This may be a little OT, but I have a question about how much card associations collect Foreign Transaction Fee.
Up to this point, my understanding has been that of a Washington Post's article in July 2005:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2900927_2.html
This past April, Visa began adding a 1 percent fee onto any foreign transaction, whether dynamically converted to dollars or charged in local currency. But then in June, it suddenly rescinded the move, and went back to the previous policy of charging a 1 percent fee only on transactions made in foreign currency. In a statement, Visa said it made the change to "address issues raised by cardholders, merchants, and member financial institutions." In other words, almost everybody was upset. The company is "now reviewing the fee structure related to single-currency cross-border transactions," according to Rhonda Bentz, Visa's vice president of public affairs.
MasterCard currently charges 1 percent on foreign currency transactions only, but has announced that, in October, it will switch to charging 0.8 percent for all foreign transactions, with an additional 0.2 percent fee for transactions made in foreign currency.
Hong Kong banks have started to add FTFs for HKD transactions. Previously I
reported how Citi HK charged 0.4% FTF claiming AE charged it but AE HK denied this.
Recently we got the following claims for Visa:
Bank of East Asia
http://www.hongkongcard.com/webedito...2002_25906.jpg
"Effective from 30th June, 2015
0.8% per transaction for Hong Kong dollar transactions made outside of Hong Kong or with any merchant not registered in Hong Kong (e.g. internet transaction).
This fee is charged by Visa/Mastercard"
Bank of China (Hong Kong)
http://www.boci.com.hk/pdf/eng/spec/...201501_eng.pdf
"All VISA card transaction in Hong Kong Dollars incurred outside Hong Kong will be imposed a reimbursement charge of
0.8% on the transaction amount (the charge is levied by VISA) which will be debited to the card account."
Fubon Bank (Hong Kong)
http://www.fubonbank.com.hk/web/doc/...ce150305_e.pdf
"Surcharge on Cross Border Transactions in Hong Kong Dollars - including transactions made outside Hong Kong or with any merchant not registered in Hong Kong (e.g. internet transaction)
A 1% mark-up on the converted transaction amount in Hong Kong Dollars (inclusive of the
0.8%/1% surcharge charged by VISA/MasterCard respectively"
I'm curious - does Visa really charge 0.8%? Or is Bank of East Asia/Bank of China/Fubon making this up just because they can pass Mastercard's fee for Visa's.
Also in Fubon's case has Mastercard increased its fee to 1%?