Being Charged International Transaction Fee When Buying from Australian Website

suchan on 11/10/2022 - 21:39
Last edited 20/10/2022 - 20:27 by 1 other user

Hello,

Wanted to hear fellow OzBargainers' opinion and also if anyone had any prior experience facing with this issue.

Back around 3rd week of September, I bought the Ecovacs Deebot Omni from Ecovacs' Australian website (with price listing written in AUD). I paid for it using my credit card and since Paypal was an option, I decided to pay using Paypal and then waited for the product to arrive.

The product arrived just last week and as I have been busy with work and life, I havent had a chance to open it and check the contents etc, but the surprise came when I checked my credit card statement.

There were two separate transactions:
- One was the Paypal transaction indicating the price that I paid for so all good here.
- The other was international transaction fee relating to the price I paid above.

I immediately contacted my credit card company and they replied with this (verbatim from live chat): "Merchant name is PAYPAL *ECOVACS 15501587615 HK if you will notice this has HK at the end which means they are registered internationally - Hong Kong. We have no control of how merchants register their business, hence, international transaction fee was automatically charged by the system." At this stage, it seems my credit card provider won't lift a finger to help me at all.

I also contacted Ecovacs Australia to complain as I know I wouldn't have paid / bought the item had I knew I would be charged international transaction fee (quite a significant amount) for a product that's listed in AUD and is also located in Australia). I'll post an update when I get their reply.

Has anyone experienced this before? Should I get a refund (return the product)? Lodge a complaint with ACCC?

Update 12/10/2022: Emailed Ecovacs support last night and they replied by acknowledging my disappointment and then proceeded to ask for my receipt and copy of my bank / credit card statement. So far it sounds like they're willing to cooperate with me. Fingers crossed.

Update20/10/2022: In case anyone's interested, they agreed to refund me the fee to my credit card. So all good now. But yeah, lessons learned for future purchase.

Financial

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Comments

  • capslock on 11/10/2022 - 21:46
    +7

    This is normal. Nothing you can do other than leave bad reviews or get a payment card with no international transaction fees.

  • lddv04 on 11/10/2022 - 21:49
    +2

    My credit card slaps me with an international fee for my $11.99 Spotify subscription!

    • GOMOOTYPRO on 14/10/2022 - 16:32

      I've noticed this recently too. I get them refunded back but it's $.36ish every time otherwise.
      I wonder why

  • boomramada on 11/10/2022 - 21:53
    +3

    Has anyone experienced this before? Should I get a refund (return the product)? Lodge a complaint with ACCC?

    Yes, happened to me. You can make a complaint to ACCC and give us a update.

    Meanwhile, if this your first time, contact your bank and ask them nicely, they usually let you go for first time.

    • Brian McGee on 12/10/2022 - 07:53

      ACCC will do nothing for an individual, they only go after corporations over large scale offences. Fair Trading in your state help individuals deal with dodgy companies and mediate compensation.

    • suchan on 12/10/2022 - 20:45

      I'll give it a try tomorrow. Was swamped at work today and didnt even have time to think about or do anything about it.

  • SBOB on 11/10/2022 - 22:00
    +2

    Choose a better bank/cc that doesn't have these fees…

    • boomramada on 13/10/2022 - 17:56

      Or disable international transactions on the CC

  • Ozari on 11/10/2022 - 22:19
    +1

    Yeh, I bought an inverter from the Renogy Australian website, which quoted me a price in AUD, and because their payment gateway is overseas I was charged an International Transaction fee. I let Renogy Australia know that they should make it clear that the price displayed in AUD does not include the international fee. No response from Renogy.

  • trex on 11/10/2022 - 22:20
    +3

    www.ecovacs.com/au/deebot-robotic-vacuum-cleaner/deebot-x1-o…

    is not an Australian website.

  • payless69 on 11/10/2022 - 22:24
    -3

    PAYPAL should be shut down!!!!!

  • Hybroid on 11/10/2022 - 22:35
    +9

    Ecovacs' Australian website

    They don't have one though.

    https://www.ecovacs.com/au isn't Australian, just a localised page.

    It's $1,699 on Amazon, how much cheaper did you get it for? What was the additional charge amount?

    https://www.amazon.com.au/ECOVACS-Cleaner-Auto-wash-Interact…

  • kerfuffle on 11/10/2022 - 22:36

    Not with Westpac by any chance, are you?

    • suchan on 12/10/2022 - 07:51
      +1

      No, I'm with Kogan

  • kiitos on 11/10/2022 - 22:39

    I had the same thing happen when buying headphones from the Sennheiser outlet store.

  • apu on 11/10/2022 - 23:16

    Please share the address of their "Australian website". Listing of a price in AUD is not conclusive.

  • Baysew on 11/10/2022 - 23:20
    +1

    Has anyone experienced this before?

    Australian Sites that can incur a fee for transactions

    The problem is that there is no way that they or a cardholder can tell where a merchant will process a transaction. If the merchant does not disclose this on their website, there seems to be no way to tell.

    Debit & Credit Cards with no international fees

    Consumers urged to look out for unexpected international transaction fees

    • Pcoder on 12/10/2022 - 10:31
      +2

      I'd like to remind people that American Express doesn't charge this international transaction fee on AUD purchases done in other countries.

      The RBA should ban this practice as its too convoluted to find out where your transaction being processed. The only reason why they have this fee is Mastercard and Visa convert all their transactions into USD and then back

      • suchan on 12/10/2022 - 20:45

        I had no idea about this. You're right. That's way too convoluted

  • PissLUR on 11/10/2022 - 23:24

    Use payin4 payment to avoid the fee.

  • jv on 11/10/2022 - 23:46

    What is their ABN ?

  • Jimothy Wongingtons on 11/10/2022 - 23:58

    Meta/oculus had this issue when I bought my OG oculus.

  • Dermot on 12/10/2022 - 09:27
    -1

    I am with a Credit Union and to date have not been charged an international fee on my cards (debit not credit cards). However ebay are crooks in that regard, If you buy from an overseas site which for example is in GBPs amd you choose to pay in AUD they firstly give you the crappiest rate and then slug you afterwards (separate transaction) an international transfer fee. If I choose to pay in GBPs, not only does my bank give a much better exchange rate, but no fee.

  • daggers on 13/10/2022 - 11:51
    +1

    Same here for an Ecovacs purchase this week. Chat agreed to refund the fee after providing a (redacted) screenshot of the credit card statement.

    • suchan on 13/10/2022 - 14:13

      Cheers for sharing your experience :) Hopefully won't be too long for mine to get the refund too

  • cheaplee on 13/10/2022 - 18:06

    Last time I bought something from google.com.au it was the same.

    I mean Google, really? But yes, transaction via Netherlands or UK I think

    I contacted Google, they didn't care

    • furyou on 30/01/2023 - 15:43
      -1

      yeah all of googs is thru ireland etc, so they don't pay tax here.
      long time been like this, very annoying.

      • cheaplee on 30/01/2023 - 21:47

        Way to revive a dead thread!

        I get they may do this to avoid tax. Firstly the govt should close that loop hole. Secondly it should be VERY clear that the thing you are buying in Australia, from an Australian website, listed in AUD, is going to be processed overseas. It might be in fine print, but that's not good enough.

        The reason it's not obvious is that people would avoid buying it to avoid the fees and charges. So Google are clearly misleading us

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