3% Credit Card Foreign Transaction Fee!

[Trece]

LHT28, If it's not related to the way or through whom Oceania processes its payments, why is no one else on any other cruise line reporting a problem? Pick any other cruise line that is featured on Cruise Critic and go on their forum and see if anyone else is reporting this problem. Let me know if you find one because I check regularly and I can't find one.

 

The question of why some cards and not others is weird and puzzling, but that doesn't change the fact that it is something Oceania is doing that is creating the problem. To me it's like when you go to the doctor. His/her office can process the payment with a code that one insurance company thinks is fine but another insurance company denies coverage. Oceania has to be coding its charges in a way so that some credit cards recognize that it's a US charge and some credit cards recognizes it as a charge originating in Ireland. That's the only logical explanation that I can come up with though I'll be the first to admit I know nothing about the secret workings of credit card processing.

 

The fact that it's been known to Oceania for some time and it isn't being fixed says to me there is some kind of contract involved that Oceania can't get out of. That said, Oceania should be offering affected customers shipboard credit or something to compensate them for this unexpected (and not paltry) surcharge that is not their fault and there is no way to predict.

[pacmom]

If Oceania is in some sort of contract, they should have let their customers know. Yes, I agree we should be compensated in some way, be it shipboard credit or an upgrade or dinner reservations in the small restaurants with complimentary wine. We own a restaurant and have never heard of such poor customer service. Their are other cruise lines out there. This may be our one and only cruise with them--certainly give them thumbs down for attention to their customers concerns. Pat

[lcand1923]

When the first message was posted I checked my Chase Visa Statement and did not see the Transaction Fee for a cruise deposit. I have paid another deposit using the same card and did not have the Transaction Fee. I will soon be making a Final Payment and am quite nervous about getting charged the Transaction Fee.

 

I am wondering if the problem could be caused by different office personnel inputting charges in different ways. I did corporate training/quality control for many years and learned that when "some people have a problem and some don't" you start to look for commonalities.

 

Since the charges seem to be an Oceania Problem and seem to be happening on different Credit Cards issued by different banks, the problem must be originating "on-site" at Oceania. Since the charges aren't happening on evey Deposit or every Final Payment or every Shipboard Account Settlement, Oceania should consider the following:

 

Are all Credit Cards processed at the same office? If yes, look at the instructions provided to the folks who input Credit Card charges.

 

If the instructions provided are clear in stating that all Credit Card charges SHOULD be input as being made in the US, look at each person who inputs the charges.

 

Either Oceania does not have a clearly stated set of instructions to be used by the people who input charges OR they have a quality control/compliance with stated instructions problem with their office personnel.

[muddsmom]

I used a Chase Credit Card for our deposit and was not charged anything more than my exact deposit.

[digby]

what about them? did they charge the dreaded extra for charges made from US or not Digby?:rolleyes:

 

 

I have noticed no such charge on my UAL VISA card. I have a final payment for one cruise coming up in December, but we put down a deposit on another cruise further into the future a month or so ago using the UAL VISA. There was no extra charge on the statement.

[confused4now]

Since I have been on 10 Oceania cruises and have paid with my amex and use Credit cards for ALL my clients while I was in business. I have never seen this happen in all my 30 years..it has to be the credit card company..I will be talking to Frank DelRio later this afternoon and will ask him..

 

Jan:)

 

Jan,

 

As a matter of curiosity, what was Frank DelRio's response?

 

Thanks

[NancyBancy]

He was speechless! :D He was practicing for how he was going to respond to why the November 5, 2005 cruise was going to be sliced & diced with no compensation. He has also been speechless about that situation as well! :D

[Guest Jancruz]

It was at the beginning of all of this happening and at the time..he did say he would check into it..but I havent asked him again..

 

Jan:)

*****

[NancyBancy]

Post #41 on this thread, on July 5, two months and several days ago, was by Mr Del Rio, saying he was looking into it!!:D

[confused4now]

But alas, Sir Lancelot was speechless.:)

[NancyBancy]

I don't see a need for Colombo or Sherlock Holmes. I'm sure there are enough employees there that this matter could have been delegated to back in April when it first arose, or in July when the promise was made that it be would be researched! :D

[confused4now]

Maybe his employees are giving him the same runaround that they give the customers. In that case, he should complain to his boss.;)

[NancyBancy]

Touche' !!! :D :D :D

[drwong]

I recently paid my final deposit on my upcoming cruise and the initial deposit on the next using my Citibank Rewards MasterCard and as the transaction record shows, Oceania is still using their Irish credit-card processing company. The number following "OceaniaCruises" is their Miami-based phone number, but the three-letter "IRL" following the phone number indicates that the charges are still being processed in IRELAND.

