Watch your credit card transactions abroad!!

We will all have read about the hire car companies charging your credit card in Sterling instead of Euros and also the ATM's that try to catch you out when withdrawing money. It seems now that even retailers are after a "piece of the rip off Brits" action if you use a card. Having just returned from Spain, I used my card in one of the local ferreterias to buy some garden furniture. I have used this shop many times before with no problems. The price was €149. I took my eye off the ball at the checkout and was handed a receipt for £136.49!!!  I complained to the manager about being billed in GBP without being asked, to which I received a shrug of the shoulders and what do you want me to do about it? It is a catch 22 situation as if you ask for a refund, they will refund the Euros amount which would probably end up less than the GBP amount billed.

Everyone be aware and make sure you watch what the cashier is doing when you make a payment. You have been warned!!!!

Mark

Mark, surely you could have asked for the transaction to be reversed there and then - as you noticed this in the shop at the time.  If the shop refused to reverse the transaction couldn't you just call your card company and immediately register a query against the transaction?  And if that was done in front of the merchant, they would know that their "sale" would be queried by the card company???  And, most of the time, you are covered by your card company.  Who exactly is to blame for the transaction being in Sterling rather than Euros?  The merchant or your card company??

The merchant is at fault 100%. The terminals used (usually chip and pin) have a button on them for the cashier to select a currency to be charged in. They are supposed to give you the option of which currency to pay in, but I wasn't offered (this is simailar to the scam Econorent used at Alicante airport). If the transaction had been reversed there and then, they would have only refunded €149, not the £136.49. Because the rates are different, I would have received less than the £136.49 credited back to my account. Acase of suck it and watch like a hawk next time.

Mark

Sorry, Mark, when I say "reversed" I meant "cancelled".  You should have immediately asked them to cancel that transaction and "swipe" a new one - each entry would produce a new receipt for your records.  There  would have been no "exchange rate" involved at that time.  If you had seen it before you shouldn't have input your pin (for chip and pin points) or signed.  If you noticed it afterwards you should have immediately asked for them to cancel the transaction and called the number on your card at that time.

One good thing about using cards is that, most of the the time, the consumer is pretty much covered.

Mark;

Sorry, not being awkward here and maybe Im being a little thick  but whats the difference?

Depending on what the exchange rate of the day is and the charges made by the agency that handled the transaction (probably Solred) and the credit card company that issued the card in the first place I cant see the problem!

At todays values £1=Eu1.126) 149 Euros equates to £132.35. Given the way the exchange rate has been over the last few days the figures seem correct or as near as dammit!

The retailer would have put in the value of the goods in Euros into his machine since thats the only currency it understands and the receipt would have been printed again by the machine.

I can only imagine that yours is a British Credit Card which therefore deals in Sterling...

I just can't see where you have been ripped off...The difference between the exchange rate conversion to Sterling and the actual Sterling amount charged would have been decided by your card issuer..in this case about  £3.50.

As I said maybe I'm being a bit thick but I would expect Sterling Credit Cards to bill in Sterling and Euro to bill in Euros...

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Foxbat. At the beginning of the day, the card terminal downloads the day's exchange rate for that provider for that day. In my case, the rate I received was 1.09 instead of the 1.12 I received in other places. Not a huge difference maybe, but multiply that by the 1000's of transactions daily and it is a lot of extra revenue, plus why should I have to pay even a penny more? That was the reason for getting a Nationwide card with no transaction charges and a better rate, all gone to cock on that transaction!!

When you buy abroad, you purchase in the local currency, not your home one. The machine doesn't "automatically" give you the GBP amount in the same way that an ATM doesn't either. There has to be a physical input from someone (the cashier) to denominate the currency to be billed. When you look at the receipt, it states that "You were offered a choice of payment currencies, my decision is final".

Sorry, but to me that is being ripped off!

Hi Pitby. The problem is that the receipt states I was offered the currency to pay in and there is no comeback. Although credit card protection is good, in this circumstance, it would be very much my word against theirs I feel.

Mark

Foxbat, I think that wherever you are in the world, your credit card will be charged in the local currency and then the bank, with which your card is, will then convert to bill you in your local currency.  Generally.

But, that aside,  if you dispute a charge, for whatever reason,  your bank/card company usually will be on your case for you.  We don't have a lot of respect for the banks here in the UAE (long story!!), but when we have queried transactions on our cards, on overseas transactions especially, they usually immediately reimburse us and take it up with the offending merchant.

We haven't been let down yet (and I don't particularly like any credit card company!!)   -  we've had a couple of transactions that were totally refuted and weren't disappointed by the card company.

The thing you have to be careful is that the store/shop/hire company/restaurant or whatever, can program the machine for any exchange rate.  In this case, and the ones at the airport, they appear to have used the correct rate but others have been known to use the tourist rate instead of the bank rate which can make a big difference.  For example, I was quoted £339 at a furniture store recently for an item at €350 which was an exchange rate of 1.03.  I declined and took it in euros and when my statement came through it was on £312.50 which was the commercial rate of the day.

If you are given the choice of currency in which to  debit your card, why would you choose one other than the country you are billed in, knowing that any rate a trader offers is going to be below that of your local bank/card provider??   The banks don't offer the greatest tourist rates, but they have to be better than any local trading rates!!

You just have to be vigilent in your transactions and make sure you are signing for what you have and in the currency of your choice!!  Otherwise, you shouldn't be using your credit card and should be dealing on the markets if you want to make some money whilst spending it on vacation!!

No offence meant to anyone!!  Just trying to get my head around this!!

Mark; Pitby; Bob; thanks for the explanation.

So...and very tongue in cheek...

So this isnt a situation I am likely to encounter unless I go somewhere outside Euroland and try to use my Spanish Credit Card...?

Given that the only time this is likely to happen would be on a trip to the UK, and given the state of the banking system over there I would expect to be royally ripped off...

But of course it wouldn't happen in England...would it...?...nah!...course not...!

I can just see some Saturday salesperson in B&Q/ Maplin/PC World giving me the option of what currency to use...Not!

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Ah, Foxbat, but they do.  You may not have come across it as you may have only had a UK credit card.  Some time ago I had an American credit card and paying for something in one of the big stores (can't remember which one now, probably PC World or Dixons or whatever) and I had the choice of pounds or dollars.  I believe this is now standard.  I do know that, if you use a Spanish bank card in a UK ATM, it will offer you the rate of the day and you can accept in either euros or pounds, just as the ATMs now do in Spain when you use a UK Switch etc.

The thing is, I expect it with car hire and ATM transactions as ther are plenty of threads on here and I have been warned, not in a shop though! As I say, I have used this shop on many occasions and spent a fair few Euros over the last year with no problems. My fault, I took my eye off the ball and was just putting up the warning flag for others. I have no doubt it could happen in the UK, so be careful when you visit with your Spanish card .

Mark

Will do!

But even the big boys in the UK are at it!

Flybe.com...

5th March Southampton -Malaga if booked in England...£53.19 plus all the usual extras

5th March Southampton-Malaga if booked in Spain...73.84 Euros plus all the usuals...

Equates to an exchange rate of  1.38:1 Aah...I remember those heady days...seems so long ago now... but...hang about... it was only a year ago...!

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Best exchange rate I saw was at East Midlands airport for the internet room.  It was £1 for 10 minutes or €2.  Wish I could have got that exchange rate at the currencies booth!!!