Beware use of credit card abroard

Rippedoff

Anyone else actually aware of credit card charges abroard.
Have I been ripped off ?
I booked a hotel in Spain-cost 1177 euros.
I did a check on Travelex website-cost was £744.

I booked a hire car in Spain-cost should have been £104.

Got my credit card bill in-hotel was £833, car was £178. Their euro rate was 0.70764GBP
Total cost £1011 my estimated cost £848-difference £163
What a difference ?
I rang my Visa credit card issuer-their response was check with Visa.
I rang Vise-nothing to do with us, chech with credit card user.
I pointed out to both of them that the exchange rate between £ and euro had hardly changed over the past six months.

How do they justify a 15% variation in the exchange rate.

Ripped off

Reaper

Various things may have contributed:

1) Exchange rates changing between the time you checked and the time of the transaction
2) Fees charged by your credit card for overseas transactions - even if not explicit they are often built into the exchange rate. There are only 1 or 2 cards which don't do this.
3) DCC (Direct Currency Conversion) where the retailer's bank in Spain charges your credit card in sterling so they can make money on the exchange rate.

Looking at the statement will help establish what has gone on. Even so 15% sounds much too high.

You might also like to check out the Overseas Spending article (see the blue box above).

grumbler

As above: although 15% is too much, I think you were a victim of Dynamic Currency Conversion.

See:
What is Dynamic Currency Conversion?

and recent threads:
credit card exchange rate in Spain
Warning - Foreign Purchases transacted in GBP by foreign bank

In theory, if they try to charge you in ££s abroad (using their own exchange rate) you have a right to insist in paying in local currency (in this case Visa exchange rate is used) ...

Rafter

Check the rates on xe.com I wonder whether you picked up the right rate on travelex?

As reaper says, unless you have a Nationwide or Liverpool Victoria (or Lombard?) card you will pay around 2.75% commission on the exchange rate, although this usually still works out cheaper than travelex or other methods because there is no 'spread' between the buy and sell price for currency.

Do you remember signing a credit card slip in spain with the conversion already done to £? If so you have been the victim of 'DCC' where the spanish bank (and retailer) do the conversion at a very poor rate and pocket the commission rather than paying lower commission to your uk bank.

R.

Galstonian

Anyone else actually aware of credit card charges abroard.

Very
I would be extremely surprised by a difference of over 5% even in a wildly fluctuating currency.

You can't look at the price on the booking, you need to look at the charges on your bills. Car hire and hotels frequently charge more than the original quote, hotels add food, phone calls, movies etc.., car rental could have extra costs for fuel, insurance, additional driver, concession fees, out of hours fees etc.. Either might have additional taxes.

The final bills should be in Euros and you should be able to easily calculate the rate used by the credit card company if it is not shown on your statements. If that rate differs by 15% from the interbank or tourist rate I think there has been an error. If the bills are in Sterling then (as Reaper suggests) you have been mugged by the Spanish bank dealing with the transactions and/or the hotel and car hire operator.

Please let us know more details if you can.

Monkeybutt

Looks to me like the wrong exchange rate has been used by 'Rippedoff' when doing his initial estimates. 1177 euros / £744 Gives an exchange rate of 1.58, CC conversion rate quoted comes out about 1.41.

1.41 euros to the pound seems about right but the 1.58 looks more like a buying figure from Travelex than a selling figure.

Hope this helps.

grumbler

Monkeybutt wrote:

...1.41 euros to the pound seems about right but the 1.58 looks more like a buying figure from Travelex than a selling figure...

Yes, you are right. Data for the interbank rate for last two months:
Average (62 days):1.47288
High:1.49110
Low:1.44820 (http://www.oanda.com/convert/fxhistory)

Rippedoff wrote:

...I booked a hotel in Spain-cost 1177 euros ... Got my credit card bill in-hotel was £833...

1177/1.4482*1.0275=£835 (2.75% is usual currency conversion loading). Now I think all this has nothing to do with DCC ...

Isn't it time to change your nickname, Rippedoff?;)