Booking using non American Credit Card
 

Hi,

Recently, I booked UA tickets through their 1K Desk (no fees) using my Australian CBA Platinum credit card & paid in A$'s. Two days later I was shocked to see a 3% International Transaction Fee (ITF) debited. So, I am looking for a way to avoid this bank fee for future bookings.

Has anyone purchased UA tickets from UA's Australian website (www.untiedairlines.com.au) or any non USA site? If so, and if you used an Australian (or your country's) credit card, were you charged the 3% ITF? So, it seems that if UA processes the transaction in Australia (or in your non USA country) no ITF is incurred. Is this correct?

I have USA credit cards & a USA address so I could purchase the tickets using that method. However, I need to deposit funds in US$'s into my USA credit card to cover the purchase & I will therefore incur the currency conversion fee of approx 4%. I cant win!

john

This will depend on your card, and not United. Some will charge for all fees in foreign currencies, others will charge for all fees processed offshore, regardless of payment currency.

Edit: and of course, others won't have foreign transaction fees at all, which you should use whenever possible

Use bog standard ANZ Visa when booking through .com.au.
The ausdol price I agree to on the UA web site is what I get charged.
No fees.

The issue is both with UA and with your choice of card provider

United Proccess the charges in AUD using a bank in the USA
I have personally raised a complaint with the ACCC over UA doing this as under my interpretation of Australian regulations they need to be using a local bank to process the payments as they have a local presence in australia

They changed the processing to use a US bank shortly after they merged with CO a few years ago.

Your specific bank CBA (Same one who issued my Diamond CC) has chosen to implement Forex fee's on charges in AUD setteled by a foreign bank. CBA did this to maintain an income stream as did a number of other Aus banks after a large number of merchants started offering to charge in AUD instead of the local currency.

Other Australian Banks do not have this charge
E.g My other account is with Teachers Mutual Bank and there is no forex fee's on any charges (local or charges in other currencies) using them

You should make a complaint to CBA over the fee (it was only implemented in october last year) and explain the situation and they will generally waive the first charge of this type that hit you. (Did for me)

There are lots of other banking options for Aus and they are well discussed on whirlpool and the CC section of this forum.

RE using the USA credit card
If the flights are EX sydney, if the billing address is set to USA instead of AUS... there can be frustrating differences in fare class availability that make the tickets artifically more expensive. it can be as high as a 40%+ difference in price and not in your favor.

IME, some foreign carriers quote me the price in local currency. At the payment page, it gives me the option to pay in local currency or USD. I always choose to pay in local currency. Because to pay in USD, they always use less favorable exchange rate or has FX built in. And my credit cards do not charge FX.

Like everything else in travel these days, it is very complicated as others above have indicated.

I always check prices with Australian and USA billing addresses, and use a USA credit card for bookings on the US site, and use paypal (backed by the same USA card) for Australian POS (point of sale) tickets. This gives me the best of both worlds. Interestingly enough, the paypal charge on the credit card usually comes through with the name of the airline, United Paypal or similar, and is earns credit card points as a ticket purchase.

I am sure similar games can be played with Australian CC's, to avoid the overseas charges and get best pricing.

Agreed. Here is an example from the Canadian website charged to a Canadian Amex. You can see the merchant address shows a postal code in Canada. Maybe for some countries the transaction is still processed in the US?

The typical terms for these two are "foreign exchange fee" and "foreign transaction fee". Both are unwarranted and really should be banned worldwide.