Website charges out of England?

[LB_NJ]

I booked a shore excursion and the credit card company flagged it as an international transaction out of England (we live in the US).

 

Is this expected?  Is there any way to change it so the transaction looks like it is from the US as far as the credit card company is concerned?

[Windsurfboy]

Was it I $ or £

[mcloaked]

It is always the case since the voyage currency is US dollars, but the Cunard banking system is based in the UK.

[LB_NJ]

20 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

Was it I $ or £

$

[bluemarble]

@LB_NJ, it sounds like you may have already noticed this, but to reinforce what @mcloaked has posted, my experience with booking a shore excursion via the voyage personaliser (My Cunard) here in the US is that it shows up on my credit card statement as "CUNARD LINE VOYAGE PER CUNARD LINE GBR". The charge is in US dollars but the "GBR" indicates the transaction originated in the UK. That used to incur a foreign transaction fee for me before my credit card stopped charging them a few years ago. I do not know any way to work around that if your card charges foreign transaction fees.

Edited August 10, 2022 by bluemarble

[LB_NJ]

 

2 minutes ago, bluemarble said:

@LB_NJ, it sounds like you may have already noticed this, but to reinforce what @mcloaked has posted, my experience with booking a shore excursion via the voyage personaliser (My Cunard) here in the US is that it shows up on my credit card statement as "CUNARD LINE VOYAGE PER CUNARD LINE GBR".The charge is in US dollars but the "GBR" indicates the transaction originated in the UK. That used to incur a foreign transaction fee for me before my credit card stopped charging them a few years ago. I do not know any way to work around that if your card charges foreign transaction fees.

 

I will just have to check which if any of mine or wife's cards charge foreign transaction fees and use the ones that don't.

[mcloaked]

Yes, I just accept that there will be a (small) foreign currency transaction fee - and one point to be aware of, is that if you have an excursion refunded, if it gets cancelled, for example, then you will get your money back as US dollars through the Carnival system, but for me it then gets converted back to UK pounds and incurs another transaction fee - so if you buy an excursion, it gets cancelled, and you get a refund, then you earn the privilege of being charged a transaction fee twice for the two conversions! The charges are a tiny fraction of the cost of an excursion, and I guess we just have to accept it is the cost of doing it that way. On the other hand if you are happy to risk being on a waiting list, then you can wait till you are on board, and book at the tour desk, and it is charged directly in dollars on your on board account - if the excursion then gets cancelled you get a full refund in your on board account since it is not settled with a single card payment until the end of the voyage.

[bluemarble]

One additional point. Your on board account will also be settled via a transaction originating in "GBR". Therefore anything charged to your on board account (in excess of any on board credit you may have) will also be subject to a foreign transaction fee if your US credit card charges them even though that charge is in US dollars.

[exlondoner]

11 hours ago, bluemarble said:

One additional point. Your on board account will also be settled via a transaction originating in "GBR". Therefore anything charged to your on board account (in excess of any on board credit you may have) will also be subject to a foreign transaction fee if your US credit card charges them even though that charge is in US dollars.

 

This seems ludicrous, if I have understood it.

 

If you are in the US and pay your CC in dollars, you get charged because Cunard are in the U.K.

If you are in the U.K., and your CC is in pounds, you get charged because Cunard charge you in dollars.

 

Either way you lose. This is presumably not the fault of Cunard but of banks.

Edited August 11, 2022 by exlondoner

[exlondoner]

11 hours ago, mcloaked said:

Yes, I just accept that there will be a (small) foreign currency transaction fee - and one point to be aware of, is that if you have an excursion refunded, if it gets cancelled, for example, then you will get your money back as US dollars through the Carnival system, but for me it then gets converted back to UK pounds and incurs another transaction fee - so if you buy an excursion, it gets cancelled, and you get a refund, then you earn the privilege of being charged a transaction fee twice for the two conversions! The charges are a tiny fraction of the cost of an excursion, and I guess we just have to accept it is the cost of doing it that way. On the other hand if you are happy to risk being on a waiting list, then you can wait till you are on board, and book at the tour desk, and it is charged directly in dollars on your on board account - if the excursion then gets cancelled you get a full refund in your on board account since it is not settled with a single card payment until the end of the voyage.

 

Because in the past we have often had quite generous credit, I have always waited  to book tours until on board. I have never missed out on a tour I wanted, and, apparently, saved a lot of hassle.

[Victoria2]

7 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

 

Because in the past we have often had quite generous credit, I have always waited  to book tours until on board. I have never missed out on a tour I wanted, and, apparently, saved a lot of hassle.

Us too but we do book any tours which have limited capacity as soon as they appear on our booking.  A few of them have timed tickets eg The Faberge Museum and once sold, that's it and the same goes f or flightseeing tours.

We have seen disappointed passengers pleading for the concierge 'to sort it' but being an early bird does have its perks.

[Host Hattie]

12 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

 

Because in the past we have often had quite generous credit, I have always waited  to book tours until on board. I have never missed out on a tour I wanted, and, apparently, saved a lot of hassle.

But some of the limited capacity tours do sell out before boarding so if there's something you really want to do it's best not to wait.

 

[exlondoner]

19 minutes ago, Victoria2 said:

Us too but we do book any tours which have limited capacity as soon as they appear on our booking.  A few of them have timed tickets eg The Faberge Museum and once sold, that's it and the same goes f or flightseeing tours.

We have seen disappointed passengers pleading for the concierge 'to sort it' but being an early bird does have its perks.

 

Not always so. We wanted to do the Fabergé trip, which was full, they said. The next day they rang us to say there were more tickets. Though I don't suppose that particular trip will be an issue in the near future.

[Victoria2]

30 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

 

Not always so. We wanted to do the Fabergé trip, which was full, they said. The next day they rang us to say there were more tickets. Though I don't suppose that particular trip will be an issue in the near future.

That particular tour, when I went on it, caused some angst for the concierge. She got some stick from irate passengers and one was extremely rude. As a complete aside, it showed up what staff have to put up with at times/

Always worth asking about any sold out tour though as this shows.

[bluemarble]

6 hours ago, exlondoner said:

This seems ludicrous, if I have understood it.

 

If you are in the US and pay your CC in dollars, you get charged because Cunard are in the U.K.

If you are in the U.K., and your CC is in pounds, you get charged because Cunard charge you in dollars.

 

Either way you lose. This is presumably not the fault of Cunard but of banks.

 

I remember being puzzled the first time I saw my US credit card had charged me a 3% foreign transaction fee for a purchase originating overseas even though the charge was in US dollars. There was a class-action lawsuit my credit card's bank settled back in 2008 for not properly notifying card holders about that fee.

 

Fortunately we now have a pretty good selection of credit cards here in the US which no longer charge foreign transaction fees. Mine dropped their 3% foreign transaction fee several years ago even for purchases made in currencies other than US dollars.

[D&N]

There are a number of UK banks that issue cards with no foreign transaction or exchange fees. The conversions are made at something like 0.005 difference from commercial rates.

With refunds you might win or lose as the rate will probably be different on the date the refund is applied.

We also have a multi currency account with debit card. If you can load the account with required currency when the rates are beneficial then you are not exposed to fluctuations while spending. We used that for onboard spend and a subsequent trip to New York. 

One minor issue at the NY hotel. Initially used that card for guarantee, which froze several hundred dollars on it. Switched to another card for guarantee then switched back when it came to final $17 payment, leaving card free for other spending.