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Viking Foreign Trans Fee


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I've sailed or booked four Viking Ocean and River Cruises. I made a downpayment on another Viking Ocean cruise with my usual American credit card and my credit card invoice has a foreign trans fee levied by Viking. This is my first time with this fee but it was followed by another fee when I paid for an excursion with the same card. Both charges were in $$ and the bill was in $$. My TA contacted Viking who indicated they could refund the charge with documentation as the transaction went through Switzerland.

 

Anyone else have this issue and does it reflect a policy change by Viking?

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Are you sure this was a fee added by Viking? It sounds like they processed the payment through a bank in Switzerland, so your American bank added the fee ["foreign transaction fee"]. You should get a card that doesn't charge this fee to use on your travels, and then if you use it for cruise payments you won't have to worry.

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You raised my curiousity. I paid $100.00 deviation fee last week with visa credit card . I looked just now and my cc statement reflects $100.80 " viking river Basel". The updated statement I got from my TA the same day only shows $100.00 added to my cruise invoice?

So did my credit card add the .80cents?

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You raised my curiousity. I paid $100.00 deviation fee last week with visa credit card . I looked just now and my cc statement reflects $100.80 " viking river Basel". The updated statement I got from my TA the same day only shows $100.00 added to my cruise invoice?

So did my credit card add the .80cents?

 

Very probably. Talk to your credit card company. Maybe you can convince them to reverse it but probably not. Ditto Jazzbeau's suggestion of using a credit card that does not charge a foreign transaction fee or percentage when booking on Viking.

 

Quoting from Viking's Terms and Conditions (lots of other good stuff here, too):

Payments

 

 

Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, checks and Electronic Funds Transfer are all acceptable forms of payments. All payments made by check should be made payable to Viking Cruises. Some credit card companies may impose a “Foreign Transaction Fee” even though your transaction is denominated in U.S. dollars. This is an arbitrary fee that occurs in a small number of cases and accrues entirely to the credit card–issuing bank. Viking does not control these bank-imposed fees nor does Viking derive any benefit from them, monetary or otherwise; we are therefore unable to accept responsibility for the fees.

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We always request that charges be processed in the currency originally quoted ( i.e. Euros on river cruises and at hotels and restaurants. This avoids one level of "surcharge", since the original vendor doesn't make extra profit on the conversion.

P.S. Our bank does not charge a foreign transaction fee.

We NEVER ask "how much is that in American", since we're not buying in America!

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We always request that charges be processed in the currency originally quoted ( i.e. Euros on river cruises and at hotels and restaurants. This avoids one level of "surcharge", since the original vendor doesn't make extra profit on the conversion.

P.S. Our bank does not charge a foreign transaction fee.

We NEVER ask "how much is that in American", since we're not buying in America!

 

That is very true when we are actually traveling abroad but in this case we are talking about the payments made to Viking to pay for our cruises and so we are paying in the United States and in dollars and we don't expect our banks to be adding any sort of foreign transaction fee. If we had known, we would have used a different credit card for the transaction in the first place.

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That is very true when we are actually traveling abroad but in this case we are talking about the payments made to Viking to pay for our cruises and so we are paying in the United States and in dollars and we don't expect our banks to be adding any sort of foreign transaction fee. If we had known, we would have used a different credit card for the transaction in the first place.

 

This has come up several times in the Oceania forum, as apparently they process through a foreign bank even though the customer is in the US and is paying in USD. I always use a no-foreign-fee credit card when dealing with cruise lines.

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Another idea you might consider especially if your credit card is associated with your bank or credit union. Transfer the money you need from you credit card account to your checking account. And then pay Viking with an electronic transfer of funds. Viking will reduce your payment by 3.3%. That's what I do. For some reason this option is not available for excursions. At least it wasn't last year.

 

 

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Another idea you might consider especially if your credit card is associated with your bank or credit union. Transfer the money you need from you credit card account to your checking account. And then pay Viking with an electronic transfer of funds. Viking will reduce your payment by 3.3%. That's what I do. For some reason this option is not available for excursions. At least it wasn't last year.

 

 

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Sorry, CT, but with these instructions, all I am seeing is red flags. If you are paying Viking with an electronic transfer of funds, why should you transfer money from your credit card account? Doesn't that incur a fee and interest for making a cash advance, which will be in excess of what you save? Why not just take the cash from your savings account? I don't see the advantage and I see plenty of potential hazards.

