Excessive international refund fees

Discodenv

Hi all, I haven't been able to find anything similar so am here for your help.

I recently visited Japan and paid for the hotel room using my Metro Bank debit card (Mastercard). The amount was subject to their non-sterling transaction fee of 1.9% which I was aware of in advance so no problem so far.

I was then due a refund from the hotel for one nights stay which I did not use which amounted to £170.75. However to issue the refund, £816.18 was paid in to my account, followed by another payment of £645.43 taken out on the same date (I was charged a non-sterling transaction fee for each of these). The difference of course is £170.75, but this complicated transaction resulted in fees totaling £27.77 just for this £170.75 refund.

Simply paying in £170.75 should have resulted in fees of £3.24 according to my calculations. I contacted Metro Bank who said this may have been the process that the hotel had to follow and they left it at that. Has this happened to anyone else at all and can you tell me where I stand on the matter?? Will I be able to claim these ridiculous charges back?

Thanks

dunstonh

Will I be able to claim these ridiculous charges back?

Obviously not from the card provider as they are not responsible for the transactions. You could make a case to the retailer and ask for a goodwill gesture from them given the way they did the transactions.