Foreign currency fee charged for Australian account

[chettyv]

Plan

Premium Duo

Country

Australia

Device

(iPhone 8, MSI Windows 10 laptop, Macbook Pro late 2016)

Operating System

(iOS 10, macOS Mojave, Windows 10,etc.)

My Question or Issue

I changed to Duo Premium plan with payment method (PayPal linked to Australian CC).

I have for reasons unknown been charged a foreign transaction fee on my subscription amount (AU$15.99 + $0.40 foreign transaction fee). 

My PayPal is setup with an Australian address and is linked to Australian bank accounts and credit cards.  I do not see why an international transaction fee is applied.  My bank account has stated that the transaction is foreign and hence why a fee has been applied.

A search shows that this is not a new issue.  Can this please be rectified and the foreign transaction fee charged refunded.

[Jeremy]

Hi there @chettyv,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community. We're happy to help you with information regarding this.

It's your bank that are charging you the extra fee. We're working on fixing it so it doesn't happen in the future, but can't say right now when it will be implemented.

When it comes to the refund, we recommend that you contact out customer support so that they can see if you're eligible for a refund. You can contact them here.

Let us know if we can help you with anything else.

Take care 🙂

[73lillisey]

Hi Jeremy 

Its now April 2022 and I’m having this same issue and have just spent an hour chatting on Spotify  help chat with  agents not having any idea what I’m talking about is there a fix and why is this happening 

[Elena]

Hey @73lillisey,

We can confirm that despite our efforts to alleviate this, we still see instances where this happens.

The payments are automated by different payment providers and sometimes, due to different factors, it might get processed outside of the country you're currently in. Having your payment method enabled for international transactions is actually one of the prerequirements for payments to succeed.

We're aware this is a fee that is charged by PayPal and some banks and isn't something we wish our users to be charged for, but unfortunately we have no full control of.

If you reach out to them, our CS team can look into methods of compensation that can set off the extra cost as a gesture of goodwill from our end.

We'll continue doing our best to avoid such charges with our payment partners, but in the end it does come down to individual policies that we can't influence fully.

Hope this helps,

Cheers!

[Claire_82]

It is now September 2022, and I too am also being charged the international transfer/transaction fee... any more updates please?

Thanks

Claire

[mclaughlans8]

I think I have something to report. I've been struggling with this issue for over 2 years. I remember, back when it started for us, that I spent hours in contact with Spotify, our bank (the credit card issuer) and PayPal. It's was all to no avail, until a Spotify support person gave me temporary relief from my pain. We were given a fee-free month on our Spotify service. I figured I'd wait till that credit position was fully eroded before I jumped back into the action. And, here I am! And the report?..I have done some experimentation with payment methods. When we took up a Premium Spotify account, we initially paid the monthly bill direct via a CCard. Then, we swapped over to PayPal linked back to a different CCard (both CCards with the same bank). The foreign payment fee started (2+ years ago). We recently swapped payment back directly to the first CCard and the fee disappeared. This month, I swapped it back to paying via PayPal and, yes, the foreign transaction fee came back. Question. Are all of the hundreds of us who are having this problem using PayPal? BMc - Australia.

[mclaughlans8]

Of course, even if PayPal is part of the problem, it still doesn't absolve Spotify. You can't advertise a service in Australia for an AUD cost and then direct that payment to an international site behind the scenes resulting in foreign transaction fees for most of us who are impacted.

[cnglerm0wlapy7uufa1j]

Looking to all messages above, it seems PayPal doesn't like Spotify users, I am having the same charged of the international transfer/transaction fee... Any resolve ? How can I get back the refund and make sure it won't happen again?

Thanks

It is now September 2022, and I too am also being charged the international transfer/transaction fee... any more updates please?

Thanks

[cnglerm0wlapy7uufa1j]

I have contact CS, but can't help for any refund or stop the fee.

I will try the last to contact PayPal. Hope can solve it.

[brettrenton]

I was having the same issue with being charged the international transaction fee, removed Paypal as the payment method (now direct to credit card) and the fee is no longer being charged

[cnglerm0wlapy7uufa1j]

Contacted to my bank (Westpac) and they explained the fee was proceed with foreign bank, and the GBP currency shows on the transaction, so they have to charge the exchange rate. Which means even I direct use credit card would have no different. =(

[rokheli]

I’ve just noticed I am being charged a foreign transaction fee too, might cancel this and try renewing it and see if it happens again if I can’t get a resolution.

[aliciatee]

I’m currently paying for a family subscription using a credit card via PayPal and getting stung with an international transaction fee each month. The support person I’ve just spoken to was less than helpful and insisted that I had to take up the issue with my bank.

I will try to make the payment with a credit card only, and see if the issue still occurs.

[andelainandelain]

We have had the same issue for some years now and went through the whole process of contacting banks, Spotify etc. We too are paying via PayPal and have had various theories about why Spotify are charging Australians in GBP - the latest theory is that Spotify may be doing this to avoid paying tax in Australia? Perhaps Spotify could weigh in on this? It seems implausible to us that they have not been able to rectify this issue for what is many years now?!?

[andelainandelain]

I should also say that we have always been more than happy with our family membership which is why we have stayed with Spotify for several years. However, with the recent price hike and their inability to sort out the GBP charge each month (resulting in a foreign fee then being charged by the CC provider) Apple music is looking pretty good and is currently cheaper too! 

[vodka_lemonade]

I too have the exact same issue. I've paid for Spotify using multiple different credit cards (paying directly with the credit card details) with no issues. 

When paying through PayPal, PayPal says the fee is coming from Britain hence the international transaction fee. PayPal says it Spotify, Spotify says it's PayPal. It's ridiculous!

[flano77]

Hi Spotify - can this really still be an issue almost 3 years after this post?  With all the price increases I am now up to double the foreign currency fee from when this post was started.   Please sort it Spotify!!  Or let us know what we need to do.

[Reme81]

I’ve had a Spotify subscription for a couple of years, why only last month am I being charged an international transaction fee?!

[cynd311]

It’s 2024 now (obviously) and I have been charged this fee for months now since I changed over to Paypal!!! Ridiculous, I will be contacting support in the morning. How has nothing coke of this after so many years??

[cynd311]

come^^