Ryanair Currency Conversion

haggismn

Hi there, I was wondering if anyone can advise on an automatic currency conversion Ryanair has charged us for flights. We have booked (on the UK site) return flights from Dublin to Carcassonne. We got up to the point before payment, with the charge being informed as €151. There was no other amount indicated. After paying, we were informed (in a smaller font size obviously) that the credit card had been charged £134, about £10 greater than the actual exchange amount.

Is such practice permissable? I have read the terms and conditions, and repeated the process, up until the point before clicking to pay. There is no point where I am informed of an exchange rate, or the amount that I would agree to pay, other than €151. Whilst I don't care about Ryanair automatically converting the amount to Sterling, I don't really appreciate them pocketing £10 in the process, without telling me.

Here is a quote from their conditions of carriage;

Passengers who pay for their flights with a credit card billed in a currency other than the currency of the country from which the flight departs will be charged in the currency of issue of the credit card, inclusive of a ‘foreign user’ charge but you can check the actual amount to be billed in the currency of your card prior to payment being made.

The first part of this term is generic, in use by several other airlines. However the "but you can check the actual amount..." is Ryanair only. This is the part which did not occur. I could only see what this value was after paying.

Any advise would be of great help. I would like to take this matter further if possible as it is clearly a hidden charge, in my opinion.

jamesbrownontheroad

Are you able to get confirmation from your bank about the € sum charged to your card? This should appear, along with the exchange rate, on the statement, either on the monthly paper bill or online.

There has been some discussion here about this issue. Since I have a prepaid Mastercard that penalises me with an additional fee for non-£ transactions, I've been using a loophole in the Ryanair website to force € quoted flights to be priced in £ before purchasing, but I'm now beginning to realise that their exchange rate is probably not as good as that of my prepaid Mastercard and its forex service fee.

chrestomanci

Not sure what you can do about it now that the transaction is complete.

For future though, make note of this -- when you enter your card number, Ryanair automatically detects the currency denomination of said card (Euros, £, etc). If the currency is different than the flight currency you are trying to book, Ryanair will, in small font, inform you that £39.99 has been converted to Euros (due to your Euro card).

This is called DCC.

If you click on (more information) next to the quoted € amount, you can tick a box which lets Ryanair charge your card in the original £ amount - your bank then do the conversion for you; usually, this ends up being cheaper than Ryanair's conversion.

MarkBargain

I have just booked a flight from Poland to the UK for 310.36 zloty. I expected to be charged in Polish money, but the Ryanair confirmation states I will have been charged £65.66 (Exchange rate 0.21156). Have I been charged Ryanair's expensive rate? Have I been ripped off? It gave no opton that I saw to opt out and pay in zloty and I am usually very careful with these things.

haggismn

qwertymz wrote: »

If you click on (more information) next to the quoted € amount, you can tick a box which lets Ryanair charge your card in the original £ amount - your bank then do the conversion for you; usually, this ends up being cheaper than Ryanair's conversion.

I see "more information". When I click on this I get info about the €5 per person per flight thing, nothing about DCC. I have checked the credit card statement; Ryanair have charged their Sterling conversion.

I have read also about this opt out "loophole". I can't find it anywhere in the booking process. Before booking I had heard about it and looked for it. There was no mention of Sterling until after paying. I have gone to the point right before payment again and again, and it is always in Euros with no mention of their conversion or opt out.

fifeken

haggismn wrote: »

I see "more information". When I click on this I get info about the €5 per person per flight thing, nothing about DCC. I have checked the credit card statement; Ryanair have charged their Sterling conversion.

I have read also about this opt out "loophole". I can't find it anywhere in the booking process. Before booking I had heard about it and looked for it. There was no mention of Sterling until after paying. I have gone to the point right before payment again and again, and it is always in Euros with no mention of their conversion or opt out.

Once you have typed in your card number but before you proceed to pay a new box should appear offering you the chance to opt out of using their exchange rate. It's very easily missed.

jamesbrownontheroad

MarkBargain wrote: »

I have just booked a flight from Poland to the UK for 310.36 zloty. I expected to be charged in Polish money, but the Ryanair confirmation states I will have been charged £65.66 (Exchange rate 0.21156). Have I been charged Ryanair's expensive rate? Have I been ripped off? It gave no opton that I saw to opt out and pay in zloty and I am usually very careful with these things.

Well the interbank rate quoted on xe.com is 1 zloty / £0.1952, which would have cost you about £60. Ryanair haven't exactly ripped you off, but I'm sure they've made an small additional profit out of your transaction.

peterbaker

fifeken wrote: »

Once you have typed in your card number but before you proceed to pay a new box should appear offering you the chance to opt out of using their exchange rate. It's very easily missed.

Yes, indeed it can be unearthed from under a More Information link but only after your card details have been entered. It is marginally better than it used to be (no choice!) and it is all very neatly explained in pictures in another thread ... see this post: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=33264447&postcount=23

jamesbrownontheroad

While the €/£ conversion rate you get may through this opt-out may not be as good as that offered by your credit or debit card issuer, from a handful of experiments it would appear to be better than the method I have previously advocated on this forum, which is when buying a € priced flight, to open a second tab for a £ priced flight search, and then returning to the other tab to complete the € priced booking in £.

If that makes any sense... %-)

Pelican_eats_pigeon

jamesbrownontheroad wrote: »

Well the interbank rate quoted on xe.com is 1 zloty / £0.1952, which would have cost you about £60. Ryanair haven't exactly ripped you off, but I'm sure they've made an small additional profit out of your transaction.

If an 8.5% load on the exchange rate isn't a rip-off, I don't know what is.

MarkBargain

Pelican_eats_pigeon wrote: »

If an 8.5% load on the exchange rate isn't a rip-off, I don't know what is.

I agree with you. Many on here argue that Ryanair are fair and upfront with their charges, but this is an example of how that must catch out 99% of people booking a flight from overseas to the UK with a hidden, unfair charge.