Transaction declined, should I pay the cost?

meester

I emailed payment instructions for a $3,000 purchase just before going on holiday for a month. Nationwide chose to decline the charge presumably for fraud prevention, but didn't bother to contact me to verify whether it was valid.

I got back to find out the purchase had been declined (the vendor emailed me), and have contacted them to retry the purchase, but in the mean time the GBP-USD rate has fallen to 2-year lows and it's now nearly £100 more expensive to buy $3,000.

Was it incumbent on Nationwide to get in contact, and should they reimburse me for the money I've lost as a result of their failure to do so?

Thoughts please.

NickX

meester wrote: »

Was it incumbent on Nationwide to get in contact, and should they reimburse me for the money I've lost as a result of their failure to do so?

I don't think Nationwide are obliged to refund you the difference caused by the exchange rate difference, but if you speak to them then they may well do something as a gesture of goodwill.

I once had a situation where a hotel in Dubai charged my twice (their mistake), they then refunded me but because of the exchange rate difference I was about £15 out of pocket. The card company was Barclaycard and they readily credited me the difference. So fair play to Barclaycard in this instance.

normanmark

I can't see how they can be responsible for the £100 change. That's the risk of paying with a different currency, it can either go up or down.

NickX

normanmark wrote: »

I can't see how they can be responsible for the £100 change.

Well it was due to Nationwide declining the transaction in the first place that caused the OP to be out of pocket so I would definitely take it up with them.

exel1966

meester wrote: »

I emailed payment instructions for a $3,000 purchase just before going on holiday for a month. Nationwide chose to decline the charge presumably for fraud prevention, but didn't bother to contact me to verify whether it was valid.

I got back to find out the purchase had been declined (the vendor emailed me), and have contacted them to retry the purchase, but in the mean time the GBP-USD rate has fallen to 2-year lows and it's now nearly £100 more expensive to buy $3,000.

Was it incumbent on Nationwide to get in contact, and should they reimburse me for the money I've lost as a result of their failure to do so?

Thoughts please.

If, as you suggest your purchase is now costing you £100 extra, then that would mean an approximate 8%+ difference in the exchange rate between now and then.
That just hasn't happened, if it had there would be financial turmoil. The rate has fluctuated by approximately 1.5% in recent months. Additionally the exchange rate has not fallen to a two year low, in fact it's nearly 1.00% higher today than it was on the same day two years ago.

I think you need to look at your figures again as they just don't add up.

meester

exel1966 wrote: »

If, as you suggest your purchase is now costing you £100 extra, then that would mean an approximate 8%+ difference in the exchange rate between now and then.
That just hasn't happened, if it had there would be financial turmoil. The rate has fluctuated by approximately 1.5% in recent months. Additionally the exchange rate has not fallen to a two year low, in fact it's nearly 1.00% higher today than it was on the same day two years ago.

I think you need to look at your figures again as they just don't add up.

I think you need to look at yours!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7557019.stm


The pound remained weak against the dollar after hitting 21-month lows as traders fretted over economic growth. Sterling recovered slightly to $1.9029, from earlier lows of $1.8923

When I posted it was at 1.8923. It's now 1.9029 which is still far below where it was a month ago! See:

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/fds/hi/business/market_data/currency/default.stm

Not sure where on earth you get the idea that currencies don't fluctuate much!

meester

Update, looks like the pound is tanking, down to $1.8752 now, lowest since October 2006.