Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020 |

# Credit charges from travel agencies in Tonga? Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea / Tonga
silvanocat 03:40 UTC 25 Oct 2007 | For those of you who have purchased travel arrangements (airline tickets in this case) from a travel agency in Tonga were the charges submitted to your credit card company in TOP or your home currency? My credit card company changes their story every minute but it seems that they may have received a charge in U.S. dollars which is considerably higher than what I agreed to in TOP (xe.com says $161 US for mid-market and I was charged $173.) |
raro 05:45 UTC 25 Oct 2007 | I paid for my hotel bills with my NZ credit card. The charges came back, eventualy, in NZ dollars, but the initial charge was listed in TOP. It was then exchanged at some rate they use, which was definitely not as good as one finds on xe or oanda. And THEN the credit card company deducted another 5% or so as a "currency exchange fee" or something like that. They all do this now, it should be indicated on the back of your monthly credit card statement. So, you will get ripped off either way, not much you can do about it unless you can get cash at a good rate, which may or not be possible, and also carrying around a lot of cash there is not a good idea. | 1
amaile 09:31 UTC 25 Oct 2007 | It seems to depend on which card you use and which bank the money is withdrawn. In my case, the exchange rate is far better with credit card transaction than cash, and it's worth being charged 4% Tongan bank charge. My credit card statement shows the original TOP figure charged (which includes the amount of purchase and 4% bank charge), the exchange rate on that date, and the converted amount in the currency where my bank is located. About the 4% Tongan bank charge: suppose you buy something for TOP 100.00, some charge T$ 104.00 to your card to receive T$99.84 (original amount minus 4% bank charge), or charge T$105.00 to receive T$100.80, or charge only T$100.00 to receive T$96.00. Many businesses in Tonga are such a small scale operation and cannot bear 4% on their own, so they charge extra 4% or 5% to card users. That is my understanding. As far as I know, credit card machines in Tonga can only handle amount in Tongan Pa'anga. Which foreign exchange rate to be applied is decided by the credit card company. | 2
silvanocat 11:56 UTC 25 Oct 2007 | The receipt that I have in TOP (from the travel agency) shows the charge for the airline tickets plus 4% for credit card fees. That is what I agreed to pay. (It's actually against the rules to charge extra to the customer for using a credit card. However, I know that is the practice in many foreign countries and US travel agents do the same thing only they say this price is for a cash discount, if you want to pay with a credit card we can't give you the cash discount.) On my credit card, haven't received the statement but I spoke to the company and also viewed my account online, it showed an amount in US dollars of over $10 more than I estimated for the conversion (and I have never been surprised by conversion amounts before) plus the 2% foreign conversion fee that my credit card company charges. The credit card company said that they received the charge in dollars. But they may not be necessarily be telling the truth. They said that they would refund me the $10 that I was complaining about (we'll see if that happens) which seems very odd if it wasn't their doing. However, I've read about this Dynamic Currency Conversion where foreign businesses can charge a user in their home currency and use whatever exchange rate they want. Visa says you cannot do this without giving the customer the option to pay in the foreign currency and telling them what the charge will be in the home currency. However, there was an article in the Washington Post about tourists in Ireland who were regularly charged in dollars by businesses at a terrible exchange rate, nowhere close to the interbank rate plus a few percents added on by the credit card company. They were not given the option to pay in local currency. | 3
raro 02:31 UTC 26 Oct 2007 | I think a US car rental company tried to do this to me in California once, when I went to give them my NZ credit card. It seemed they were making up their own rate, so I took out my US credit card and used that. [ I was lucky I had both, most travelers don't.] Not sure what one can do about this except complain to the credit card company---and hope one gets that refund. [hope you do!] | 4
harry_mudd 11:46 UTC 26 Oct 2007 | At the Dateline we charged an extra 5%. It's illegal, but I couldn't get that through my bosses head. Apparently NZ banks, if you whinge about the five percent, will refuse to pay ANY of the bill to the biller. I tried to tell my boss that it wasn't worth the gamble but she didn't care... ... because very few people complained about it, and just coughed up the extra 5%. | 5
smandkjc 04:39 UTC 27 Oct 2007 | Once when we paid departure tax by credit card in either Samoa or Tonga they put it through as a cash advance and charged extra fees. We just complained to the card issuer ( MasterCard) and they reversed the extra fees and interest charged. | 6