₦airaland Forum

Blame it on GEJ

Ymodulus:
Access is still 225. Very sure.


Beside all you posted above does not mean.

You are right. I used Access today and it was 225. Unfortunately they have a limit of $1000 per month.

Being told by multiple banks that annual spending has been restricted to $10,000.

mavinc4u:
which of their cards do you use?

Visa

Union Bank has reduced ATM withdrawal to $200 per day.

Omotweezy:
Hi guys ,
Please I have a situation . I have been making purchases on Amazon for the past two months with my stanbic card. I always chose the option to pay in naira equivalent when checking out. Amazon actually coverts one dollar at 208. I checked out in naira and stanbic sends me the exact deduction from my account .

So I woke up to find all my money gone on my stanbic account . After two months of purchases on Amazon . I called customer care n I was told that Amazon billed me lower than the banks exchange rate . Am so furious , don't know what to do. I also used diamond debit card to buy stuffs on Amazon and the amount debited was exactly what Amazon charged .
What if I did not have more money on my stanbic card? Would they put my savings account to minus .
Please has anyone experienced this ? What should I do about this ? The difference taken from my account is a of money .
Thanks for your help

Same thing happened with First Bank. I have also used GTB and Access for the same purchases and they never charged me extra at a later date. These lousy banks are just reaping where they did not sow.

Here's the info I got from banks that I spoke with for online or POS outside the country.

GTB $1000
FBN equivalent of N2.5MM
Access Bank - $4,000
Heritage - Equivalent of N500,000

First Bank charged me 222 on 17 Sep.

I notice that Visa alerts are usually almost immediate, but MasterCard takes some time.

Here's what my research has shown.
A bit of background to this first. Debit and credit cards can be used wherever you see the Mastercard or Visa symbol, depending on what your card is branded. But, when you use it overseas, your card issuer has to translate your purchase into Naira– the base currency of your card. There are two factors that have an effect:
1. The card issuer's exchange rate. If you look at any credit card, it'll have a MasterCard or Visa logo. This is the card issuer, and both set their own exchange rates, which is the rate your bank gets when you use a card overseas.
2. The non-Naira transaction fee. This is set by your card provider - i.e. your bank e.g. GTB or Stanbic
So, when you spend overseas, your bank or credit card provider first uses the wholesale rate set by MasterCard or Visa on the day you make the purchase to make the exchange. Then it adds its commission, typically between 2.5% and 3% for most banks in Europe and North America, but for Nigerian banks they are charging way more than that, even up to 15%. You will also see other fees for cash withdrawals which are fixed at a maximum of N420 by CBN but some banks like Access charge N240.
If you look at the rates charged by Master card and visa to the banks, it comes to N199+, but less than N2000 right now, but in turn the banks charge us N220 or more, representing 10% or more. That's where the problem lies. The banks are making unwholesome profits as foreign exchange fees. That's why you typically see when you get a refund, it's usually at the rate they were charged by visa or MasterCard and unless you complain, they chop the foreign exchange fees.
Excuse my pun, but the banks are laughing to the bank!

GTB and First Bank charged 220 15Sep.