natwest/paypal have charged me a fee for useing my new visa debit card

fussy123

PayPal are based in Luxemburg and process all their Visa transactions as 'International'. This means that they come through from the card scheme with the international charges. Some banks pass these on, even for Sterling transactions, others don't. I know HBOS charge £1.50, RBS / NW £1.25 and Lloyds I think £1. Since HSBC and Barclays only charge for a currency conversion then you get away with it since PayPal put it through in Sterling. As for Maestro / Solo I think they processed them in the UK, as someone said earlier they use a different system for those. PayPal said I should have read their terms and conditions which apparently state you are dealing with a foreign company based abroad!!

fatmick

I've had exactly the same issue. PayPal say the charge comes from my card issuer, NatWest say the charge comes from PayPal. I'm playing telephone tennis - this is just stupid!

stclair

Its because the transactions are not processed in the UK.

Hence the £1.25 charge.

fatmick

I've had a call from NatWest, and they are refunding the £1.25, but suggested that I use Direct Debit instead of my Visa card, as the charge will be made again! They said the charge was explained on PayPal's website, but couldn't say where and I can't find it. PayPal still claim it's nothing to with them.

As for it being procesed in a foreign country, I agree that's probably the cause, but according to NatWest's Guide to Fees and Interest, the £1.25 fee occurs for POS transactions in a foreign currency, not Sterling transactions in a foreign country.

I think I'm going to take this further. Although they've refunded the £1.25, this essentially means I can't use my card with PayPal, and DD isn;t convenient as it take about a week to go through. Also, I will likely be using my card with Google Checkout to buy apps from the Android market - will that incur a similar charge.

dzug1

I think the reason is not directly the location of the payee, but the fact that it's treated as a cash 'advance'/withdrawal. You are not paying paypal for goods - you are 'giving' them cash that they then use to pay the seller.

Might also explain why both parties blame the other - it's probably actually Visa pocketing the money.

Freds_Friend

[FONT=&quot] Argos Master card credit card say that they May charge an exchange fee of 3% if you are buying on line and the merchant is abroad ( irrespective of whether it a sterling transaction.) There is no May about it. They do charge when using paypal.
Interesting that you canot apply for an ARGOS credit card at the moment.
Even Nationwide Credit Card say they will charge ( in accordance with the details in a seperate table) even for sterling transactions if the merchant is abroad. The charge for Luxemburg is free however.

All these charges should be shown up front & not buried in Condtion 2.7 as it is with the ARGOS Mastercard.[/FONT]