Flight booking sites with Australian transactions

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brucebrad

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My credit card (Citi visa signature) now charges extra fees for transactions with entities based outside Australia (even if in AU dollars). I think this is becoming more common. Is there a list of which flight booking sites use AU transactions. I presume this essentially means the bank they put their credit cards through. For example, I note that the Thai airways Australian site has a pop-up saying they use an overseas transaction site.

What about the general sites? Eg. Expedia.com.au, skiddoo.com.au etc?

PS I do also have a 28 degrees card which doesn't have these fees, but I want to take advantage of the citi travel insurance.
 
PS I do also have a 28 degrees card which doesn't have these fees, but I want to take advantage of the citi travel insurance.

You could consider replacing your 28 Degrees with the Bankwest Zero Platinum MasterCard, which similarly has no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees on online or overseas purchases.

But it also includes complimentary travel insurance (you'd need to check if the policy suits your requirements), and has none of the 28D's payment shenanigans (i.e. fee to pay via BPay and issues with the online payment portal).

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....cash-advances-while-6960-175.html#post1577556
 
Is there a list of which flight booking sites use AU transactions. .
Such a list would be impossible to maintain, and any company could change the way they process transactions for the good or the bad. and dont forget the bank scammers will now charge us the foreign fees when the "merchant is overseas" even if the charge is processed in australia and with australian dollars.

we punters are just going to suck it up and pay the 3% or get a credit card that doesnt charge this, like AMEX, ANZ Travellers, or the Bankwest.

i have noticed that some of the travel aggregators have not been attracting the 'fee' for now.
 
Yes, I suppose this could always change: Anyway for the record, last week Skiddoo told me they process through an Australian bank.
 
I have Cba black.
Reasonable free travel insurance ( read PDFs and queried a few things then decided it suited my needs).
Need to activate for best insurance coverage. Again very easy to do.
No travel spend on card required.

I have blocked international transactions on this card (simple to do on site or app).

I have booked through Expedia.com.au. Takes a little time to process as they tried to charge from overseas but this was rejected due to my settings mentioned above. Payment then processed as Australian transaction with no intervention by me.
 
I've booked with zuji and they used AU transaction. not sure if they still do it now.
 
Really hate websites that show AU$ but transact in a different currency and then you get slugged OS transaction fees

In this instance I have in the lodged a query with the bank and been refunded the OS transaction fee ... on principle

I am aware of people that have transacted on a .com.au and .com website and believed the price shown was AU$ but when it appeared on CC statement was US$, have been refunded the difference between the 2 currencies
 
Really hate websites that show AU$ but transact in a different currency and then you get slugged OS transaction fees

In this instance I have in the lodged a query with the bank and been refunded the OS transaction fee ... on principle

I am aware of people that have transacted on a .com.au and .com website and believed the price shown was AU$ but when it appeared on CC statement was US$, have been refunded the difference between the 2 currencies

i echo the sentiments. An "Aussie" website, I would expect to process via an Australian bank in $A.

Like Thai, Qantas transfer you another host site with very clear message you will be charged in the local currency ($NZ, $US, Euro etc). As the merchant, they hold no further obligation.

ive not been pinged that issue mentioned with Expedia.com.au. Were it the Brazil version sure, given what the pricing was, a 3% on a significant saving is neither here nor there.

Having taken advantage of a few, "do you want to pay in Aussie dollars?" on my last trip away in 2014, the banks here were then missing out on the double dip so changed the deal....

someone mentioned the lock lock block limit. Forgot I had it on and was at a Brussels bank. Damn that ATM for not giving out money. D'oh.....
 
You could consider replacing your 28 Degrees with the Bankwest Zero Platinum MasterCard, which similarly has no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees on online or overseas purchases.

But it also includes complimentary travel insurance (you'd need to check if the policy suits your requirements), and has none of the 28D's payment shenanigans (i.e. fee to pay via BPay and issues with the online payment portal).

Thanks for that suggestion - probably one of the better suggestions and not just a defeatist 'suck it up' attitude. Some of the other posters are correct in that it would be difficult (but not impossible) to put together a list of Flight Booking Sites that appear to charge in AUD (because they have foreign merchant banks people get 'ambushed' by the Forex fees), two main variables are the card/bank that the customer uses and the flight booking site name and location.

I would think that rather than one person going through every agregator and buying airfares and finding out 'the hard way' - it would be possible to put together a matrix and let contributors on the site populate the data as they book fares on different sites with different cards over time, understand that flight booking sites may change their merchants without notification but at least this way the changes would be picked up fairly quickly. Pretty time consuming to summarize and validate in a matrix but maybe could be looked at by AFF as some sort of value add? Or let a thread run as a sticky over time and then could be summarized and even put in members only? Is this something that people are prepared to pay for?

Seems there is a demand for a "Which flight booking sites disclose/don't disclose their sneaky overseas merchant facilities and enable the Forex fee on credit cards" and a demand for "I want a decent credit card that I can use on overseas web sites without getting whacked by secretive forex fees"

Two different approaches from the flight booking web site end and the customers credit card end.

I have Cba black.
Reasonable free travel insurance ( read PDFs and queried a few things then decided it suited my needs).
Need to activate for best insurance coverage. Again very easy to do.
No travel spend on card required.

I have blocked international transactions on this card (simple to do on site or app).

I have booked through Expedia.com.au. Takes a little time to process as they tried to charge from overseas but this was rejected due to my settings mentioned above. Payment then processed as Australian transaction with no intervention by me.

That was an imaginative solution to the problem - in that case expedia are in the position where they have to accept credit cards and honour the bookings made, but because of the foreign merchant forex shennanigans they then presumably had to run the transaction through an australian merchant bank? Obviously not a solution for everyone, especially if you did want to use the card overseas but a legitimate solution nevertheless....

Short of regulatory intervention, the idea of many customers coming together and sharing information seems a viable method to 'defeat' these undisclosed overseas merchant/forex fee transactions that banks seem to love so much.

Customers sharing information also helps competative tension between the flight booking sites, and provides competative tension between different australian credit card issuers and discourages cartel-like behavior.
 
What i'd like to know is what justification the local banks have in terms of charging the forex fee if another entity has already done the conversion.

the RBA says these kind of fees are for cost recovery, not to make a profit eg the airlines were pinged and had to change their CC fee structure.

may require a complaint to the ACCC or Banking ombudsman to see what the legality is.
 
That every extra mile involves sending an Australian search party to find your transactions

(especially whenover Easter penalty rates apply to go on an Easter Egg Hunt).

Perhaps they could save costs if they sent the Filipino or Indian call centre staff instead...
 
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