Citi to charge 3% on foreign currency transactions

A mate of mine got a notice in the mail from citi - he's got the American Airlines card - that basically says they'll be charging an additional 3% for transactions (purchases and balance transfers) made in foreign currencies. If you your a US citi card holder without an alternate german credit card, you might want to check to see if your card will also be affected.

"For each purchase made in a foreign currency, we add an additional finance charge of 3.0% of the amount of the purchase after its conversion into US dollars. This foreign currency transaction fee will be added to the appropriate purchase balance with the foreign currency purchase."

"Balance transfers will also be treated as purchases unless otherwise provided in this Agreement. To each balance transfer we add an additional Finance Charge of 3% of the balance transfer, but not less than 5$ and not more than 75$. This fee will be added to the appropriate purchase balance with the balance transfer. The balance transfer transaction fee may cause the annual percentage rate in the billing statement on which the balance transfer first appears to exceed the nominal annual percentage rate."

The new transaction fee will be effective April 2, 2005. (At least they didn't start it on the 1st).

Bastards.

I need to look into this right away cuz I make dozens of tranactions outside the US every month.

Exactly. I tried to search for it on their website and came up with a big goose egg. It might just be the American Airline cards but yeah its probably headed your way. Fortunately I have a Lufthansa card but I think you've gotta have a German account.



PS: You CAN opt out of the additional fees if you inform them in writing. Apparently you can use the card for the remaining ANNUAL period, ie if you opened up your account in June then you can keep the card until June, after that the account is cancelled.

Auslandseinsatz -- don't all banks charge that? My German credit card charges it. I haven't gotten any mail from US Citibank about this. My other bank, a little local one, has just sent me mail about fee changes starting April 1, 2005.

As far as I can tell this is new for Citi, hence the notice. As far as I can tell I dont have those fees with my German credit card but its a travellers card so they waive quite a few things for their frequent flyer programs.

PS: The notice was in the monthly statement, along with some other junk announcements for magazines or whatever.

Most German cards don't charge anything in "€-land". And the fee for other currencies shouldn't be more than 1%. Many cards charge you 1 or 1.5% but 3% is daylight robbery!

Sparkasse Mastercard is now charging 1.75 percent for non-Euro transactions. Daylight robbery!

they now call it "Auslandseinsatz" instead of "the fee for converting pesos to DM" or something like that. So if you use your credit card in Spain, they cannot legally charge you for converting €'s, but they call it something else so they can still get their money. just think, if they had dropped that 1% how much money they would lose. but yeah, it's only 1%. my visa is like this.

There are no charges with my card as long as the transaction is in Euros and it's 1,65% for other currencies. Citibank Visa Gold by Citibank Germany.

Does this only refer to transfers/purchases from a citibank credit card, or does it also apply to transfers between citibank accounts in Germany and overseas? I had intended to apply for a citibank account in Australia, because they seemed to have very cheap international transfer rates, but this would make me reconsider.

Not sure...its been a while since i saw the notice (and it wasn't even mine...just wanted to give TT a shout), i remember thinking it was just for the credit card but i could be wrong...definitely worth checking out.

Fuck, I just received a letter from the credit card I use most often when I am overseas that they are gonna charge 3% for overseas transactions from May 1st. I called my another credit card bank I also use overseas often and they said they already started charging 3%. I have had both of them for at least 12 years, both are platinum and now this is what I get

FYI: Lufthansa now offers Credit Cards Abroad to peeps living outside of Germany. I dont anything about this program or rates but it might be worth a peek. I've got no complaints with my German card and service.

And lets not forget about this Story - Indian Call Center Employees Hack US Bank Accounts (Citibank)

Would you really want to stay with them...

kinda related , does anyone know what are the charges for taking cash out in the US at a Citibank ATM with you German Citibank card? This is a normal ATM card not a CC.

This is perfect, I was at Citibank in the US today. I'm looking to open a bank account here (the US) and use it while I am in Munich. It will be a US dollar account, but I want to deposit Euro (cash) when I am in Munich. I have asked and asked and researched on their site about a conversion fee, but I get NO where. The workers say it is free...but I have a SERIOUS doubt about that. Also, is it free to take out money from a German ATM? There is so much grey area. Stupid banks and lack of fine print that relates to my situation.

False, to answer your question, the people I have spoken with say it is free for me to do it in Germany. But like I said, I have some SERIOUS doubts about that. Banks want to stick it to you every chance they get. I have not seen IN writting their policy regarding this. So until I do, I'm gonna say they charge you. Prolly the standard $3-5 per transaction.

Danke HerrKali,
There is an online help person that I will try to get in contact with to see if they know. I can't get to the bank today before I fly.
Link for other who might want to do the same http://www.citibank.de/DEGCB/JPS/portal/JP...p;sd=sd_Kontakt
they are open from 10am til 10pm

It's so hard to find a straight answer for your question from banks. Often banks give the "it's free" line, then you find out they are skimming on the exchange rate, making it not free at all.

My last 2 withdraws from Citibank aboard (Thailand and USA) was on 21.05 and 10.05 and there was no fee involve (0.00 Gebühr), I have German Citibank account. The exchange rate is more or less the same as one on xe.com. The only reason to keep Citibank account really

Hi,

I have a Citibank account in German and am considering opening one in the US for, hopefully, easier transfers between nations. I recently had a nightmare experience with a wire transfer which I'd like to avoid in the future (will maybe post about it later...)

I just found the following web page describing some different Citibank transfers

https://web.da-us.citibank.com/cgi-bin/citi...BS_Id=HD_ST_054

Can anyone here please confirm whether it is easy and cheap to transfer Euros <-> Dollars between Germany <-> US if one has a Citibank in both countries? The above page is rather confusing given all the permutations.

Thanks!

I have a Citibank account in Germany and one in Singapore. Transfer from Citibank Germany to anywhere in the world is FREE. I was never charged a cent for transfers, however, one transaction was "lost in transit" and Citibank Germany charged me 20 Euro for enquiring about the status!! (The transfer showed up later and I demanded a refund of that 20 Euro "research" - as Citibank Germany calls it.) I believe the conversion from Euro to destination bank was made at the rate of the destination bank.

And it's true that withdrawing cash from Citibank abroad is free. I did that outside of Germany a few times already.

This is from the Citibank Germany.

Whereas, Citibank Singapore told me there will be charge for transferring outside Singapore...

So, just to let you know that not all Citibank worldwide have the same policy! BAH!

In Germany Citibank is known to be a "vampire bank". Just google for the term.
That's their business model here in Germany.
I dont't understand your complaints.

really?

http://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q=Va...=cr%3DcountryDE

same thing, i googled it and couldnt find anything interesting. Then went to google.de and tried, yet nothing interesting!

use "Vampir bank citibank"

I still don't see anything revealing. I take it it's a bad thing? Can you explain?

When pressed Citibank will admit to a 3-5% spread on their currency transactions (depending on the currencies), so it's never "free". It's convenient to use multiple Citibank accounts, but probably cheaper to set up with oanda or xetrade if you transfer frequently as they have tighter spreads.

.. an other reason to avoid this bank. Now you know the reason for the 3% charge on foreign currency transaction. They need the money.


http://www.insidetech.com/news/2470-citiba...curity-problems