Originally Posted by JEFFJAGUAR

Let's face it and be realistic. Banks are always looking for ways to squeeze their customers to maximize their profits even if it means being innovative in fees. As an example, for many years New York State law prohibited banks from charging annual fees for credit cards. So Citibank came up with a novel interpretation. They couldn't charge an annual fee so they charged you the minimum finance charge (which was 50¢ at the time) on every statement that had a balance. (This was rendered moot when the US Supreme Court ruled the laws of the state where the credit card operation was situated governed all fees and interest rates instead of banks having different fee structures and interest rates for customers in various states. So states such as South Dakota and Delaware made sure they had laws allowing annual fees and citibank moved its credit card operations for a while to South Dakota). The foreign transaction fee, indeed all fees regarding foreign purchases whether applied to the foreign currency conversion or any foreign transaction are simply ways to make money as foreign currency conversions are done by the network and foreign transaction fee are just plain greed. And of course the definition of a foreign transaction fee is another asinine interpretation. By British Airways tickets from a travel agency or indeed on the British Airways USA web site is a transaction that never leaves the USA (assuming your credit card is from the USA and denominated in US dollars) and charges a ftf. You get charged the fee as British Airways processes its credit card sales through a bank in Britain. Many consumers discover that the hard way when they buy 3 round trips using one of the Citi or Chase cards with the ftf of $800 each and see on their credit card statement a ftf of $72 and they blame the airline (or their travel agent if bought through a travel agency such as Orbitz or the like). Most of us here know the perils of using credit cards with ftf's for foreign airline tickets but a family making its first trip overseas probably doesn't.

Then of course, the lies by merchants trying to get you to agree to be a scamee of dcc. One of the liesis well you lock in the rate as the rate could change in the next couple of days (presuming the rate would become worse for the customers; of course it could also get better). And I've stood in the mall at Blarney Castle listening to the clerks pushing dcc on their unsuspecting customers urging them it is better to lock in the rate or tell them about fees that don't exist if they agree to dcc or tell them what a gret rate they're being given (which they compare to the posted bank rate for cash which of course is much much worse than the rate used by mc/visa. And sucker after sucker is taken in by it. Many years ago when I first ran into this garbage, another of the lies used when I refused to go along with the scam i.e. the clerk rang up the sales in USD without asking me was that the amount shown in USD was there as a courtesy that indeed I was being billed in punts (pre Euro). When I pointed out the statement on the salws slip (that I was offered the choice of paying in local currency and the converson rate is final), they switched tactics and told me they had no control over it that the terminal did it automatically and that sorry but it's too late (of course every terminal has to have provision for voiding a transaction; after all sometimes accidentally on purpose the wrong amount can be entered). Invariably this led to a disagreement, with calling over the manager who sometimes tried the same lies but more usually knew exactly how to void the transaction. At least in Ireland, there is no language problem (as I've yet to run into a prson in Ireland who doesn't speak English even though Gaelic might be the preferred language). But that problem is somewhat more apparent when they pull this garbage in Spain (France I can handle as I speak enough French).

However, if you ever read some of the literature, you will see how they consider dcc to be a service to the customers who now knows exactly how much something costs in a currency they understand. And how wonderful it is for somebody on an expense account n submitting his or her diary for reimbursment. And finally it is now dcc that's scamming the populace. It's a serve and it's the greedy banks who now charge the 3% ftf that are the scammers.