The Euro / Pound Conversion Trick Is Alive And Well

[sunny-dave]

Just had payment to a foreign holiday hotel deducted from the card I used to guarantee the booking a couple of months ago - all completely as expected - I was invoiced in euro and my receipt was for the correct number of euro.

Checked my credit card online and discovered that they'd actually pressed the button on their card machine to convert the payment to GBP at that point - with a predictably ruinous exchange rate. I'd never fall for that if I was there, but I wasn't even given the option in this case.

The amount I lost was not trivial - a payment of 1000€ should have cost me about £850 (I have a card which does not penalise foreign transactions, so get the full Visa interbank rate) - I was actually charged £907 - that's not funny at all.

I did some checking and found that there is a 6% loading applied for "conversion at the till" - 4% to the bank and 2% to the hotel - hence their enthusiasm for billing in GBP.

A very pleasant phone call to the hotel (fortunately their English is better even than mine) got the original transaction refunded and a correct one processed in euro - but if I hadn't checked I'd be down £55 or so.

So - never accept the euro/pound switch if offerred and always check any foreign 'customer not present' transactions very carefully. Even if your UK card makes a charge for conversion, it won't be the 6% which seems to be the going rate for the 'convert at till' scam.

Even some ATMs seem to be trying this now - so take your time and read the screen carefully before prodding the accept button.

SD xx

[Hopkirk]

Thanks for the warning.