Ryanair Mastercard Prepaid option Neteller: Are their currency exchange rates fair?

madkitty

can someone just clarify for my as I have just got a neteller card - if I use it for GBP transactions it is fine but best to use Farifx for international? Idont want to be stung with any charges and have just noticed they also charge $30 for an inactive account after 14 months :mad:

Lehman

If your account is in GBP and you buy in any other currency, there is an FX charge of 2.95% of the balance. To be hones in the Netherlands all card issues apply the FX charges of 2-3% on any currency other than EUR. I have ABN Amro, Amex, and Lloyd cars - all apply FX charges. I think Neteller is just enjoying market standars.

As mentioned before, on Ryanair there is usually an option of paying the fee in most of the major currency, therefore, when you check out, change to GBP and then Neteller won't charge anything. However, as I have noticed Ryanair exchange rate is really bad and it comes more than if Neteller uses their exchange rate + 2.95% fx charge if the amount is less than EUR 70.

Another way to reduce fx differences is when you fly from europe to UK and start your journer in Europe, buy two sing tix instead of one return. Thus one of your tix will be in GBP.

Neteller does charge inactivity fee in 14 months, but 14 months is quite long. You can just put 10 pounds on your account and then pay with card at any shop instead of your debit card, which will count. Plus Neteller is now being accepted in increasingly more places almost like PayPal. There were rumours that Amazon would choose Neteller as main partner like Ebay uses PayPal. I suppose we all use Amazon.

Cheers

blueplatinum

My family is flying over for a two week holiday (LPL-LPA). We discovered that the return leg could be booked as a single for the same number of Euros and Pounds - a saving of €0,15 in the Pound. So we booked the outward leg as a single and the return leg as a single saving quite a bit of money (they are five people travelling).

I have never seen any option on the RyanAir checkout to change the currency (as mentioned above) - can anyone confirm that please?

Lehman

yes you can. Here I did a mock booking. I booked a ticket priced in GBP and knowing that my residence is Netherlands, Ryanair offers EUR conversation at check out. You either choose to accept or decline their offer.

Payment

Payment amount (Including Administration Fee) GBPCard/Payment type
An Administration Fee Applies
[URL="javascript:creditCardfeeDyn()"]click here for information on handling fees[/URL]
Please select...Ryanair MastercardRyanair Visa3V Visa Prepaid VouchersVisa ConnectVisa Debit / DeltaMaster CardMastercard PrepaidUK MaestroSoloVisa ElectronVisaName of Card or Account holderCard or Account numberExpiry date010203040506070809101112201020112012201320142015201620172018201920202021202220232024202520262027[URL="javascript:infoWin('cvv',0,0,'EN')"]CVV Number[/URL]
Credit/Debit Card Conversion : 7.17 EUR from xxxxxxxxxxxx8185 at the guaranteed exchanged rate of 1.1955862 GBP, quoted on 1 March 2010.
If you do not wish to accept this exchange please click here.

Lehman

Sorry guys, the copy/paste didn't work properly, but youc an still read where Ryanair offered me the conversation before checkout.

I used my Neteller card here and no fee was charged. So I could either pay the GBP 6 or it's Ryanair converted EUR equivallent, i.e. 7.17EUR

ermepb

Hello!

I cannot confirm that Ryanair offers any kind of conversion or whether to pay in GBP or in EUR, even though my situation today was similar to Lehman's: buying a ticket from the UK to Germany priced in GBP and country of residence Germany and using a Neteller Mastercard prepaid issued in EUR. I had no choice but to proceed with the normal payment.

However, the outcome was a very good one. Ryanair charged my Neteller Mastercard in GBP and Neteller did a very fair conversion to EUR using a rate of 1.13 including their 2.5% transaction fee. This gives an exchange rate of around 1.10-1.11 which is pretty much today's exchange rate.

It seems that last time (I started this thread) by mistake or by Ryanair's design I had Ryanair do the conversion and this was an expensive mistake. It was Ryanair charging an unfair exchange rate. I cannot remember if I was offered a choice or not.

Anyway, thumbs up to Neteller :T and my apologies to Neteller for suspecting them of charging an unfair exchange rate. I can only recommend Neteller for everybody who travels with Ryanair more than a couple of times a year.

Lehman

Bought smth with Neteller Net+ just today. My acc is in EUR and bought in GBP. I think this is a rather fair FX Rate. Current rate on www.xe.com is 1.09606, which between banks only.



Net+ Transaction Detail

Transaction dateMar 10, 2010 Posted dateMar 10, 2010 13:46 EST CardEUR xxxx-XXXX DescriptionNBX 65414507~~CAMBRIDGE~ 826 Transaction typePurchase Transaction statusPending Transaction amount£8.50 GBP Calculation(s)Merchant to card exchange
£8.50 GBP @ 1.10332471 GBP/EUR = 9.63 EUR
Posted amount9.38 EUR

mcxmarkus

Hi there, i just recently got myself a net+ card due to the low fee / no fee for topping up via banktransfer and came accross this post on conversion rate.

I just called neteller to clarify the rate and they confirmed that they use oanda.com but a rate at the minute when purchased where the website only gives an average rate. (I suppose therefore the exchange rate used should not be lower that the minimum from that website)

Ofcourse you would have to add the exchange fee (of currently) 2.95 %.

Optionally you could call them and they can give you the amount you pay including fee at the point of time you call. Allthough i only talked to neteller not net+ yet.

I did a test and it turned out to be cheaper than the average rate from oanda.

[EMAIL="21/05@6.16am"]21/05@6.16am[/EMAIL] US time > 25gbp = 27.54€ inlud 2.5% charge (as its Neteller and not net+ i talked to) = 0.6885€ charge = 26.8515 converted without charge
> using 2.95% (2.5+0.45) = 0.792119925 charge = in total 28.33€ to pay incl. charge for 25GBP

which is not to bad comparing with the exchange rate along (excluding charges) Xe.com = 28.66€ / oanda.com = 28.94 €

Hope that migh help you.
Ps. Neteller told me that if the exchange rate / fee seems not to be correct / matching at all they will check the rate used at that point of purchase and correct the difference.
I read already aswell about user experience regarding the discrepancy between official interbank rates and the rates used by Neteller-That the rates are not always similiar to oande, the answer by Neteller was that "neteller's interbank rates are confidential and not disclosed to the public".

Well lets try and see what our statemens say. I would recommend to write down the rates at the time of purchase from oanda.com (incl. minimum /average/max rate) and xe.com to be able to compare with what has been charged.

Lehman

I have just returned from the UK and wanted to maker comparison on which card is best on exchange rates. Because I am a fan of Eat Natural bars, I went to Waitrose and bought 4 box of 3 bars, each costing 1.99 pounds. All my cards are in EUR and I paid for each box by different card to see which one is best.

1. American Express Flying Blue Credit Card - 1.99 pounds = EUR 2.4383, incl any fx charges.

2. Net+ Master Card Prepaid - 1.99 pounds = EUR 2.3283 incl any fx charges.

3. ABN Amro Master Card Credit - 1.99 pounds = EUR 2.3582 incl any fx charges.

4. ABN Amro Maestro Debit - 1.99 pounds = 2.3195 incl any fx charges.


FROM ALL THE ABOVE, NET+ IS ON SECOND PLACE. I AM NOW GOING TO USE IT INSTEAD OF MY AMEX AND MASTER CARD CREDIT CARDS. MAESTRO DEBIT CARD SHOWS BEST RATE.

I used all cards at the same time (the sales assistant was really annoyed). I explained that I was doing a research

Donnie

Thanked you because it made me smile.