Bank Charges...... Unexplained

[beezaneez]

i bought flight off travel agent in south ireland , 599 euro was total. i went into my bank in belfast and bank had charged me total of £546. though when i looked on fx currency converter 599 euro = £ 494.32. an overcharge of approx £50 . i do know there was a charge of £23 for using my uk debit card.

any advice please much appreciated. i went to bank and complained and bank told me that travel agent in eire was responsible so i emailed travel agent in eire ( south ireland ) but travel agent told me that the bank was responsible for the over charge.

[Fitzer]

The online currency converter is very unlikely to be the rate you got from your bank, you need to ask them what rate was used although even £523 for 599Eur seems a lot as that's only about 1.14

[hc4361]

What bank account do you have? They all charge different fees for use abroad.

[beezaneez]

i have an ulsterbank account ( northern ireland / uk )

cheers

[beezaneez]

must say that i have booked through southern ireland companies before and ive never had this charge .

[Buenchico]

>>>when i looked on fx currency converter

The currency conversion was done by Visa, who want to make their own profit. Ulster Bank also want to make a profit as well, so this is the calculator you should have used:
http://www.visaeurope.com/en/cardholders/exchange_rates.aspx
Enter the currency conversion rate as 2.65%, as that's what Ulster Bank currentlycharges. (It's actually 2.65% plus 75p).

(Ulster Bank information sourced from here:
http://www.ulsterbank.co.uk/ni/personal/daily-banking/current-accounts/useful-information/debit-cards-abroad.ashx )

Using today's date I get €599 = £507.46 (+ 75p, as above, = £508.21). Adding on the £23 brings that up to £531.21, which is only about £15 different to the figure you've quoted (and could easily be accounted for daily fluctuations in the exchange rate).

[dzug2]

..must say that i have booked through southern ireland companies before and ive never had this charge ..

You may well have had the charge - banks (some of them anyway) have only recently started showing it separately rather than burying it in the total

[beezaneez]

ok guys, thanks very much for your help. will be more vigilant and choose which way i pay more carefully in the future.

[spudqueen]

The Post Office credit card does not charge commission when it is used abroad so it may be worth while you looking in to that.