28° 95¢ BPay fee

[serfty]

I simply have a fee free savings account. It's Quarantined having no linkages anywhere else - I just transfer the money in then tell Latitude to have their way with it - they won't get any more than what I put in.

 

[JohnK]

I seem to remember the banks used to levy a charge for cheques.

I think CBA charges for cheques but they waive the fee for me due to a bigh relationship balance from home loan and credit cards.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

If that's never happened to you, you are lucky, well done, but even though it only happens to me occasionally (the notorious late mini-bar charge for instance) I'd prefer to spend a few minutes checking the CC statement and then paying than go through the hassle of trying to get a non legitimate charge reversed. But each to their own.

I'm not sure this gives you any more time or makes any difference to being able to dispute a transaction. your statement is still generated at the same time, you still have a few weeks to check the statement before the direct debit kicks in.

 

[travelislife]

You may think differently, but I liken the direct debit method to offering a cashier my wallet so that they can take the money out. With BPay, I hand the cashier the payment.

Whether it's worth worrying about is up for debate, but I don't think I should have to let them into my bank account to pay.

I agree with your premise and don't have any recurring direct debits set up on my accounts for this reason. But in this case it is a once off direct debit of a dollar value set by you. Not an ongoing arrangement giving them access to your funds willy nilly.

 

[Austman]

Re: 28° Mastercard Cash Advances while overseas [No more free cash advances from 1/1/

If that's never happened to you, you are lucky, well done, but even though it only happens to me occasionally (the notorious late mini-bar charge for instance) I'd prefer to spend a few minutes checking the CC statement and then paying than go through the hassle of trying to get a non legitimate charge reversed. But each to their own.

Direct Debit is a true FF friend - for me at least.

I could never have been a FF without it! I have used direct debit (in several countries) for about 25 years without a single problem. I've simply been travelling too much to be at home to manage bills. It's probably easier now with so many e-statements.

But disputes are another matter. I still get the accounts and can dispute the amounts. I've never had a single issue with getting a charge-back from a hotel. Admittedly it's been less than 10 times in 25 years. But I don't see how that has much to do with Direct Debit.

 

[N860CR]

Re: 28° Mastercard Cash Advances while overseas [No more free cash advances from 1/1/

I ended up ditching this card and moved to the Coles Platinum Mastercard which advertises no international transaction fees.

For some reason, I am losing about 2% against the offical mastercard rate with this new Coles card so perhaps it's not as good as it's cracked up to be (oddly, it initially was ok, but all transactions in the last week are at poor rates)

 

[RooFlyer]

Re: 28° Mastercard Cash Advances while overseas [No more free cash advances from 1/1/

There's been a fair bit of volatility in the FX markets in the past week due to you-know-who winning the US election, and in those times FX providers will do their best to make sure they don't lose by increasing their margins. Hopefully will settle back for you shortly.

 

[N860CR]

That's true. I'd have thought it would just use the official MasterCard rate though. The rates have been 2-2.5% below

 

[Chicken]

Re: 28° Mastercard Cash Advances while overseas [No more free cash advances from 1/1/

I am losing about 2% against the offical mastercard rate with this new Coles card

I think this is normal? Per Coles MasterCard Conditions of Use"

"a cross-border assessment fee, set by MasterCard International Incorporated (the fee is equivalent to an additional 0.8%

a currency conversion assessment fee, set by MasterCard International Incorporated (the fee is equivalent to an additional 0.2%"

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Re: 28° Mastercard Cash Advances while overseas [No more free cash advances from 1/1/

I think this is normal? Per Coles MasterCard Conditions of Use"

"a cross-border assessment fee, set by MasterCard International Incorporated (the fee is equivalent to an additional 0.8%

a currency conversion assessment fee, set by MasterCard International Incorporated (the fee is equivalent to an additional 0.2%"

so no transaction fees but 'cross-border' and 'assessment' fees?

Geez. I'll stick with Citi and 28 degrees that are totally fee free

Actually I think these fees make the '[FONT=&quot]No international transaction fees on purchases – when you’re shopping online or when you’re overseas' [/FONT]claim misleading.

 

[N860CR]

Re: 28° Mastercard Cash Advances while overseas [No more free cash advances from 1/1/

I think this is normal? Per Coles MasterCard Conditions of Use"

"a cross-border assessment fee, set by MasterCard International Incorporated (the fee is equivalent to an additional 0.8%

a currency conversion assessment fee, set by MasterCard International Incorporated (the fee is equivalent to an additional 0.2%"

I thought they were included in the MasterCard rates? There's still a fair bit missing though. One of the transactions came on 2.5% under the MasterCard rate. Would have almost been better off just using my Amex!

