Foreign exchange fee
 

We booked our hotel in Venice online through otel.com.
When I look at my BofA statement I see the foreign transaction fee (which I was expecting). But there is a finance fee as well. When I called BofA regarding this charge they said it was because the company ran it as a cash withdrawal. WHAT?? Can they do that?? How do I prevent other companies from doing this when I actually get to Europe??

They shouldn't be able to run it as a cash withdrawal unless you gave them your pin number. Did you do so? If not, challenge it witht he bank - since you didn't authorize it.

If you did - now you know never to give a pin number unless you want it to be a cash withdrawal.

Wait a minute. Maybe I'm slow today, but I don't get it. You did this online from home? You were using an ATM/debit card or a credit card? I've never used my BofA atm/debit card for purchases or online deposits, but somehow this sounds more like a credit card transaction than a debit card transaction. no?

NP - They ran it as a cash advance on the credit card.

A merchant might do that to avoid credit card fees to them. Or it might have been a mistake - I would think your PIN would be necessary though. Not totally sure about that.

I know this can be different here in Spain, but I've made online purchases both with my credit and debit cards and I've never been asked for my PIN (which they have for ATM/cashier purposes)not charged any fee that was not announced on the website where I did the purchases.

A Bank of America employee told me that a cash advance without a PIN is virtually impossible.

If it happened without a PIN, I think a bank official would like to know how and when it happened because that is not policy.

I don't know my credit card pin, so right now I could not get a cash advance were I to need one. I just hope that contingency never arises.

HMMM. No, I don't think they would need your pin number, but this is just like AAA. If you use a credit card to buy TC's there, despite it looking like any other credit card charge, it does go through as a "cash advance" and you are charged that finance fee. It happened to me even though the clerk taking it insisted she does nothing different than she does if you make a purchase like luggage there. Somehow it still gets charged as a cash advance because it really is just that, and there was no pin given.

How that happens with a hotel in Europe, I have no idea, but apparently the same way.

Some other strange credit card behavior with Otel has been reported on FlyerTalk. I would tell BoA you did not authorize a cash withdrawal, get a refund, and then book the hotel somewhere else (if this is all possible).

NP..AAA changed that about a year ago. I would always get some TC's from them and charge to their card and take with me for travel emergency...never needed them, Upon return would just deposit them and pay the statment when it arrived. It was a good way to have gthe emergency funds, using their money!! They sent out a letter saying that from whatever date..about last May...that they would be charged as a cash advance and you would be paying interest on them from the date you bought them!!

Slightly off topic:

When I go grocery shopping here in the US, I always use my Credit Card to pay. But the cashier asks me every single time, "Debit or Credit?"

If it's a Credit card, shouldn't it be Credit automatically?

If I say "debit" does that mean it'll be billed as a cash advance???

I also notice that some grocery stores have the card machine for you to swipe the card. AFter I swipe the Credit card, I still have to punch the key if I want Credit or Debit.

What if I punched the wrong key by mistake and punched Debit? Will that be cash advance too?

I don't understand the "option" of debit on a credit card. Can someone explain it to me? Why would one deliberately choose debit on their CC?

Hmmm. It's been considerably longer ago than that I did it (late 2006 I'd say), getting apartment deposit TCs to send to Europe, and at the time I even questioned them about it, because others here had reported that they did that. But when the clerk was puzzled and insisted she runs it through just like any other purchase I bit.

This is a credit card not debit. NO i would never give my PIN out. I had no idea it would be a cash withdrawl.

I will a different interpretation here.

Were you aware that B of A adds 3% to all foreign currency credit card transactions? The 3% charge is shown as a separate line item on your credit card statement.

If the amount listed is 3% of the original charge, that is simply the normal fee that B of A assesses all charges involving currency conversions.

Given the low level of knowledge that I encounter when discussing foreign transactions with B of A employees, I would not be surprised at any misinformation you probably received.

As a general rule, I am appalled at the paucity of knowledge about international banking that appears to be the norm among most B of A employees. So I would not be surprised at anything a B of A person might have told you.

I recall one famous incident when I was asking about sending a payment to Canada. The response: Just write a check. Canadians use dollars just like we do.

