Letter: Foreign Transaction Fee
Dec 27th, 2008 by Nick
Dear Nick,
I don’t know how involved you still are with things Antarctic, but I wanted to bring to someone’s attention that Raytheon Polar Services Co is now charging a “Foreign Transaction Fee” for credit card purchases made in the store at McMurdo. My credit card company said that the charges do originate with RPSC. Does this mean that Raytheon now considers Antarctica foreign soil? How does this jive with Raytheon’s insistence that we pay US income taxes? Hmmmm.
Best,
[Foreigner]
P.S.: For goodness sake please don’t use my name. I’m a grantee and NSF would not be pleased with me for bringing this up.
That’s funny, I bought some t-shirts the other weeks and was never charged?
Some people are reporting that they are getting charged a similar fee when they make a withdrawal at the Wells Fargo ATM on Highway 1. So far, I am not. This was brought up at an employee meeting and the explanation that was given was that Wells Fargo reclassified the Highway 1 ATM as being located overseas rather than in Denver. Some banks (not Wells Fargo or RPSC) are using this as an excuse to charge an extra fee. The solution that was proposed is that we change banks if we are getting charged this fee. That may be fine for full time employees or career temps like myself but it seems an unnecessary burden for short timers.
I venture the theory that RPSC uses Wells Fargo to process their credit card transactions and that the card reader in the store has been similarly reclassified as being at a foreign location. We need more reports from other McMurdo residents to find out if all credit card issuers are charging this fee. I highly doubt that RPSC is charging this fee as they would have to do so right at the machine at the register and it would show up on your bill. If a charge appears after you sign the credit slip it can only be a charge added by the bank that issued the card and revealed in the fine print of the credit card contract.
The above does not mean that I don’t support the tax protest. If anyone can lay claim to the ground that McMurdo is sitting on it’s the Kiwis.
RPSC isn’t charging any foreign transaction fee…talk to your bank.
“We need more reports from other McMurdo residents to find out if all credit card issuers are charging this fee.”
My US Bank credit card is charging a fee
I’m not getting charged fees either, but I bank with Wellsfargo.
~cheers
It is all to do with the IP address registry, nothing to do with Wells Fargo or Raytheon, or NSF.
The IP addresses for McMurdo that these machines use, are registered as being in Antarctica, so some banks use this as an excuse for the foreign transaction fee. Basically, if you are getting charged, take it up with your bank.
Bank of America is charging me 3% with every use. When I wrote to them in an email that I was in Antarctica and was being charged a fee this year that was not charged last year, my brother scanned and emailed me a response letter from B of A stating that in order to address my concern, I would need to “visit the nearest Bank of America branch location.”