Currency conversion cost on a card sold as zero forex mark-up

Bank · Credit card · credit-card charges

Complaint no.: N202425016002222
Against: IDFC FIRST Bank
Filed: 29 Apr 2024
Closed: 1 Aug 2024
Time taken: 94 days
Scheme: RB-IOS 2021
Closure clause: 16(2)(a)
Did it help?: Did not help
Compensation: None

What happened

A foreign-currency transaction on a credit card cost more in rupees than I expected from a card with no forex mark-up.

What I asked the Ombudsman for

Refund of the extra cost on a foreign-currency transaction.

What the entity said

The bank said it had levied no forex charge. Non-dollar transactions are converted to US dollars and then to rupees at the card network's rates, which is where the difference came from.

What the Ombudsman decided

No service deficiency could be attributed to the bank. Rejected after 94 days.

Did not help

Did the Ombudsman help?

No. The closure repeated the bank's explanation of network conversion. It took 94 days to say so.

What I took from it

Network conversion rates are not a bank charge. Before filing, separate what the bank charged from what the network's rate did, and complain only about the former.

Summarised from the RBI closure letter and my own correspondence. Names of individuals, account numbers and reference numbers other than the complaint number have been removed.