samboyellowsub
Member
I was in Australia for a month withdrawing from a NZ bank acct and noticed the amounts withdrawn (before the 2.5% fee that I was aware of before travelling) was not close to the exchange rate for that day. It was easy to differentiate between the base amount and the fee since they would show up as two separate withdrawals from the NZ acct. Anyway, the base amount never even reflected the exchange rate for the day - it was consistently higher. I contacted Westpac and asked them about this. They said, they do not choose the rates, Mastercard does and they linked me to the currency conversion tool to see for myself what the rates were on a specific settlement date - "fair" enough I thought.
Not really fair or forthcoming of the bank especially when they break their 2.5% fee into a Westpac (1.5%) fee and a Mastercard fee (1%). Any normal person would think, Ok both Mastercard and Westpac are charging a fee so the 2.5% must be the premium I'll be paying over the spot exchange rate.
That is wrong and you (I) are stupid to think that.
I went to the Mastercard currency conversion tool that Westpac linked me too and went through my online bank statement at all the withdrawals that I made in Australia. I made a spread sheet charting how much was withdrawn (the base amt before the 2.5% fee) versus how much should have been withdrawn based on exchange rate specified on the given settlement date. To be absolutely fair, I noted the rate on the Australian date AND the date it would have been in New York since the NYC time is probably what Mastercard was using as the "settlement date."
What I found: I could only go as far back as May 20th. I added up all the amounts that were withdrawn from my NZ bank and found that the average it was a few pips less than 2% higher than what should have been withdrawn based on the cross rate indicated on the Mastercard site for that day. To be sure I was using the right base currency, I checked both AUD/NZD and NZD/AUD. I found that between the two they were slightly different but nowhere near 2% different. I conclude that I am being turtled.
Not really fair or forthcoming of the bank especially when they break their 2.5% fee into a Westpac (1.5%) fee and a Mastercard fee (1%). Any normal person would think, Ok both Mastercard and Westpac are charging a fee so the 2.5% must be the premium I'll be paying over the spot exchange rate.
That is wrong and you (I) are stupid to think that.
I went to the Mastercard currency conversion tool that Westpac linked me too and went through my online bank statement at all the withdrawals that I made in Australia. I made a spread sheet charting how much was withdrawn (the base amt before the 2.5% fee) versus how much should have been withdrawn based on exchange rate specified on the given settlement date. To be absolutely fair, I noted the rate on the Australian date AND the date it would have been in New York since the NYC time is probably what Mastercard was using as the "settlement date."
What I found: I could only go as far back as May 20th. I added up all the amounts that were withdrawn from my NZ bank and found that the average it was a few pips less than 2% higher than what should have been withdrawn based on the cross rate indicated on the Mastercard site for that day. To be sure I was using the right base currency, I checked both AUD/NZD and NZD/AUD. I found that between the two they were slightly different but nowhere near 2% different. I conclude that I am being turtled.
