Skype subscription. That's just silly, considering that a) Skype is a subsidiary of US company and b) the charge was clearly in USD.
xbiker
Member
posted: Mar. 20, 2009 @ 10:39p
I got hit with the 3% foriegn transaction fee after I purchased my Qatar airline tickets online instead of going through a travel agent like I usually do. This is the Citi Platinum Dividend card. They did not charge this when I booked last year.
elleve
Ancient Member
posted: Mar. 21, 2009 @ 12:05a
lampy2k4 said: Wow, Citibank is out of control. I just got $0.80 "foreign transaction fee" on my statement, and it looks like it is for Skype subscription. That's just silly, considering that a) Skype is a subsidiary of US company and b) the charge was clearly in USD.
I also got charged a forex fee for Skype. that is ridiculous. I called in to bitch about it, got it reversed, then told the CSR to transfer me to the banking department so I could close my Citi Gold Relationship. Well, I was then transfered around and each time a rep begged me to keep my accounts and offered thank you points to stay. I took the points and closed the account the next day anyway.
Citi really needs to think about what they are doing before doing it. Seriously, they are pissing off alot of big clients for loose change.
rminky
New Member
posted: Mar. 22, 2009 @ 9:23p
cap one doesnt charge forex fees
lampy2k4
Senior Member - 1K
posted: Apr. 16, 2009 @ 7:06p
Just got a letter from FIA (Merrill+ Visa) and they are changing definition of foreign transactions to include those in USD but made or processed outside of US. They particularly mention charged by placing online orders with foreign merchants.
Citi is really a shady company to deal with. They are desperate to take any penny they can to keep from dieing.
Do not deal with them.
ThePessimist
Ancient Member
posted: Apr. 17, 2009 @ 9:33a
theboogeyman said: I placed an order at www.Meritline.com using paypal and my citi card as funding source. Citi charged the 3% transaction fee. That's the first one in this thread that surprises me. How would Citi know where the paypal funds were going?
ChrisV
Senior Member
posted: Apr. 17, 2009 @ 10:38a
theboogeyman said: I placed an order at www.Meritline.com using paypal and my citi card as funding source. Citi charged the 3% transaction fee.
What the heck? I didn't even think Meritline would be considered foreign...their website says their mailing address is: "City of Industry, CA 91748".
seanwallet
New Member
posted: May. 8, 2009 @ 8:33p
I was hit with a fee this month for purchasing a airline ticket through Travelocity.com. I called Travelocity and they said they charged citicard a USD amount. I got a quote in USD, the receipt shows USD amount and everything is in USD. How would I ever know that this would be foriegn transaction especially from Travelocity which, I believe, is a US company. After talking to multiple reps at citicards, i finally got hold of an account manager who said he would waive it this time. Will have to wait and see if it gets waived. This is ridiculous. I can maybe willing to compromise on sites like DealExtreme or others which, some times, can be figured out to be foreign companies, but I didn't expect that purchasing from Travelocity would be considered a foreign transaction. My citicard (dividend platinum) is going into the closet now. I mainly like it for the virtual credit card numbers but I guess I'll have to live without it.
offer2004 said: I had been ordering from merchants located in Canada, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Hong Kong and Japan using the same Citi credit card and was charged absolutely no Foreign Transaction Fee whatsoever. These purchases were placed online and were also charged in US Dollars by the merchants.
I carefully read all my credit card statements each month. I've noticed that Citi started charging 3% Foreign Transaction Fee on my January 2009 statement for all purchases whose merchant accounts are located outside of the U.S. even when they took place in the USA and were in US Dollars. According to a supervisor I spoke with on the phone, she said it is their "New" terms.
My Citi Dividend Platinum Mastercard Card Agreement clearly states that the Foreign Transaction Fee applies to a "purchase made outside of the U.S." (quoted from agreement). This means I will only incur a Foreign Transaction Fee if I travel abroad. It does not state that the junk fee apply to purchases made anywhere from a company whose merchant account is located outside of the U.S. I think these are two completely different things. Guys please review your Citi Cards / Citibank credit card terms and conditions. This is definitely a ripoff.
lampy2k4 said: Wow, Citibank is out of control. I just got $0.80 "foreign transaction fee" on my statement, and it looks like it is for Skype subscription. That's just silly, considering that a) Skype is a subsidiary of US company and b) the charge was clearly in USD.
Same thing just happened to me. Gonna call them and bitch about this. What the heck, I thought eBay owns Skype now.
george2001 said: Gazing into my crystal ball, I see a class action suit!MasterCard did get hit with a class action suit already. That was probably almost 2 years ago. Got the claim form and submitted it for the $25 "quick resolution" or whatever it was called. Never got a penny, though. Loss of another 1st class mail stamp.
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