PhilT
2 February 2024 04:18
15
The credit card systems are somewhat ‘above’ our banks. Our banks are among the most profitable in the world for a reason.
CHOICE is looking into the issue of banks applying very high exchange rate margins when it comes to foreign transactions - both in the case of checks from foreign banks being deposited in AU banks and overseas money transfers to AU banks. Have you or someone you know been ripped-off by your bank on exchange rates?
Issuing the branded cards requires the banks to agree to use their respective conversion rates, not their own, unless a consumer accepts what is a con.
I know of the issues with Dynamic Currency Conversion re: Cruise Ships/Overseas ATM’s etc (where the EFTPOS machine asks you if you want to be billed in your own currency based on the card issuer AUD$ and suffer exorbitant rip-off on forex fees), but have recently noticed it happening involuntary on shopping websites. One website in the E.U. I thought it might have been my mistake the first time, but the second time I was explicitly careful to select EUR € instead of DNS default AUD $ as my card…
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