Additional POS Charges for online transactions on VISA Debit

declau

Dear BOI,

Kindly explain the extra fees for purchasing with Visa Debit online. I'm being charged for every purchase like for a POS transaction outside Ireland although these are NOT Point of Sale transactions. Example on the statement: POS CHG GBP XXX or POS CHG USD XXX


No such fees exist on Visa credit, although there are extra cross border POS fees indeed when purchasing in the shops outside Ireland or withdrawing from ATM when away on holiday, but there are no additional fees for online transactions. It makes no sense at all that you are imposing extra fees to buy from Amazon or any other online retailer based outside Eire in this day of age.

Thanks

Bank of Ireland: Tara

Hi declau,

Thanks for getting in touch.

When you use your card to pay for goods or services at a shop till, online or by phone the narrative will read as POS.

If the retailer/website is charging you in a foreign currency i.e. Sterling or US Dollars, there is a cross border handling fee involved for the currency conversion. This is the case with both credit and debit card transactions. Some retailers and websites do provide the option to be charged in Euro and if you select this you would not be charged the cross border handling fee.

Thanks
Tara

declau

Hi Tara, in other words if I buy online I get double charged: one charge for transaction + extra charge if currency is not Euro; although when I use a standard credit card no such extra charge exist? Your extra charge adds €8.75 for a €500 value purchase online! Can you clarify why credit card companies (e.g. VISA) don't charge this while you do charge this on VISA Debit? You are promoting VISA Debit as a 'secure way to shop online' and explaining all these benefits how great this card is to shop online but you fail to reference additional fees for online shopping. After reading your website (http://personalbanking.bankofireland.com/current-accounts/visa-debit-cards/), I would presume there are no additional fees while in fact there are. The statement about additional fees also does not reference anywhere about extra fees when shopping online:
[font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]What additional fees and charges will apply?[/font]
[font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]Point of Sale and ATM Transactions[/font]

• Current Account transaction fees will remain unchanged for Point of Sale and ATM domestic transactions and transactions in euro within the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
  [font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]
  [/font]
• Existing charges for non-euro transactions will also remain the same.
  • Point of Sale 1.75% minimum €0.46; maximum €11.43 per transaction
  • ATM 3.5% minimum €3.17; maximum €11.43 per transaction

galwayjohn89

declau wrote: »

Hi Tara, in other words if I buy online I get double charged: one charge for transaction + extra charge if currency is not Euro; although when I use a standard credit card no such extra charge exist? Your extra charge adds €8.75 for a €500 value purchase online! Can you clarify why credit card companies (e.g. VISA) don't charge this while you do charge this on VISA Debit? You are promoting VISA Debit as a 'secure way to shop online' and explaining all these benefits how great this card is to shop online but you fail to reference additional fees for online shopping. After reading your website (http://personalbanking.bankofireland.com/current-accounts/visa-debit-cards/), I would presume there are no additional fees while in fact there are. The statement about additional fees also does not reference anywhere about extra fees when shopping online:
What additional fees and charges will apply?
Point of Sale and ATM Transactions

Current Account transaction fees will remain unchanged for Point of Sale and ATM domestic transactions and transactions in euro within the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.


Existing charges for non-euro transactions will also remain the same.

Point of Sale 1.75% minimum €0.46; maximum €11.43 per transaction
ATM 3.5% minimum €3.17; maximum €11.43 per transaction

I know with one of my non BOI credit cards they include fee in the transaction. But with my BOI credit and debit cards they separate it.

I'm not sure what you mean by: "The statement about additional fees also does not reference anywhere about extra fees when shopping online:"  It a POS transaction and therefore the fees are: Point of Sale 1.75% minimum €0.46; maximum €11.43 per transaction

Which is 500 x 1.75 - €8.75

Unless I am missing something?

Bank of Ireland: Tara

Hi declau,

Apologies, I have checked the link in your post and now understand where you are coming from. I will forward this on to our Visa Debit Team for review.

