I was surprised to see a foreign transaction fee on my credit card statement as I had no foreign transactions that I knew about. I called FIA Card Services and was told XXXX of my transactions, through the XXXX, had been processed thorough a foreign bank. 
I called XXXX and was told that, yes, XXXX transaction out of my several purchases with them that day had been processed through a foreign bank. Others had been through domestic banks even though at least XXXX other was from a foreign vendor. The representative said he was surprised I had been charged a fee, but that it was my credit card company that had made that determination in error, not XXXX. 
I have bought and sold hundreds of books through XXXX and never once ( before this ) seen a foreign transaction fee. Oddly, he reimbursed the fee while saying the issue was with the credit card company. 
I called FIA Services again to see why the error had been made. The representative said XXXX had coded this as a foreign transaction from a foreign vendor, that they had not made any error. Then she also reimbursed the fee even though I said I was not asking for reimbursement, only to understand how to avoid foreign fees in the future when there was no process of notification that a foreign transaction fee would be assessed. She indicated there was no way to know. 
So my questions are these : Is anyone supposed to notify me that a foreign transaction fee is possible when buying from third-party vendors? How is it I can be charged a 3 % fee with no prior notification? Why is that my cost of business, not theirs? It seems to me XXXX has an obligation to inform me of an impending foreign transaction fee before the fact, not after the fact. Could you please explain how one is to manage this aspect of on-line business? Just what are the regulations pertaining to this? 
Thank you. 
XXXX XXXX 
