I visited a website of an uilleann piper who sells his own cd’s in Australia. The price is in Austr. dollars. You can pay w/ visa. I asked him how they converted the money or if they charged a fee. He had no idea. Does anyone on this board know about buying things by credit card overseas in foreign currency? I don’t want to pay a huge fee to visa and jack up the cd price too much.
While I’m on the subject, someone posted that cafepress charges exorbitant shipping fees overseas. Would it be cost effective for one of us to order a t-shirt or cap to the US and ship it again to the likes of England? I wouldn’t mind helping out if it made sense.
Tony
Tony, I’d call the number on the back of the card and ask about it. I’d imagine there would be a fee. While you’re on, ask if it’s just for your card provider or the same for all visa cards - I’ve got one too. =)
On the same topic, what would be the easiest way to transmit American-to-British funds from me to Fred Rose?
Your credit card company doesn’t handle the conversion, Visa international does. You can: A) call you credit card company and have them call Visa, or B) you can call visa directly and ask them what the conversion rate is on a given day, they will tell you what rate they will charge on that particular day.
Beth,
Fred prefers an international money order, but these can be difficult to obtain. I sent him a Cashire’s check instead and he had no problem with that. You’ll be best off finding the current exchange rate on line, and then asking your bank for the check. It’s about $200 for a Rose whistle.
I used my Visa at ATM’s in Scotland a couple summers ago. The machines charged me a small fee for using another bank’s machine, but otherwise it just used the current exchange rate; there was no fee for the exchange (presumably since it was all done automatically). I would think the same principle would apply to actual credit card purchases. But I could be wrong.
In my experience, this is the best way to make purchases in a foreign currency. You get the benefit of the VISA bulk exchange rates, which they tend to pass on with much less markup than you’ll get in airport kiosks, high street moneychangers, or just about anywhere else. There are, again in my experience, no additional fees, except as someone else mentioned, any fees that foreign banks might tack on for ATM access. I paid for my G Northumbrian chanter this way last March, and it was much cheaper than any other method (if you discount the cost of the trip to England, which was paid for by my employer).
In short, I’d go for it, and report your experiences back to the board so we can all learn from them.
I do a lot of business with Australia, all using Visa…no exchange fees, just the conversion. And the Aussie dollar is usually just short of the Canadian dollar in value, so you will do well with your US dollar.
My bank couldn’t help me for a bank draft on Australian funds for a purchase made earlier this year, but my pipemaker took my US personal check and deposited it into his account. For a processing fee of about $30AU his bank cleared the check… this was easier and much less than I would have paid to do this with an International Bank. Great for large purchases.
I think a call to VISA will lead in the right direction… good for small purchases.
Tony - I make US purchases from Australia regularly, and VISA only charge me the converted cost with no additional fee for converting.
Shipping the T-Shirts to us overseas types would be helpful, but how would we pay you for the postage? If we have to go and pay our banks for a US cheque they’ll charge an arm and a leg and the savings over the Cafe Press rip-off shipping charges would melt away.
However, if there was some way we could pay someone in the US via VISA …
I don’t suppose you’d like me to ship you the CDs in return for you shipping me a T-Shirt ???
[ This Message was edited by: Champ on 2001-10-29 16:32 ]
I have purchased many items in foreign currencies using Visa and Amex and I have never been charged any fees outside of normal currency conversion rates.
If you need to pay using an international money order (like Fred Rose prefers) then you want to ensure that the money order is in the vendor’s foreign currency and is drawn on a bank in the vendors country. For example, if sending a money order to Fred Rose (in the UK) you want a money order in pounds sterling that is drawn on a UK bank. If these two conditions are not met then Fred may end up paying pretty stiff fees when he deposits the money order. International money orders are easily obtained at almost any Canadian bank for a small fee (typically about $3 cdn); some banking plans (like mine) even waive the fee.
You may want to look in your yellow pages under Foriegn Exchange Services. These services will for a small fee create a bank draft in a foriegn currency drawn on a foriegn bank. For example, an exchange service 8 blocks from where I work, created bank draft drawn from Barclay’s of London in British Pounds Sterling, that I sent over to england to pay for some whistles. The fee was less than 10 dollars total. I paid them with my visa. This was like sending a certified check in the vendor’s currency that the vendor could deposit or cash as they chose. Very easy for the vendor, suprisingly easy for me once I found the exchange service. They even provide this service over the phone and will mail you the bank draft.
I found a lot of the banks wanted to charge fee’s in excess of 50 dollars.
If your buying an expensive flute or whistle using a foriegn exchange service may be the best way to get the money to the instrument maker.
I have never had a problem using a credit card to order items either in the US or overseas. I do check a currency converter before ordering to see what the rate will be that day.
In almost all instances, there were no extra charges for the transaction from one currency to another.
For large items such as the Casey Burns flute I purchased, I used US money orders, with the money drawn on a bank in the US. I also had fees for such waived because of my full service banking account. The reason I did it that way instead of charging, is that I wouldn’t have a heart attack when the credit card bill came in.
I just ordered several tutorials from MadforTrad and checking with my credit card company the transaction went through with no extra charge for converting the currency. Just a ho-hum purchase in another country though.
But UPS is expensive in Canada. If you have anything shipped to Canada it is best to use parcel post and pay customs duties etc.
I also use my credit card in Detroit all the time and have never had any trouble.
Well, I’ve become convinced by youse guys that I probably won’t get stung going ahead and ordering a cd from Australia w/ my visa. Of course, now, Francis O’Mara’s site is down. He’s the piper selling his cd.
Champ, my email situation at home is fouled up I wasn’t ignoring you. (I just changed to the whistletunes@hotmail link in my profile.) An exchange of a cd for a t-shirt won’t balance out in terms of cost, but I’m still happy to send one to you if it’s cost effective and you want me to. They charge around $4.25 to ship to me (if I remember correctly) and I need to find out how much shipping is to Australia. I suspect it will add up to a bit, especially after getting a payment check here. I wonder if you can bootleg the design and get it made locally near home. You could make a donation to the charity. Anyway, I’ll look into actual shipping costs to Australia.
Tony
