credit card charge

[AJCM]

Just a warning, for Australians at least.

 

Booked a cruise last week and paid the $1,200 deposit, spread over two credit cards. The booking was done via phone with Azamara Australia. The booking was priced and paid in AUD.

 

Apparently, Azamara is now an Irish company; as the transaction was actually made with Azamara Dublin and involved a credit card fx fee on each $600 payment.

 

So, buyer beware - certainly don’t pay a substantial balance due using credit card if you want to avoid substantial fees. I guess the Australian govt won’t be building any infrastructure, hospitals, etc from tax on profits made by Azamara from its Australian guests.

[beagle 24]

Yes I got stung by this charge 3.4% also lets see what happens next week when Azamara is on its own.

[G.T.]

Most Australian credit cards charge an international transaction fee of +/- about 3% but there are some that don't - thankfully!!

[AJCM]

58 minutes ago, G.T. said:

Most Australian credit cards charge an international transaction fee of +/- about 3% but there are some that don't - thankfully!!

No problem with  FX fee if I know about it. In this instance there was no transparency. I'm just glad it was deposit only.

 

The other day I made final payment on an upcoming Seabourn cruise. Again, this had been booked in AUD and the final amiount due was substantially paid by credit card in AUD. However, because of what happened with the Azamara deposit, I contacted Seabourn and was assured the tx would be in AUD - it was.

[AJCM]

3 hours ago, blag said:

Is this fee charged by Azamara or the Card issuer?

The fx conversion fee is charged by the credit card companies. It has only occurred because Azamara has the recipient in Dublin, resulting in a conversion to Irish currency.

[Westaussie]

1 hour ago, G.T. said:

I read it as the $600 pp was the deposit on which 3% international transaction fee was charged by the Bank - so $18 pp.

 

Yes, you're correct. I've always booked direct with Azamara in Sydney and they have advised the CC fee when booking, my Visa CC I think is less than 3%. I have also seen the Dublin bank in past years. My current two bookings were banked in Ireland.

[Host Jazzbeau]

There has been a lot of jumping to (wrong) conclusions in this thread. Please pay attention to the nationality of a poster before projecting the rules in your country as a solution— it will often be completely wrong, and generally not helpful because it can’t be relied on as applicable.  If you aren’t sure how things work in the poster’s country, hold your peace!