 

08/3008/3020DH7L27OCEANIACRUISES INC. 18005315658 IRL

[ClaudiaF]

BTW Richard,

Was there an extra 3% ( or more?) fee added to the charge?

[drwong]

I thought there was - I initially thought Citibank had reduced the fee to 1%, as the finance charge equalled 1% of the Oceania charges, but when I called Citibank to ask whether they had lowered the fee, the customer service rep said, no, their fee still remains 3% and that I should count it as a bank error in my favor! Strange, hmmmmmm?

[sfbear]

Recently gave my TA Credit Card info (United Air Lines/Chase) to charge deposit for October '06 Cruise. The charge was the exact amount of the deposit, $500, with no additional surcharges.

 

Friends going with us have not experienced surcharges with their deposits either.

 

Just to let you know . . .

 

Rich

[Iwannabeatraveler]

I have booked a cruise for 2006 and the deposit was also charge the foreign transaction fee... I switched cards!:cool:

[lcand1923]

Can't help but notice that the following seems to be true.

 

1. Cruiser incurs a Transaction Fee when they charge a deposit and/or final payment.

2. Cruiser calls their Travel Agent tells them to cancel that transaction and then input a new one on a different card.

3. Transaction Fee does not appear on new Credit Card charge.

 

Mr. Del Rio, if you are monitoring these boards, would you please have your Office Managers look at the instructions/procedures that are used for the SECOND set of Credit Card transactions? They seem to be correct in that they do not generate the 3% Transaction Fee.

 

Thanks

[Trece]

...and I also believe they know full well why it's appearing and aren't saying.

 

I recently had the urge to read the passenger contract, the terms of which also appear in some of Oceania's brochures. I found an interesting paragraph (#21 if you access it on the internet, it's called "deposit & payments" if you read it in a brochure).

 

In the brochure, after stating which credit cards are accepted, it goes on to read "Oceania Cruises accepts no responsibility for credit card processing fees independently assessed by issuing banks. None of these fees separately charged by issuing banks accrues to the benefit of Oceania Cruises." On the internet, which of course can be changed more quickly than printed brochures, it goes on to read, "nor do they accrue to the benefit of Oceania Cruises' credit card processing bank." I note that the internet version was amended 8-1-05.

 

If anyone has a brochure that is a year or so older that has the fine print in it, it would be interesting to know if this language appeared back then, or if it coincided with the fees beginning to appear earlier this year. Ditto if anyone happened to print off the pre 8-1-05 version of the passenger contract from the internet.

 

Also, I can't claim I read every single cruise line's passenger contract, but I did skim Princess', and I find nothing resembling this language, which goes along with the fact that this appears to be a uniquely Oceania problem.

 

I do think this is all quite intentional by Oceania, which has to be getting some benefit from this transaction. The only other option I can see to it being deliberate is that someone at Oceania was very irresponsible and derelict in letting them get into this arrangement and we are paying the price. I also think it's just luck of the draw that some of OUR cards/banks nail us and some don't, but the net result is that every transaction has to start somewhere and unfortunately for Oceania's passengers, at least on paper, it's originating in Ireland.

 

From there, Oceania hides behind its passenger contract, and the credit card/bank hides behind the fact that the transaction says IRL. It sounds as if some passengers who complain are allowed to reverse the transaction & use another card, but it's just one more thing that makes the pre-cruise experience with Oceania the pits.:(

[drwong]

Every merchant, whether online or brick-and-mortar, must pay a third-party firm to process credit card transactions, and those firms charge the merchant a service fee on every tranaction. I may be dating myself, but I remember back in the days when gas was $1.00/gallon, and some stations offered a nickel discount if you paid cash, as opposed to using your credit card. That nickel reflected the credit card processing fee. Nowdays, however, the 5% surcharge is automatically reflected in the price at the pump, since the vast majority of purchases are made electronically.

 

Oceania apparently found a processing company that offered them an extremely low processing fee - given the thousands of dollars charged by each customer, a 5% processing fee can quickly result in a substantial sum. Unfortunately for us, that firm happened to be in Ireland, and OUR banks are the ones who are penalizing us for that foreign "transaction" - not Oceania. Quite frankly, I don't think that was something that Oceania even considered when signing up with that firm, as most banks only charged conversion fees, and there was no conversion necessary.

