Just noticed about a month ago that I started getting charged an “international transaction fee” for some purchases in Australian dollars, by the Commonwealth Bank. I spoke to them and they said they only started doing this in August 2016 because all the credit card providers started charging this fee.
My main issue with this, is there is usually no way to tell when a seller’s account is located overseas before the transaction. These hidden fees are really starting to get annoying when you pay via Paypal in AUD for an item on ebay AU and the item is located in Australia, only to find out the seller’s bank account is foreign, but in Australian dollars!
Firstly, how is this not misleading (and or deceptive conduct) when there is no way for us as consumers to ascertain the location of the seller’s bank account? Secondly, why should the onus be on us as consumers to deal with this when we are not even warned of the fee before the sale? Surely this would go against Australian Consumer Law, regarding undisclosed fees and charges.
The most annoying instance of this I’ve suffered so far is paying for Facebook Ads, being charged an intl transaction fee because their account is in Ireland but still in AUD. We are literally paying a fee just so they can avoid paying tax in Australia! WTF!