Surprise with foreign transaction fee

[fishlist]

I have a Spotify Australia account but the credit card statement reads 

SPOTIFY STOCKHOLM CREDIT CARD PURCHASE and I have been charged a foriegn transaction fee.

I have now seen that this seems to be a rather common problem. What surprises me is that I was not made aware of this. Could you help rectify this, preferably with a refund of the excess amount. And let me know if I will continue to be charged from a STOCKHOLM account ???

[Stelyio]

I've come to conclusion if you use Amex on PayPal they charge you. If you don't then it's all okay n

[fishlist]

I have stopped experiencing the problem now. CITI visa is not charged with the additional fee and the transaction is going through Spotify Australia.  The last one went only a few days ago. 

Yes, it appears that any transactions on AMEX and possibly PAYPAL go through a different portal - outside of Australia resulting in the problem. But surely they can rectifiy it or point it out to subscribers. 

While I can sit back and relax for now, it is very disgraceful of SPOTIFY to not respond to these complaints. Establishing a forum is a joke if they are not going to take note of it or respond. Will definitely think about other streaming services to switch over to.

[Honda4Life]

From October 2016, my billing changed to Gb from Au.

Been getting charged foreign transaction fees since then.

Not good!!

[Stelyio]

Use PayPal and use an master card and visa.

Also do this: http://www.pointhacks.com.au/how-to-change-credit-card-billing-currency-in-paypal/

Works a treat for me

[Emm316]

Guys, I gave up on this a while back becuase it is such a small fee each month and then just then I saw on my credit card, they have refunded every single one of these fees and also stopped charging it on the monthly payment!!

27/02/2017

*Intl Transaction Fee reversal

AUD 17.61

In case that doesnt paste in properly it is a line item called "Intl Transaction Fee Reversal" for $17.61

[Stelyio]

What bank and what payment method?

[Emm316]

Citibank credit card, refunded directly to the card. Not sure if it was
spotify or citibank who are ultimately responsible for the refund...

[fishlist]

The reversal is part of Citibank's decision not to charge the fee for Australian websites charging in AUD but payment made through an overseas machine/processed overseas.I was told this will go on for the whole year as of now. I just got off the phone with them because I also received a reversal. Citibank has not been charging me the fee for Spotify, so the reversal is for other transactions I had incurred.

It was a NAB Amex card that used to charge me the fee and I stopped using it.

[evelynhoney-au]

No I use Visa and I'm being charged. It's only $0.54 but it's more the principle. No other subscription service (Netflix, Stan, apps etc.) charge this. **bleep**??

[evelynhoney-au]

Me too!!! Same deal.

[Mars_Walker]

I was paying for my Spotify subscription via CommBank Visa Card, and was not getting the fee. The monthly payment was listed as being sent to SPOTIFY AUSTRALIA PL.

I'm in the process of closing my CommBank accounts, and so updated my Spotify payment to PayPal Australia payment, with my PayPal payments coming out of an ING Australia account. My first month's payment to Spotify has just cleared, and I've been charged an international transaction fee on my ING account. The payment is going through PayPal Australia, in Australian dollars.

This is really frustrating. 

[ncoward-au]

Since this issue seems to have been going on for a long time I would expect that Spotify would by now have worked out that their transactions need to be recognised as an Autralian transaction when singin up from Australia. 2018 and I am having the same issues. So what is the solution Spotify has reached for its customers in 2018 to stop the issue raised 2 years ago - Appears to be nothing??

[Emm316]

At one point, spotify refunded me all the excess transaction fees from the
past.. but then I think it kept happening after that. I gave up caring
because it was such a small amount in $$, but as a % it is not that small
cos spotify itself is cheap, so they should defs try to fix it.

[nososvossoyyo]

I subscribed to Spotify Australia, and believed it would cost me $17.99 (Aussie dollars) for the family subscription, as advertised. 

The receipt in my Spotify account, and the corresponding Paypal transaction show AUD17.99. 

However, my credit card statement shows a charge from Spotify GB for AUD18.52 + AUD0.53 for foreign fee.

I'm seriously considering cancelling my subscription, as this seems to me like misleading advertising. When a service is offered in Australia (via an Australia web page) and charges shown in Australian dollars, you assume that that's what you'll be charged.

If Spotify happens to process the payment from outside Australia is not really my problem, and I shouldn't be expected to bear the cost of it.

[KH77]

I raised the same issue with Spotify Support via an online chat. They have refunded the 53c foreign transaction as I explained that the processing of the payment is outside of my control and since I have never been charged previously, they can refund me and ensure the payment is processed in Australia going forward. Ridiculous that this issue has not been rectified years after it being reported...

[55_517qw-q5gp]

July 2019 - I've been charged via spotify GB and incurrent an international fee also. Instead of the usual spotify Australia. Chat so far are useless and don't recognize the issues, and asking me to tell bank to fix it

[OzMaestro]

Same happened for me in October 2019.

Spotify just want to blame the financial institiution, and then PayPal for the problem.

My CC statements clearly bill as Spotify AU up until October when they changed (without consultation or consent) to GB as a billing location.

They are clueless about the problem, and just want to deflect blame.

I'm taking measures to ensure I don't get hit with the fee again 😉

[Petya]

Hey there all,

Thanks for reaching out about this! 

Our advise is to contact the bank and ask to have the foreign transaction charge refunded. If that's not possible, feel free to reach out to our support here.

Let us know how it goes! 

[OzMaestro]

Yet another ill informed response from spotify. No care factor what so ever, and complete lack of understanding of their own backend billing processes.

[1251730796]

Did you pay Spotify through PayPal?

I have the same issue. What I've done is that I have stopped paying for Spotify through PayPal. I am using other means to give payment. I am wondering if this will stop this issue. Time will see. Was everyone's account through Paypal? As you know, it could be a PayPal issue.