All customer generated transactions in or out of a personal current account are subject to the €0.28 transaction fee unless you qualify for our No Transaction Fees Offer. With non-euro debit card transactions there is also a cross border handling fee which is subject to a minimum charge of €0.46 and maximum of €11.43. 

Non-euro transactions on a credit card are subject to 1.75% cross border handling fee with no minimum or maximum amount. There are no transaction fees on a credit card account. It's a different account type to a current account with different fees, charges, terms and conditions. 

I hope this clarifies things.

Thanks
Tara

Lyaiera

Hi Tara,
Is there a way of knowing what exchange rate you'll be charged? Say for a pound sterling transaction. I presume I'll be paying the full €11.43 cross border handling fee, but I want to figure out if it's worth paying that for a better exchange rate than the shop's own Euro transaction rate.

Edit: Is this the tool I should be using to calculate it for Visa Debit? http://www.visaeurope.com/en/cardholders/exchange_rates.aspx

Thraxen

declau wrote: »

Dear BOI,

Kindly explain the extra fees for purchasing with Visa Debit online. I'm being charged for every purchase like for a POS transaction outside Ireland although these are NOT Point of Sale transactions. Example on the statement: POS CHG GBP XXX or POS CHG USD XXX


No such fees exist on Visa credit, although there are extra cross border POS fees indeed when purchasing in the shops outside Ireland or withdrawing from ATM when away on holiday, but there are no additional fees for online transactions. It makes no sense at all that you are imposing extra fees to buy from Amazon or any other online retailer based outside Eire in this day of age.

Thanks

Hey just an FYI but if you bought from Amazon they ALWAYS charge in the native currency of the card. If you do pay online try using paypal as they will charge in your native currency as well.

Bank of Ireland: Linda

Hi Lyaiera,

I am just going to double check the information for you.  I will get back to you as soon as I have more details.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post.

 

Linda

Bank of Ireland: Linda

Hi Lyaiera,

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

If you carry out a non-euro transaction on your Card, it is converted into euro at an exchange rate as determined by the Visa Scheme on the Banking Day we take it from your Account.

 

The exchange rate used is the day the transaction is processed and not the date of the transaction.  The exchange rates quoted on the Visa site should be used indicatively as a guide but the actual rate applied would depend on when the transaction is processed by Visa.          

 
We would not have sight of the currency exchange margins applied by retailers.  The margins applied would fluctuate from retailer to retailer and these would need to be verified by the specific retailer on the day of the purchase whereas the Visa site can be used indicatively as a guide to the exchange rates that would be applied for Bank of Ireland non euro Visa Debit POS transaction.

 

Thanks

 

Linda  

Lyaiera

Thanks Linda.

Arciphel

Just to add to this, in case anyone is searching for "cross border transaction fee" and ends up here. 
 
I have an account with Google Drive which costs me $3.06 a month for 50GB cloud storage (Google don't allow you to pay in Euro, only US Dollars). 

Because I was paying using my Visa Debit, it was costing me €2.27 once it was converted using a rate of 1.34801 which is fine.

However, the next day I would then see a charge that read "POS CHG USD 3" and the cost €0.46.  

You see, Bank of Ireland charge you the cross border handling fee of 1.75% but they will charge you a minimum of €0.46.  So in my case, the cross border handling fee was an effective rate of about 20% instead of 1.75%.  

So I would advise anyone who is making small, frequent micro-transaction type payments using Visa debit to be wary of this cross border handling fee mechanism and the minimum charges built into to, especially for something like Google accounts or paying for other file-storing services.

Bank of Ireland: Linda

Hi Arciphel,

You are correct there is a cross boarder handling fee for using the card outside of the euro currency zone. If you use the card at an ATM the cross border handling fee is 3.5% of the transaction value with a minimum E3.17 and a maximum E11.43 per transaction. If you use the card at a Point of Sale the cross border handling fee is 1.75% of the transaction value with a minimum E0.46 and a maximum E11.43 per transaction.

Thanks
Linda