Re: Anyone seeing a $1.50 foreign transaction fee?

[Daniel Parks <tarsnap@masterwebdev.com>]

On Jan 30, 2013, at 9:38 AM, Colin Percival <cperciva@tarsnap.com> wrote:

> A Tarsnap user has reported that after using his credit card to make a Tarsnap
> payment (directly, i.e., not via PayPal), he was charged a $1.50 "foreign
> transaction fee".  To make things more confusing, nobody is admitting to being
> responsible for charging that fee.

I hope you'll excuse me if this is not what you're asking: a foreign transaction fee is charged by the credit card company (the bank) when a purchase is made from another country. So, when I (with a US credit card) make a payment to Tarsnap (in Canada), I'm charged a foreign transaction fee.

The foreign transaction fee will vary by credit card, but are generally 1%-4%. Some cards (e.g. my Schwab VISA debit card) don't charge foreign transaction fees.

I was charged a 3% foreign transaction fee when I paid for Tarsnap with a Citi "Diamond Preferred" MasterCard on October 6th, 2012.

Hope that helps,
Daniel