Credit card charges

Hi Kin Lian,
I would like to share what I found out about this. Credit card companies charge an administrative fee of 1.25% onwards to card users for transactions in non SGD currencies. Maybank charges 1.25% as does RBS. I think the rate charged by Citibank and DBS are 1.5%. This is on top of the 1% charged by VISA/ Mastercard.


So let's say I buy something online in USD, and the exchange rate determined by VISA for the posted date is USD 1 = SGD 1.40. The charge I receive will be 2.25% on top of that.


Now, if I buy in a non USD currency say GBP, the GBP charge will be converted to USD first, then USD to SGD so resulting in an extremely unfavourable rate.


There's not much transparency regarding this and I obtained this information after I questioned my bank about it. Hoping you can help educate the public especially your blog readers on this. Thanks.
 
CC
 
REPLY
I am not able to verify this fact. Can other readers share you experience?