Some months ago those buying tickets from Cathay at CMB found themselves dealing with a GSA who added 3% for c/c payments. Does anyone have recent experience with this? Without a strong business relationship with one's bank, wire transfers from the U.S. are expensive, in particular "enjoying" exchange rates pretty far off mid-market.

Open an account at a credit union. Most CUs charge USD 20 for wire transfer fees and convert FX at true market+1% -- better than most banks. It does vary by CU but I'm quite happy with mine. Banks have taken to earning billions of dollars on fees for these kind of services, playing on consumers not realizing that they have alternatives.

Rumors to the contrary notwithstanding, the official word from our long-standing correspondent at Cathay/CMB is that there is not and has not been a 3% surcharge for credit card purchases. There is a LKR2100 fee (USD20, approx) courier fee to deliver the tickets (any number of them) from the CTO where the printers are to the airport. I'm not sure what the others paid, but I don't doubt they had a 3% item on their bill for something. $20 is nothing like 3% of USD7000+, obviously. But the lady has spoken. If there's a surcharge, it will be hidden in the taxes and fuel surcharges.

BTW, she's leaving CMB for Oz at the end of the month, although she assures me that we'll still have good hands to look after us.

When puchased our tickets out of CMB in March, the CX office very happily took my VISA card (US bank) without adding any fees. The TA I used a year ago for the DONE5 took me to the BA/QF sales agency where they did the same. (Exceeding the maximum input amount (2 tickets) for the credit card scanner was a different story).

I do suspect that small merchants (that includes some TAs) would not want to directly absorb the local bank fees if they can help it. What your bank in your home country adds (reportedly 3% in my case) for foreign currency transactions has been the topic of a number of threads elsewhere on FT.

Happy wandering.

Fred

FT'ers who spend significant amounts of money on international travel and prefer not to throw it around needlessly should be reminded again that 3% forex surcharges, while quite pervasive, are fairly trivial to avoid. Afaik one large bank, CapitalOne, still maintains a 1% surcharge on c/c charges. AFBA, an exquisitely friendly outfit, does likewise, and there are undoubtedly many more small banks like it. The "really big" banks help themselves to at least 3%. Amex gets panned for 2%, but might earn a little leeway because of the give-back of their mileage program. I convince myself it's okay to use them, even though the MR program has been practically useless to me.

Similarly, there are plenty of banks who allow free access to ATMs around the world, adding only 1%.

[quote]Similarly, there are plenty of banks who allow free access to ATMs around the world, adding only 1%. [endquote]

Yes I have discovered the friendly not-so neighborhood ATM machines - even in Sri Lanka And the exchange rate seems to be as good as VISA uses - albeit without the 3% fee added on afterwards

Alas it has been many years since the balances in my ATM accounts (even with advance planning) would support the deduction of 2 DONE5 tickets....

YMMV - Happy wandering

Fred

a) HSBC only charge GBP1.75 for ATM withdrawals and the exchange rate is fantastic.
b) James Finlay & Co. is, I understand, the GSA for CX in CMB. Given that Finlays is wholly owned by John Swire & Sons I guess this may not be a CMB specific issue.
c) "Special" fares cannot accept a card through BSP/ARC ticketing, therefore, the GSA has to charge you as CX are not taking payment on their behalf. Published fares, including RTW can be paid for with cards as CX acts as merchant and pays the GSA a fee through BSP/ARC.

CX used to charge 3% for credit card which is no longer the case. As mentioned by others, there is a courier fee if you want airport pick up.

The GSA is James Finlay (Colombo) Ltd. It is partially owned by James Finlay & Co. which in turn is owned by Swire. It has a number of large Sir Lankan shareholders. Shares are quoted in Colombo Stock Exchange. Not sure if any of these have to do with the 3% charge though.