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Sorry, CT, but with these instructions, all I am seeing is red flags. If you are paying Viking with an electronic transfer of funds, why should you transfer money from your credit card account? Doesn't that incur a fee and interest for making a cash advance, which will be in excess of what you save? Why not just take the cash from your savings account? I don't see the advantage and I see plenty of potential hazards.

 

 

I can transfer from either savings or credit card or both. It's always a bit of a tossup as to which makes more sense. Do I borrow from myself totally (savings) and set up a schedule to pay myself back? Or set myself up for possibly paying interest? There is no cash advance fee because it's not counted as such; treated no different than if I used the card at a store. Actually I do a mixture of both. And then set up a schedule to autotransfer money back to savings and force myself to pay the credit card account even faster (it's all done online). Benefit of a credit union where I'm treated as a member vice a bank that treats me like a mere source of revenue. [emoji846]

 

 

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I can transfer from either savings or credit card or both. It's always a bit of a tossup as to which makes more sense. Do I borrow from myself totally (savings) and set up a schedule to pay myself back? Or set myself up for possibly paying interest? There is no cash advance fee because it's not counted as such; treated no different than if I used the card at a store. Actually I do a mixture of both. And then set up a schedule to autotransfer money back to savings and force myself to pay the credit card account even faster (it's all done online). Benefit of a credit union where I'm treated as a member vice a bank that treats me like a mere source of revenue. [emoji846]

 

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I didn't understand why you said you borrow from yourself? You pay for the cruise, you don't borrow, you just spend the money and save 3.3% doing it via check

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I didn't understand why you said you borrow from yourself? You pay for the cruise, you don't borrow, you just spend the money and save 3.3% doing it via check

 

 

"Borrow" in the sense that I "borrow" money from my own savings account to put into checking (and take a hit in the form of lost interest on my savings but with interest being so low right now the "loss" is really not that significant). As opposed to truly borrowing money when I use my credit card account and pay interest. But what I like is the 3.3% that is significantly more than the interest I earn on my savings account.

 

It's a terminology I picked up from my Dad when he told me many years ago about going to the bank to talk about borrowing money for a car. This would have been in the mid 1950s/early 60s. The bank officer - after looking at Dad's savings account balance - was the one who advised him rather than borrowing from the bank just "borrow from" himself - from his savings account - and then pay himself back over time.

 

 

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I can transfer from either savings or credit card or both. It's always a bit of a tossup as to which makes more sense. Do I borrow from myself totally (savings) and set up a schedule to pay myself back? Or set myself up for possibly paying interest? There is no cash advance fee because it's not counted as such; treated no different than if I used the card at a store. Actually I do a mixture of both. And then set up a schedule to autotransfer money back to savings and force myself to pay the credit card account even faster (it's all done online). Benefit of a credit union where I'm treated as a member vice a bank that treats me like a mere source of revenue. [emoji846]

 

 

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CT, I'm still confused. I guess I don't understand exactly what the nature of your 'credit card account' is. At my credit union, I can have three kinds of accounts: checking, savings and money market. They hold my assets (aka, my cash) and I can use my ATM/debit card to access my money in any one of those accounts either to get cash at an ATM or to pay for a retail transaction at a point of sale (it simply depletes my cash holding). My credit cards, which are liabilities (because they use the issuers cash to pay for my transactions) are issued by other banks. So, I guess what it comes down to is that I don't understand how you can borrow from your 'credit card account' without paying at least interest if not fees as well to your bank because using a credit card is actually taking a small loan from the issuing bank--and at very high rates, too.

 

Since the credit card account that you have does not seem to be the traditional credit card account that most of us have (one that charges fees and interest for cash advances), it would not be inadvisable for most of us to use our credit card accounts in the way that you suggest--especially not without understand what fees and interest might be involved.

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Ah. I thought I made it clear. Guess I didn't. Everything is under the umbrella of my credit union - savings, checking, money market, CDs, and CC (issued by the CU). The CC account is just another CU account, managed thru the CU web site and charges quite a low interest too -8.5%.

 

 

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What this discussion has missed is that by paying via electronic transfer you are giving up the protections that come with a credit card. Since I get 2% back from my credit card, the Viking bonus is only 1.3% to me. I'd rather have the CC bank standing with me if there are problems.

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Ah. I thought I made it clear. Guess I didn't. Everything is under the umbrella of my credit union - savings, checking, money market, CDs, and CC (issued by the CU). The CC account is just another CU account, managed thru the CU web site and charges quite a low interest too -8.5%.