 

To Oceania's credit, the charges are made in US dollars rather than Irish Euros, thereby saving us any conversion fees, but some banks nevertheless started imposing surcharges for any overseas transactions in US dollars, although those require NO additional efforts on the bank's behalf. For those of you finding transaction fees tacked onto your statements, switch the purchase to another card and let the bank know of your dissatisfaction - again, I may be dating myself, but give 'em Peter Finch's legendary quote from "Network!"

 

I've noticed from the comments on this board and the YahooGroup that credit card holders which require users to pay an annual fee (e.g., AmEx and airline-related credit cards) aren't charging the foreign transaction fee, but credit cards without an annual fee (e.g., unaffiliated Chase, Citibank, and BofA) are - perhaps to make up for the missing annual fee?

[Trece]

If Oceania found such a deal outside the country for its processing, why are no other cruise lines standing in line to sign up with this Irish bank? Maybe because they were informed of, and care about, unnecessary charges tacked onto their customers without their advance knowledge? :confused: Let's face it, almost every other cruise line is much larger than Oceania - the savings to them would probably be even more stellar - but at least at this point it doesn't seem as if they are following Oceania's lead.

 

I understand that customers have gotten deposit and final payments reversed so they could put them on another card - but has anyone successfully had an onboard shipboard account reversed once they got home and got their statement a month later, so that the shipboard account could be placed on a different card?

 

Richard, I think your theory that fee-less credit cards are the ones getting the hit and the ones that have a fee are not is very interesting! That information might be something that could be included when people post as to which cards incur the hit and which ones don't. I do think timing is a factor as well and anyone whose experience was earlier than 2005 doesn't need to even contribute to the "survey" because it doesn't appear to have been happening that far back.

[Kruiserkate]

We have a Capital One "Go Cash" Visa card (we get a dollar rebate each year based on the total amount charged). There are no annual fees. We recently paid the final payment for our 11/28/2005 cruise with no additional fees.

 

However in February of this year there was an insert with the statement stating that effective April 2, 2005 there would be a 3% Transaction Fee for Purchases Made in Foreign Currencies added but you could opt out of this fee if you sent them a letter by April 30, 2005. We could then use the card under the current terms until the end of the year or the expiration date on the card whichever is later. My husband sent them a letter saying we were opting out. This still does not explain why some Oceania charges in Miami show a code for Ireland. Ours dated August 16 2005 shows Oceaniacruises Inc. 18005315658.

Kathy

[lcand1923]

In the Contract of Carriage that we got prior to our 2004 Western Med Cruise (Reference: Ticket Contract 11/03/03) the Payment Wording reads as follows:

 

19. PAYMENTS.

Any and all payments made by you to us shall be made in currency of the United States of America or other currency acceptable to us. All charges for services and products provided on board ths Ship must be settled in cash or charged (via credit card acceptable to us) before your final disembarkation from the Ship. Any other expenses incurred by you or by us on your behalf shall be payable by you on demand.

 

 

You are definitely on to something, Trece and Dr. Wong. There is no mention of Transaction Fees or Credit Card Processing fees in this old contract.

 

My deposits were made in April and August 2005 which must have been prior to the Ireland affiliation because I used a no-fee VISA, originally with Bank One which was bought out by Chase.

 

I am not looking forward to the battle over the 3% Transaction Fee which will hit my Credit Card next month since that's when the final payment for the first cruise is due.

[Trece]

Well, KruiserKate and lcandtravel, since you both have fee-free cards and had no surcharge, that defeats that theory of fee vs. no-fee! It was a good theory while it lasted! I paid for my deposit with a United/Chase visa card (with a fee) and had no surcharge. I paid for excursions & final payment with an American Airlines Citibank card (no fee at the moment but will if I keep it, which I don't plan to) and also had no surcharge, so the theory put forth by Drwong sounded very logical.

 

It would be really nice if we could pin down for certainty which are the offending cards.

 

Thanks for that pre 8-1-05 wording. At least that confirms part of my theory, that while there may have been other changes in the passenger contract, incorporating this language was definitely one of them. If anyone wants to take on reading the passenger contracts of other cruise lines, it would be interesting to read if any of them has the Oceania disclaimer. I'll try to do a few myself.

 

Still hope to hear from someone who has had a shipboard account charge reversed a month after disembarkation so they can use a different card.