I finally got around to reading the small print in the notification of changes to Conditions of Use that I received early this month.
The definition of an International Transaction has been changed to:
International Transaction means any Transaction made using a Card:
a) in a currency other than Australian dollars with a merchant
or financial institution located in Australia, or
b) in Australian dollars or any other currency with a merchant
or financial institution located outside Australia.
I don't have access to the old definition, but I think the text I
bolded is new
The consequence as I see it, is that you can be double-charged the FX fee
- once by the overseas merchant/financial institution when it offers (and you accept) to convert the amount into AUD for you; and
- again by MacBank when it sees that it was a foreign merchant/financial institution
So I think the message is
- don't accept offers from overseas merchant/financial institutions to convert into AUD for you
- instead just let the transaction go through in the overseas currency, and MacBank will then charge you its FX fee when it converts into AUD