The charge you cited is also one reason I use a Capital One card when I am making a transaction outside of the USA.

When making a European transaction, my B of A credit card stays out of sight. I have with me "just in case", but "just in case" has yet to happen.

bob, I don't disagree with anything you say here, but in this case this isn't BofA thing at all. If a transaction is done as a "cash advance" at the point of receiving the money, then it will have a finance fee. Even Capital One which doesn't charge a conversion fee will charge you a fee for a cash advance.

I just sent this notice to BofA and otel.com. I know it is only $6.10 but it is the principle of the matter. I just want to save someone else the hassle and I want to know how to avoid this charge in the future.
"We booked a hotel through otel.com. We were charged the amount we were told plus a $6.10 foreign exchange fee. I am fine with both of those transactions. We were also charged a $6.10 finance charge. When I called you earlier today (bofa) I was told it was because the transaction was a cash withdrawal not a credit transaction. How was this done since it is a credit card not a debit card?? I gave no one a PIN. I don't even know my PIN because I do not take cash advances. This should have been run as a credit card transaction."

Check my post on Flyertalk. Paid OTEL with my AMEX in November for a June trip. They processed it immediately as I expected, but a few weeks ago, they said they had trouble with their AMEX account, so they ask me for another $420 to be charged on Mastecard. Said if I didn't pay second time, they would cancel my reservation. Told them to give me a credit for the AMEX first. They said they couldn't. Told them I wasn't crazy enough to pay a second time. Called AMEX, but since the charge was 6 months old, they said they couldn't give me my money back either.Doubt if I ever will see a refund. BEWARE, I THINK OTEL HAS PROBLEMS.

I realize that full well NP. I think it is a B of A matter because that is the bank in question.

My point is that the 3% B of A credit card fee shows up on B of A statements as a separate line item, distinct and separate from the basic charge itself.

If kmadsen called B of A and asked what the extra charge was for, the response could have been anything but correct. I have dealt with too many B of A employees who did not know the answers to my questions to accept without question anything one of them tells me about international transactions and foreign money card use.

If Kmadsen will take the basic converted charge on the credit ard bill, multiply it by .03, and see if that amount corresponds to the charge on the credit statement then the answer will be apparent.

If the extra charge is indeed a cash advance that was made without PIN information, then the security folks at B of A need to know how and when this transaction took place because I have always been told that it is not B of A policy to process a cash advance with pin authorization regardless of the source.

I think you failed to realize the alternative explanation I advanced as a possibility: That a B of A employee gave a wrong answer, i.e. the charge is NOT a cash advance fee but a 3% foreign conversion fee.

Without more facts none of us can explain the situation satisfactorily. Until I learn something not revealed in the original post, such as the exact dollar figures involved, my bet is that the charge is the usual 3% fee levied by B of A on foreign currency transactions.

I know from my own credit card statements that the 3% fee is listed separately from the amount of the converted transaction.

Even the add-ons for ATM transactions appear as separate line items on my checking account statement. I got nailed in Switzerland last summer when my credit union debit card failed at every Swiss bank. The 1% fee and the $5.00 off-net fee both appeared separately.

This year while in Europe I hope my B of A plastic of all descriptions never sees the light of day.

It does sound like otel is just calling it cash, that's all. Maybe there is something funny about this because otel isn't really a hotel, right? It's just a booking agency, so maybe what you are paying to them really is just cash, not a purchase.

Being charged a cash advance fee from AAA for buying TCs isn't unfair, that's exactly what you are buying -- money.

i'm aware that some US card issuers consider the foreign transaction fee as a finance charge. for example, citibank has a 3% foreign transaction fee that is billed as a finance charge.

"Without more facts none of us can explain the situation satisfactorily. Until I learn something not revealed in the original post, such as the exact dollar figures involved, my bet is that the charge is the usual 3% fee levied by B of A on foreign currency transactions."

huh? You mean then that they accidentally charged it twice? Because there was already such a charge for the foreign currency conversion and this was a second charge.
Or maybe you just need to read the later posts, where the exact amounts WERE given?

But of course, you are very right about many bank people not having a clue what they are talking about.