Overseas taxation fee

[KAYTWO]

Just received my bank statement after booking directly through royal and it shows an overseas txn fee of $48? At no time was I ever informed of this extra charge. I booked through the australian call centre number for an Australian cruise. Has anyone else had this happen? :confused:

[Port Boy]

Ring and ask, unless it was a credit card transaction fee.

[The_Big_M]

I suspect you mean transaction fee, not taxation fee.

 

Still sounds odd if you booked through Australia - are you sure it was definitely related to the cruise and not another transaction?

[NikandMick]

YES!!

 

We got the same fee. It is a 2.5% 'International Transaction Fee' and is essentially a service charge. As RCI is an American company. Even if you ring the Australian number, talk to an Australian representative and pay with your credit/debit card over the phone, the charge still applies.

I found out the hard way too. I bank with one of the 'big 4 banks' and was pretty annoyed to say the least :-(

[KAYTWO]

Absolutely, I thought they had to let you know of any extra fees/charges that applied. To me this is taking money that I have not agreed to. I will call them this morning as they do not man the call centre over the weekend.

 

Lesson learnt - I have always booked through TA's before, so won't be booking direct again.

[Dayenu]

Absolutely, I thought they had to let you know of any extra fees/charges that applied. To me this is taking money that I have not agreed to. I will call them this morning as they do not man the call centre over the weekend.

 

Lesson learnt - I have always booked through TA's before, so won't be booking direct again.

 

Most likely it's not the Royal fees, it's the bank fees charging you for converting AUS dollars to the US dollars. The currency of RCI is US dollars.

 

You should call the bank first to confirm. RCI may not know about this fee.

[Coralc]

YES!!

 

We got the same fee. It is a 2.5% 'International Transaction Fee' and is essentially a service charge. As RCI is an American company. Even if you ring the Australian number, talk to an Australian representative and pay with your credit/debit card over the phone, the charge still applies.

I found out the hard way too. I bank with one of the 'big 4 banks' and was pretty annoyed to say the least :-(

 

We spent 3 nights in Sydney pre-cruise. Not only was there a 3% foreign transaction fee from our bank...there was a 2% credit card fee levied by the Radisson hotel.

 

We are used to foreign transaction fees...but the credit card surcharge was a new one. We knew about it in advance...but Sydney prices were still something of a shock! :D:):D

[KAYTWO]

This isn't a separate charge on my statement, it is all inclusive with our deposit. It reads "Royal Caribbean Int'l Aus Incl Overseas Txn Fee $48.00 Aud"

 

I will be calling them when I get home from work to find out what this is all about.

[NikandMick]

This isn't a separate charge on my statement, it is all inclusive with our deposit. It reads "Royal Caribbean Int'l Aus Incl Overseas Txn Fee $48.00 Aud"

 

I will be calling them when I get home from work to find out what this is all about.

 

Mine was called 'INTNL TRAN FEE - (SC)' and when I rang I was told it stands for 'International transaction fee'. I have one on my statement beside both of my RCI transactions :-( total all up around $60. It is a certain percentage of the total that they charge FYI

 

In my case it was nothing to do with RCI, it was all to do with my bank.

[Port Boy]

Last year we were asked who would we like to set the conversion fee when paying with an OZ credit card on final payment from the on board cruise costs, we ticked the bank. All Banks charge a fee when not paying in the currency of the country you have got the credit card from. :)

[KAYTWO]

Thanks guys. The word from royal is that is definitely not from them but from my bank (a pretty blue colour here is Oz). It was a bit confusing as I thought the bank fee would have shown up separately.

[The_Big_M]

This isn't a separate charge on my statement, it is all inclusive with our deposit. It reads "Royal Caribbean Int'l Aus Incl Overseas Txn Fee $48.00 Aud"

 

Do you mean the charge is $48 higher than your deposit? That sounds very high for a conversion fee, unless you were paying a really large deposit. Or is the deposit meant to be $48, so it's just the description that's unexpected?