Recently I bought an air ticket through expedia.com.sg, and also a service from Groupon.sg. The prices were quoted in Singapore dollars, and everything seemed to me that the transaction is done within Singapore shore. However, when I checked my credit card bills, I noticed I had been charged more than the stated amount. Feeling uneasy, I called up the credit card company. Their explanation is that the merchants are located overseas, so a 'cross border transaction fee' had been incurred. The rate is 0.8% of the transacted amount. I am fine with the fee if I had been informed of it and I can tell whether the merchant is a Singapore one or an overseas merchant, but in this case, I bought a service in Singapore, through a .sg website, but in fact the transaction is considered 'cross border'.
A search on the internet shows that almost all the banks in Singapore have this charge, with the exception of OCBC, at the moment. The worst seems to SCB, a foreign bank, and it happens to be the one I am using.
Now, the only safe way is to support our local business. Book your air tickets, hotels, etc, everything from a local Singapore company, not with those overseas brands, not even if they have a .sg suffix in their website.
A search on the internet shows that almost all the banks in Singapore have this charge, with the exception of OCBC, at the moment. The worst seems to SCB, a foreign bank, and it happens to be the one I am using.
Now, the only safe way is to support our local business. Book your air tickets, hotels, etc, everything from a local Singapore company, not with those overseas brands, not even if they have a .sg suffix in their website.
No comments:
Post a Comment