 

[madrooster]

Re: 28° Mastercard Cash Advances while overseas [No more free cash advances from 1/1/

I think this is normal? Per Coles MasterCard Conditions of Use""a cross-border assessment fee, set by MasterCard International Incorporated (the fee is equivalent to an additional 0.8%a currency conversion assessment fee, set by MasterCard International Incorporated (the fee is equivalent to an additional 0.2%"

These fees appear in the Coles Mastercard conditions of use, but not in 28 Degrees. Both cards are issued by Latitude.

I have a foreign merchant facility and have just charged $10 USD and immediately refunded to a Bankwest World Mastercard, a Citibank visa debit and a Coles Rewards Mastercard in the same batch, which will ensure all 3 transactions settle simultaneously and thus use the same exchange rate.

The authorisations have showed up as:

Bankwest - $13.20 (Mastercard)
Coles - $13.20 (Mastercard)
Citibank - $13.30 (Visa)

I'll report back in a few days as to what ends up settling on each of the three cards. Any fees will be apparent at that point as the fees are only applied on settlement.

 

[N860CR]

Re: 28° Mastercard Cash Advances while overseas [No more free cash advances from 1/1

These fees appear in the Coles Mastercard conditions of use, but not in 28 Degrees. Both cards are issued by Latitude.

I have a foreign merchant facility and have just charged $10 USD and immediately refunded to a Bankwest World Mastercard, a Citibank visa debit and a Coles Rewards Mastercard in the same batch, which will ensure all 3 transactions settle simultaneously and thus use the same exchange rate.

The authorisations have showed up as:

Bankwest - $13.20 (Mastercard)
Coles - $13.20 (Mastercard)
Citibank - $13.30 (Visa)

I'll report back in a few days as to what ends up settling on each of the three cards. Any fees will be apparent at that point as the fees are only applied on settlement.

Great stuff! Looking forward to the result.

I just put through two 1USD purchased. Both Coles and 28 Degrees shows pending at 1.38AUD

 

[madrooster]

Re: 28° Mastercard Cash Advances while overseas [No more free cash advances from 1/1/

These fees appear in the Coles Mastercard conditions of use, but not in 28 Degrees. Both cards are issued by Latitude.

I have a foreign merchant facility and have just charged $10 USD and immediately refunded to a Bankwest World Mastercard, a Citibank visa debit and a Coles Rewards Mastercard in the same batch, which will ensure all 3 transactions settle simultaneously and thus use the same exchange rate.

The authorisations have showed up as:

Bankwest - $13.20 (Mastercard)
Coles - $13.20 (Mastercard)
Citibank - $13.30 (Visa)

I'll report back in a few days as to what ends up settling on each of the three cards. Any fees will be apparent at that point as the fees are only applied on settlement.

A precursor to the below results - Mastercard settles foreign transactions using the exchange rate on the date of settlement, however Visa settles foreign transactions using the exchange rate at the time of the transaction.

More info here: Why You Should Use A MasterCard When Traveling Internationally - One Mile at a Time

All 6 transactions (3 x charges, 3 x refunds) have settled overnight. As previously mentioned, the 6 transactions were batched at the merchant together on purpose to ensure the settlement happens simultaneously across all 3 cards.

The results:

Bankwest - $13.26 charge, $13.26 refund (Mastercard)
Coles - $13.26 charge, $13.26 refund (Mastercard)
Citibank - $13.30 charge, $13.21 refund (Visa) -- this is the effect of Visa settling the exchange rate at the time of the transaction

By no means does this result mean that Mastercard is necessarily better than Visa. If the exchange rate changes so that it is not in your favour between the transaction date and when the transaction settles, then Visa settling with the exchange rate at the time of the transaction will be more favourable.

For those of you getting charged extra fees at Coles (check your statement, it does break it down for foreign transactions), you may wish to check that you are on the Coles Rewards Mastercard. That is the only card that doesn't have the foreign transaction fees.

 

[N860CR]

Re: 28° Mastercard Cash Advances while overseas [No more free cash advances from 1/1/

Thanks for the info, that's really helpful.

Mine worked out in the end and it may have been a result of that. The pending transaction showed as $3804AUD but what subsequently settled was $3698AUD. If anything, the rate would have moved against me in the time between the transaction being made and it settling so I have no idea what happened. But it does seem to indicate that the Coles Rewards MC is roughly the same as everything else.