Just want to let you know what my concierge just brought to the door. I wish it had been some warm croissants but, no, it was a letter from our bank of thirty years, Citibank. Here is a new way they are squeezing money out of their customers to compensate for their incredibly bad financial acumen vis a vis the subprime mess, Herewith a quotation from their letter:

"We are changing how we calculate the fee for foreign purchases. The description in your Card Agreement of this fee will be as follows: We are changing how we calculate the fee for foreign purchases. The description in your Card Agreement of this fee will be as follows:

We add a fee of 3% of the U.S. dollar amount of each purchase made outside the U.S. whether made in U.S. dollars or in a foreign currency. This fee is a FINANCE charge."

So unless I’m mistaken, they are imposing a FINANCE CHARGE plus the 3%. I have a bank here in France, so the whole thing is moot for us, but not for anyone traveling, say, next week to Europe with a Citi charge card. I’m vengefully pleased to report that when it came time to park a chunk of 401 change in a bank, we put it elsewhere. Ditto the proceeds of the house we sold to move to France. Pourquoi? I must have anticipated their customer unfriendly practices when they removed their branch from our old hometown, then removed the ATMs, and only recently were reduced to a cash machine at the 7-Eleven when they saw that, hey, pulling services pulls away customers. So I will herewith begin my next communication with them as follows:

Dear Citibank,

Thank you for offering me the opportunity not to accept your credit card terms by opting out. This is to inform you, that I am opting out of our rocky thirty-year relationship. It’s time to move on. Good luck with the subprime mess.

I don't think this is an additional charge as in their original 3% + an additional 3%.

The original terms statement for foreign transactions by Citicard was:

"3% of each purchase after it is converted into US dollars."

I believe that the more explicit description they contacted you about is a result of the Credit Card Foreign Transaction Fee Settlement. People still have until May 30th to file their claim which can be done through the link in the website provided.

As above, previously banks did not disclose that they would also charge you for US dollar foreign transactions, they just did it. Hence, the lawsuit and a lot of CYA by the banks in the form of restated terms.

Actually they did state they would charge 3% under the old contracts. Evidently the legal department (when not busy trying to figure out how to evict the elderly, widows and orphans) came up with a new term for the same old fee.

They probably won't have any better luck with this one than the previous. So if you do travel with Citi credit or ATM cards throw your receipts in with your tax documents. Along about 7 years or so from now you'll have them to get the full refund.

Since I am a pack rat (it is one reason why I live in AZ - don't want to get far from the relatives - ) I still had documents going back 10 years. So we are getting a nice chunk of change back. WOO HOO!!