Question
I have been VERY unhappy to find " finance Charges" for using my card in international locations. The last time was a $20 charge for booking a Hyatt hotel in Hong Kong. No other card fo mine makes such charges. Has this happened to anyone else?
Answer
I have been VERY unhappy to find " finance Charges" for using my card in international locations. The last time was a $20 charge for booking a Hyatt hotel in Hong Kong. No other card fo mine makes such charges. Has this happened to anyone else?
It is now the norm for major credit card issuers charge 3% foreign exchange commission as a finance charge.
You probably booked a HKD$5166 hotel at HK, right?
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No it was about $2900HKD. Amex never charges such an upfront fee. This looks like a lot more that a few %.
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No it was about $2900HKD. Amex never charges such an upfront fee. This looks like a lot more that a few %.
Amex charges the fee, they just don't break it out for you (as Visa/MC issuers do now due to lawsuits over inadequate disclosure). Amex charges 2%, Citi charges 3%. This has been discussed many times in this forum and a long-running thread in the Miles Buzz forum. No idea how you got charged $20 on a HKD2900 bill. Are you sure you didn't have any other charges in foreign currency?
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Perhaps if you add up the 3% and the fact that they use a bad currency rate it could add up to $20. They actually get you in both ways with the 3% and then a crummy exchange rate.
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I've been very happy with the Chairman card. The 3% conversion fee is split between Mastercard and Citi, from what I've been told. I think it's pretty standard across the industry to charge the conversion fee. I asked about it and the Citi reps said that they've always charged the fee, it's just now being shown as an individual charge instead of being built in to the conversion. BTW, I've been an avid reader of FT for a while and just decided to join in. This is my first post.
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I've been very happy with the Chairman card. The 3% conversion fee is split between Mastercard and Citi, from what I've been told. I think it's pretty standard across the industry to charge the conversion fee. I asked about it and the Citi reps said that they've always charged the fee, it's just now being shown as an individual charge instead of being built in to the conversion. BTW, I've been an avid reader of FT for a while and just decided to join in. This is my first post.
LOL Citi charges 3% if you have any of there Mastercard products. If you have an old grandfathered Visa account you get charged 1% only to the best of my knowlegde Citi converted all the older Visa cards to Mastercards over the last 3-4 years the only card excluded from the conversion where the Private banking American Airlines Cards with no mileage cap and $150 annual fee which is waived for private banking customers.
Citi never issued chairman card as a Visa card either.
I have one of the "Private Banking Prefered American Airlines Visa" card I was charged over the summer 0% currence conversion rate on all my purchases on this card. My other credit card I had with Citibank was converted from Drivers Edge Visa to Drivers Edge Mastercard like 3 years and has 3% currency conversion rate on it.