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Looking over my bank statement today I noticed several "International purchase transaction fees." There were small, only 18 or 24 cents, but I was curious as to what they were.
When I called my bank (Wells Fargo) they told me they were a conversion fee for purchasing from a company in Great Britain. (I'm in the US) Turns out the fees were for purchases made from GOG.com.
I know the fees are small, and it's not bad to pay $6.17 for a $5.99 game I can get DRM free, but it does irritate me that the fee is being collected at all. It seems like banks are trying to nickle-and-dime us every chance they get so I wanted to let other US users of GOG know.
Is it just Wells Fargo that does this or do other people's banks charge them a fee too?
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GlassAxis: do other people's banks charge them a fee too?

My bank has been doing the same for several months now. Banks are bloodsuckers.
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GlassAxis: Is it just Wells Fargo that does this or do other people's banks charge them a fee too?

Haven't really checked yet, because my bank account is connected to my father's, so he gets all the statements / reports and stuff.
It depends on the bank or credit card. I have a debit card from my bank, a credit card from Chase and a debit card from PayPal. My bank and PayPal do not charge any kind of transaction fee when I use them for GOG, but Chase does.
Then again, Chase are a bunch of money-grubbing assholes anyway, so its kind of to be expected.
Switch to Capital One, they do not charge the fee, at least the last time I checked.
Post edited May 01, 2010 by Faithful
Yeah, I had Chase charge me the fee as well. It's annoying (but of course not the fault of GOG).
Chase has been annoying me quite a bit recently. They won't stop pestering me to allow them to charge overdraft fees again.
My bank does this as well... but... using Paypal (which also leaves the money in bank longer garnering more intrest) is a halfway decent workaround...
Yeah, I get charged about fifteen cents in international fees too. There's not much that I can do about it, though. *shrugs*
national australian bank charges me 13 cents for each 6 dollars purchase. it also charged me two cents when i bought deadpool ringtone using paypal.
not a biggie but annoying. got used to it. ten games i need to buy to not be able to afford one snickers bar.
My bank here in Denmark doesn't charge me anything for buying stuff from abroad, regardless of the currency used.
Yep, US banks are applying vampire fees to just about everything.
If it's annoying, get a PayPal account and make a sizeable enough transfer to it to cover your purchasing needs for the foreseeable future.
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GlassAxis: Looking over my bank statement today I noticed several "International purchase transaction fees." There were small, only 18 or 24 cents, but I was curious as to what they were.
When I called my bank (Wells Fargo) they told me they were a conversion fee for purchasing from a company in Great Britain. (I'm in the US) Turns out the fees were for purchases made from GOG.com.
I know the fees are small, and it's not bad to pay $6.17 for a $5.99 game I can get DRM free, but it does irritate me that the fee is being collected at all. It seems like banks are trying to nickle-and-dime us every chance they get so I wanted to let other US users of GOG know.
Is it just Wells Fargo that does this or do other people's banks charge them a fee too?

Only that? I get charged £1.50 ($2) for buying in different currencies. I've been thinking of changing banks because of this.
Post edited May 02, 2010 by evilguy12
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GlassAxis: Looking over my bank statement today I noticed several "International purchase transaction fees." There were small, only 18 or 24 cents, but I was curious as to what they were.
When I called my bank (Wells Fargo) they told me they were a conversion fee for purchasing from a company in Great Britain. (I'm in the US) Turns out the fees were for purchases made from GOG.com.
I know the fees are small, and it's not bad to pay $6.17 for a $5.99 game I can get DRM free, but it does irritate me that the fee is being collected at all. It seems like banks are trying to nickle-and-dime us every chance they get so I wanted to let other US users of GOG know.
Is it just Wells Fargo that does this or do other people's banks charge them a fee too?
avatar
evilguy12: Only that? I get charged �1.50 ($2) for buying in different currencies. I've been thinking of changing banks because of this.

I was in that position too with Santander, so I now make all my online purchases with Paypal.
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lukaszthegreat: national australian bank charges me 13 cents for each 6 dollars purchase. it also charged me two cents when i bought deadpool ringtone using paypal.

I'm surprised you were charged for using PayPal - were you charged in AUD but still got hit with the fee, or did your bank do the currency conversion?
Back to the OT - every major bank I've used in Australia charges a fee for international transactions - usually 2-4% on top of the already unfavourable exchange rates offered by Visa and Mastercard, and/or a fixed fee ($1-2). Even "traveler's cards" like Westpac Earth have pretty nasty fees.
If any Australians are looking for a card that doesn't charge any currency conversion fees*, the Wizard Clear Advantage Mastercard is the only one I've found that doesn't. I've been using this card for around 2 years now and have nothing but good things to say about it. Because it's a no-fee card you could also keep it around and use it for nothing except international transactions.
(Except the Mastercard currency conversion rate, which is always a little unfavourable)
Post edited May 02, 2010 by domgrief
I buy through Paypal which effectively levels a similar charge by never using the true currency conversion rate.