Foreign Purchase: Been given a rubbish Exch. rate...

kg87

Hi Guys

I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right section so apologies in advance.

I've recently made a foreign transaction online and the sum of my goods came up to 925 Euros. The day I purchased this, the rate of the Euro was 1.26, however, the money has come out of my account at the rate of 1.23.

How does that work, why haven't I been charged the rate at the time of purchase, the money went straight out of my account then. I rang Halifax to ask them and they said it depends on the company I bought the goods from, they make the request for the payment so I have to ask them. But surely the company would request the payment for 925 Euros and it'd be up to Halifax to figure out how much that is.

I would really appreciate it if someone could help me out and tell me what I could possibly do.

Thanks a lot

YorkshireBoy

Maybe you're forgetting there's a 2.75% 'conversion fee' (and a £1.50 flat charge?) on your card purchase?...

http://www.halifax.co.uk/bankaccounts/bankaccountcharges.asp (see the foot of the page)

Extant

If you're looking at the rates publicly given, you'll find most of them to be whole-sale rates - i.e. those are the rates the money markets are using, not what you'll actually receive going through the bank.

From the bank you will usually suffer their fees and any relevant MasterCard/Visa fees for the exchange.

On the Halifax page linked above, it does state that the exchange rate used will always be a reasonable one, and that is true of pretty much any bank. The difference here was less than £20.

ManAtHome

If you're likely to be doing more EU transactions, get a Nationwide card, they don't deduct the 2.75% etc - so normally pretty close to inter-bank rates. Not really a "Halifax rip-off", most cards charge around the same (pretty sure Saga and Post Office cards are also honourable exceptions).