Foreign Transaction Fees

[Anonymous]

Being seeking for a good deal on Expedia by Citi as well as Hilton Honors by AmEx. The one I might certainly get approved for carry between 2.7% and 3% foreign transaction fees. I travel a lot from US to LatAm and Europe in business. My question will be if I book a flight or a hotel online (expedia.com or hilton.com) using one of the cards while staying in a European country is that considered an international transaction for purpose of the foreign transaction fee?

[grillandwinemaster]

Good question.

Mods, maybe move this to credit card boards for better exposure? Is not personal finance related. 

Thanks

[Anonymous]

I'd think the only potential issue would be if the site redirected to a country specific version and the transaction was processed by a foreign subsidiary or something like that.

[longtimelurker]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I'd think the only potential issue would be if the site redirected to a country specific version and the transaction was processed by a foreign subsidiary or something like that.

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Right.  "Foreign" is in relation to the "home" of the card, not the current location, and transactions processed by an entity outside the home can incur a FTF.  As zreed says though, if you access expedia from the UK say, it's likely you will be sent to https://www.expedia.co.uk/       In many cases (including expedia) there is an option to choose a different site from the Global Site menu so you could go to the correct one.   In other cases, using a US-based VPN should do the trick.