using credit card overseas?

[lg8302ch]

Definitely no problem with the Freedom on Amazon.com

[lg8302ch]

@ bernhardtra
Discover checking offers free incoming international wires through Mellon ...just in case you ever need it

[TiggerDat]

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@lg8302ch wrote:
@ bernhardtra
Discover checking offers free incoming international wires through Mellon ...just in case you ever need it

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That would be nice except for the three different fees that I have to pay on this end.  Last time I went to a bank to transfer money I asked how much and they told me 250 Yuan.  I was ok with that.  I filled out the paperwork and handed them my money and the 250 Yuan, then they said it was also 1% or 2% fee on top of that and a processing fee of $200-$400 when Western Union was only like $70.  I did the Western Union instead.  I was so annoyed that they couldn't simply tell me in the first place the total amount I would have to pay.  WU is $35 for up to $9000.  (You can only send that amount at one time.  So I did it twice!)  250 Yuan is equal to $40, so I thought I was getting a deal to do it that way and filled the paperwork out.  It is a nightmare going into a bank here.  I had to change my phone number on my account recently and it took almost an hour to do so.  Don't ever go into a Chinese bank unless you absolutely must or enjoy pain!  They count your money 3 times then put it into a machine and count it twice and then count it again by hand.  When you walk in, you take a number, and then you sit down, for a long time.  I proabably have 10 different horror stories about going into a bank here.  I love ATMs and the security guards here.  Between the two you will save many many hours of your time and get things done much faster. 

I can't wait to visit a bank in the US again.  I will probably walk in and kiss the ground the moment I am in the door.  I wonder what my fiance will say when we go in?  I doubt my fiance will ever want to return here after that!

[lg8302ch]

@ bernhardtra
oh wow....that is insane! For me WU fees would be like 250$ and online money wires only 10$ for up to 12K...and best of all I can initiate it from the US online and do not have to be there in person. Like this it indeed does not make sense. For me that Discover checking account is a wonderful thing and saved me quite some fees already.

[Anonymous]

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@anonymous4a wrote:

Yeah, I have no FTF  credit cards that I use in Asia but I wanted to use Chase Freedom for the 5 % cash back on amazon purchases online . So I shouldn't get a FTF from the US amazon website . 

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Probably overkill, but if you do this a lot on many sites, might be worth getting a cheap US VPN, just to avoid location-based issues.   I use a UK VPN when accessing various UK sites

[TiggerDat]

As long as the company is in the US and processes from the US, it doesn't matter where you are.  I order all the time from overseas on US websites and since my card is a US card I don't get any FTF.  One issue is that when ordering from overseas is that they detect the IP address and might not process your order.  Even with a VPN it might cause issues, as some IP addresses for VPNs are flagged and will block transactions from happening.  I had an issue with that, buying from Walmart and other companies in the past, I had a many transactions later left unfulfilled.  I had to call and get it worked out, actually I had to contact the EO for Walmart last year to get it worked out.  It even took a little struggle getting it done.  Now my Walmart account is coded to prevent this, supposedly.  We will see what happens in the next few weeks when I do my shopping.  I haven't had many issues recently with my current VPN though.