 

 

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Okay, now I get it. It is a regular credit card and there are fees and/or interest charges involved when you transfer cash from it into your checking account. Incurring even an 8.5% hit to save 3.3% does not work for me; the only winner in that transaction is the bank.

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Okay, now I get it. It is a regular credit card and there are fees and/or interest charges involved when you transfer cash from it into your checking account. Incurring even an 8.5% hit to save 3.3% does not work for me; the only winner in that transaction is the bank.

 

 

If I pay it off quickly not too bad. Remember that I used a mix of savings (most) and the CC (much less). May change my mind & pay it off from savings before interest gets charged. In fact, given the way you've laid it out vis-a-vis 8.5 vs 3.3, I may actually do that. [emoji4]

 

Just paid for our Panama cruise last week. Working with one CU gives me that flexibility.

 

 

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If I pay it off quickly not too bad. Remember that I used a mix of savings (most) and the CC (much less). May change my mind & pay it off from savings before interest gets charged. In fact, given the way you've laid it out vis-a-vis 8.5 vs 3.3, I may actually do that. [emoji4]

 

Just paid for our Panama cruise last week. Working with one CU gives me that flexibility.

 

 

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I have been following your posts about credit union. I paid for my cruise by electronic transfer and saved 3.3 % .Just moved mony from savings to checking with stroke on my keyboard. I also have credit card beyond my check card which is 8% fix rate. I do all my banking on line and love being part of a credit union. So friendly and easy to deal with online and in person.

the .80 cents fee on my deviation is not a issue .

I just thought I was paying Viking in Califronia ,not Basel Swtizerland. But it makes sense. Viking is not a US cruise line.

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I have been following your posts about credit union. I paid for my cruise by electronic transfer and saved 3.3 % .Just moved money from savings to checking with stroke on my keyboard. I also have credit card beyond my check card which is 8% fix rate. I do all my banking on line and love being part of a credit union. So friendly and easy to deal with online and in person.

the .80 cents fee on my deviation is not a issue .

I just thought I was paying Viking in California ,not Basel Switzerland. But it makes sense. Viking is not a US cruise line.

 

Eighty cents here and eighty cents there adds up to a hefty amount of additional income for the credit card companies for transactions that they are already collecting a couple of percent for processing. I am quite happy to give my business to the credit card companies that don't charge foreign transaction fees.

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I really like the way officers on Azamara treat me as a friend. I don't need that from my bank -- just treat me honestly and give me the best deal in the industry. Charles Schwab Bank does that.

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I really like the way officers on Azamara treat me as a friend. I don't need that from my bank -- just treat me honestly and give me the best deal in the industry. Charles Schwab Bank does that.

"Different strokes for different folks." I support local business every chance I get. My credit union started out for NWA employees years ago , now the biggest in tthe state, Wings.

And I still fly Delta every chance I get. I am old fashioned that way.

 

After loyally sailing on Celebrity ,I am now ready to make Viking my new cruise line of choice.

 

Reading the threads on the Viking forum is a delight. I find the folks posting here to be the most enthusiastic , inviting posters on CC and brimming with information for newbies like me.

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"Borrow" in the sense that I "borrow" money from my own savings account to put into checking (and take a hit in the form of lost interest on my savings but with interest being so low right now the "loss" is really not that significant). As opposed to truly borrowing money when I use my credit card account and pay interest. But what I like is the 3.3% that is significantly more than the interest I earn on my savings account.

 

It's a terminology I picked up from my Dad when he told me many years ago about going to the bank to talk about borrowing money for a car. This would have been in the mid 1950s/early 60s. The bank officer - after looking at Dad's savings account balance - was the one who advised him rather than borrowing from the bank just "borrow from" himself - from his savings account - and then pay himself back over time.

 

 

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Got it! :)

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Reading the threads on the Viking forum is a delight. I find the folks posting here to be the most enthusiastic , inviting posters on CC and brimming with information for newbies like me.

 

 

Glad you're enjoying this forum. We definitely do have a lot of fun. Maybe it's because of the Viking spirit/culture which attracts folks who resonate with it and reflects itself here.

 

 

 

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Okay, now I get it. It is a regular credit card and there are fees and/or interest charges involved when you transfer cash from it into your checking account. Incurring even an 8.5% hit to save 3.3% does not work for me; the only winner in that transaction is the bank.

 

OK. You made me rethink my strategy. Pointing out the 5.2% delta inspired a rethink. Bottom line - cc balance is now zero except for the effect of a visit to my Honda dealership to deal with seriously anemic ac on Tuesday nite. [emoji41]

 

 

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