Received a bill after replacement credit card sent to overseas address

[Mattg]

I'm currently in Europe, and shortly after I arrived, I had to get my credit card blocked due to suspicious transactions that appeared on my account. Bankwest sent a replacement credit card to the address where I was staying in the Netherlands and it arrived about a week later - so far, so good.

Yesterday, I received a bill in Dutch from FedEx to that same address for €5.13 (around ~$8). The bill was in my name, and the reference was marked as "Bankwest".

I called Bankwest and they knew nothing about it. So I did some more research, and it looks like somehow FedEx has paid a customs duty to the Dutch government of €0.13, and then added a €5 administration fee and sent me the bill for this.

My first thought was that this was a scam, but after doing some more research it seems this was a "legitimate" bill and the bank account details provided for the payment are actually for FedEx. So I just paid it. But I was wondering if anyone else has seen this before?

BTW, here's some info about this that I found:

What to be aware of when receiving parcels from private individuals abroad

Customs Administration of the Netherlands for individuals. Do you receive goods from abroad from a private indivual? Read more...

www.belastingdienst.nl

FedEx | System Down

 

[oz_mark]

Not that, but I know people overseas that were hit up for import duty on the free gift that Accor sometimes send members.

 

[Lynda2475]

Can you claim this back on the travel insurance included on the card (assuming it has some)? I would however expect the bank to reimburse you, they really should pre-pay any expected duties for supplying replacement card.

 

[Mattg]

Can you claim this back on the travel insurance included on the card (assuming it has some)? I would however expect the bank to reimburse you, they really should pre-pay any expected duties for supplying replacement card.

What does it have to do with travel insurance, though? The reason for needing a new card was unrelated to my travel - I just happened to be overseas when someone made a bunch of AU gambling transactions from my card.

In any case, the bill was about $8 and my travel insurance excess is $100.

I agree that Bankwest probably should have paid this, but I don't think they foresaw this and knew nothing about it when I called them.

 

[one9]

This sounds like a peculiarity of the Netherlands. Bankwest likely wouldn't know about it as there would be few cards sent there. 99% of countries that Bankwest send cards to (commercial value $1-$5) would attract no custom fees. In my opinion, the smart decision would be to either pay it or ignore it and not waste your time trying to get Bankwest to understand the issue.

 

[kpc]

What would happen if you didn't pay FedEx and ignored the bill?

 

[Mattg]

What would happen if you didn't pay FedEx and ignored the bill?

According to the bill, the amount owing would increase over time if I didn't pay by the due date (which was the day after my friend who lives at that address received the letter).

But realistically, what would they do? No idea. For the sake of $8, I don't really want to find out.

 

[theblank]

But realistically, what would they do? No idea. For the sake of $8, I don't really want to find out.

the would send reminders to that address in Netherlands. Your freind would send them bank with a note "left address, forwarding address unknown" and Fedex woudl write it off because its not worth spending money pursuing an 8 euro debt from someone they cant find