Foreign Fee Charged For Paying Royals Club Service Fee

[Joe L Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Joe L]

I was recently charged a foreign fee for paying my Club Service Fee for the Royal Caribbean. I called ISCO and made the payment with my Citibank credit card. I sent an E-Mail to ISCO asking why I was charged this fee if the payment was made to them in Ft. Lauderdale. Here is their response:


Dear Member:

My name is Claire R Lee. I am the Cash Manager at Interval Servicing Co., LLC.

In March and April 2008, all credit processing for the Royal Resort properties and Royal Resort managed properties was moved to a Mexican bank for Mexican properties (Hacienda Real del Mar, Hotel El Castellano, Real Arenas de Cancun, and Club Internacional de Cancun) or a Belizian bank for all other properties, including the Royal Mayan, the Royal Caribbean, and the Royal Islander.

Some banks issuing credit cards have fees included in the card holder agreement when charges are processed through an international bank even if the international bank is processing charges in U S dollars. Many issuing banks do not charge these fees.

We have received very few reports of fees being charged to members. We are advising members to please check with the bank issuing their card to determine if fees will be charged if charges are processed through an international bank to a US dollar merchant.

Sincerely,

Claire R Lee
Cash Manager

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

They get ya coming and going

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

There is an easy way around these ''junk'' fees by banks. Move your card business to Cap One. They do not charge these fees. Most Credit Unions do not either.

The most annoying charge of this nature I recently got was one that Wachovia popped me with that violated the rules of Visa which owns the ATM network I used. They are not supposed to charge fees at all if you get your money in dollars from an ATM located on a military base or embassy overseas. I had a transaction that was cleared marked as an ATM at a US Embassy on my statement and was in dollars, but I still got charged by Wachovia. That is why I will soon be moving my secondary US account to the internet-based bank of Cap One. Rip-off Wachovia can get stuffed! My primary US account is already at a credit union.