HSBC 1% Surcharge on Overseas HKD Credit Card Charges

[freeier]

No you won't.

Instead you will get charged about 1.95% at least (and probably more).

but if you use hkd on credit card overseas you will be charged a 5% fx spread then later another 1% on credit card fees...

[pin]

but if you use hkd on credit card overseas you will be charged a 5% fx spread then later another 1% on credit card fees...

But that wasn't what the question was about.

[freeier]

the dcc fee of 5% is shared between merchant and the service provider (i.e. not sure which parts but its all part of the chain).. so some merchants are keen to do that and earn that extra. Whereas cross border fees and service fees are by the card issuers so merchants care less.

i have experienced once when i was signing up with UOL london on some exam fee. The question they put during payment was :"are you paying using a local credit card or a foreign credit card".. if you put hk credit card, they just converted it into hkd for you with some ridiculous exchange rate. Finally you had to say you are paying with a local credit card. Those are really schemey and unscruputous payment collector (some of those new fintech companies)... If a bank is tasked to do that at least they will be more transparent on the fees to be charged. That's why i have reservation with the new generation of fintech providers...

[freeier]

But that wasn't what the question was about.

without giving the full context one would think that paying in hkd in japan would be a good deal ?

[Ph1lW]

I actually deliberately started using the “scam” conversion at Amazon US, since their exchange rate for hkd seemed only about 0.1-0.2% off, so could still get the HSBC Red 4% rebate without paying the ripoff fx transaction fee of 1.95%.

[PLamHK]

Yes - me too. Amazon is one of the very few sites offering different currencies where the conversion rates seem to be very reasonable. Although you have to be careful - they show you an FX rate but then they add in some sort of "conversion insurance" or similar weirdly named charge. It still worked out better than the 1.95% charge when I last did it, but I'm not sure it would now that there's an additional 1% from HSBC.

[cwd]

Does anyone know offhand what Amex do?

Amex don't charge anything in these situations. They also don't allow DCC. This change by HSBC is going to make Amex the safest choice for all online payments. Uber also charge from outside HK, which I only noticed thanks to trying out Mox for their larger cashback.

[mistakes_maker]

Sorry i dont really understand this. So if I go overseas and use my hsbc credit card, should i pay in local currency or hkd?

[PLamHK]

Sorry i dont really understand this. So if I go overseas and use my hsbc credit card, should i pay in local currency or hkd?

Always local currency.

But this change doesn't affect "card present" purchases - it only relates to online purchases made in HKD where in general the purchaser has no idea where the transaction will be processed and hence whether or not they will be dinged this 1% surcharge.

[Sith]

Does anyone know offhand what Amex do?

AMEX seems not to charge anything. My Netflix/Spotify gets the normal charge of 108 HKD.