Foreign Transaction Fees from the Comfort of Your Own Home

Image from Finland for Thought

This latest breach of trust is brought to you by Citibank. From The Consumerist:

"...when I reviewed my credit card bill I noticed a foreign transaction fee of $11, which stood out because I haven't left the country for about a year. When I called them, they said it was for two separate charges: a design contest I'd paid for on 99 Designs, and a domain I'd purchased from Yahoo, which outsources its domain [management] to a firm in Australia. I made both purchases in US dollars, and on 99 Designs nothing even indicated that it's foreign-based until I dug around on the website."

The charges occurred because Citibank thinks doing business online with a foreign company is the same as doing it face-to-face, regardless of the currency used or whether the website is up front about the location of either their or their payment processor's offices. What's a "foreign transaction fee" anyway? Isn't a currency exchange fee enough?

Also, since when did Citibank start running ads for Bitcoin? Because, basically, that's what this is...

Posted in: bank fees,global