ckc123

Is this usual. I purchased a ticket on the BA USA website and was charged a 3% foreign transaction fee because the bank (citi) says that it was charged through the UK. Are all purchases passed through the UK from the website. Seems a bit strange to me.

bernardd

Yes, it's normal, though I've never really understood how it's justified given that BA have significant expenses in the US and in US dollars and can presumably accept payment from Citibank in US dollars. If you have one it's better to use the BA branded Chase card as that, along with a few other Chase cards, doesn't have foreign transaction fees. The next option after that is AMEX who charge fees on less transactions, and when they do they charge slightly less than Citi.

ctrl303

It is indeed a counter intuitive situation, since the transaction was done on a US web portal in presumably US currency. I have seen a VAT fee charged on purchases made on my Skype account under the same circumstances, but not a FX exchange fee.

mumblemumble

Welcome to Flyertalk, ctrl303! ^

jerumagrinberga

hmm, that is weird. I have NEVER been charged a foreign transaction fee, whether by paying from a UK Amex card, or a US Amex card - even when I've used the Ukraine trick to avoid paying the silly GBP card fee. Is your Citi account based in the UK, or US?

FWIW, Citi has only a few branches in the UK, and I've sworn off using them even though I'm a gold(? can't remember exact designation). Last time I visited one of their branches in london, I had to slide my business card through the glass doors to identify myself to be allowed in.... amateur hour. I guess there's a reason people replace the "c" in citibank, with a "sh."

golfmad

If you booked a ticket on the BA.com website it's important note the currency of the fare quote. This will determine the currency in which you are charged and is the means to determine whether foreign transaction fees will apply.

For example, I'm in the US but if I go to the BA.com website and purchase a ticket originating from the UK, I will be quoted in GBP. If I use a US$ credit card for this transaction and that card imposes foreign transaction fees then those fees will indeed appear on the credit card.

Can you confirm what currency was quoted in the fare you booked and from the first sector departed? I'm going to assume that the Citi credit card in based in US$.

HIDDY

Does your ticket originate in the US?

BenSenise

i've been buying tickets on ba.com for many, many years and have never been charged in anything other than the currency of the country i've been living in and flying from. however, if i buy a ticket that originates in the UK, then the charge will be in GBP.

bernardd

No, it's not the case with Citibank or Bank of America - they, along with most of the Chase cards, base the foreign transaction fee on the domicile of the merchant, therefore if you use one of their regular US issued cards to purchase a BA ticket originating in the US, charged in US dollars, they will still charge you a foreign transaction fee.

golfmad

I didn't know that. Just as well the Chase Visa has no foreign transaction charges.

How is a consumer - quoted in US$ - purchasing from the internet supposed to know that the charges will attract foreign transaction fees? OK, there's a clue in the name for British Airways but how about other merchants?

Gshumway

I have just checked. Chase has not charged me Foreign exchange fees for BA tickets, even when they didn't have the perk of no foreign exchange fees. This is for BA.com bought tickets for flight originating in the US. Checked a few years.

bernardd

I'm not defending the US Credit Card issuers - it's about as close to a scam as you can get without breaking the law, just as "reward" tickets that cost almost as much as purchased tickets, and businesses that make up rules as they go along like BA's audit process and their total disregard for their own published T's & C's when making changes to their FF scheme. They've learned that consumers won't push back very much so they're going to carry on patting themselves on the back and praising their own cleverness.

Hyperacusis

There are situations where a USD transaction on the US BA.com website will actually be processed by a foreign ticketing center. A prime example: MFUs booked online for US based BAEC accounts for itineraries NOT originating in the US. These will price in USD but may be charged by a non-US BA entity (i.e. the ticketing center in the country of departure).

As for the FX fees, I have seen fairly inconsistent behavior among US card issuers. Some (citi) charge it even for USD transactions in foreign countries, while others (Chase) would only charge it for non-USD transactions. Of course, Chase now doesn't charge any sort of FX fee on the BA card, and uses the market rate to process the transactions. One of the best reasons to apply for that card.

hillrider

This is not the case on my Citi card (YMMV, read your card agreement). Its agreement by adhesion states:
With this Citi card, the place where the merchant submits the purchase for transaction is what's relevant. I have no reason to believe that Citi has different terms other than a different fee (hence the wording) based on the card that you have, but YMMV.

bernardd

My card agreements say exactly the same thing, so is it that Citibank will only allow BA to "submit" transactions in the UK? It's not in BA's interest to annoy it's customers for something on which (I assume?) it makes no revenue so I'd have to assume it has the technical ability to submit charges in the US if it chose to do so, therefore it seems to me a logical conclusion that Citibank prefers to only deal with BA (and other airlines) wherever their main place of business (ie domicile) happens to be, which is also reinforced by the responses I've received from Citibank customer service when I challenged the charges and before I stopped using their cards for this purpose.

Put simply, Citibank makes more money this way, and not enough people complain to cause it to change its behavior.