Hotels in RoI charging their own exchange rate on credit card payments

Lindsay-Lou

Hi,

I'm trying to find out how to avoid this (if possible) - or indeed, if i misunderstand the situation.

basically, I've heard if you pay for your stay in a hotel in the south of Ireland with your UK credit card they will quote your bill in euro but charge you in sterling i.e. impose their own exchange rate instead of the most (usually lower) current rate.

Having spent the weekend in Donegal I duly paid for my stay with my card and the conversion rate on my receipt said 0.70..A quick check on xe.com tells me that today the rate is 0.68 (it has been below the 0.70 for at least a couple of weeks now)

Is there some valid reason for this or are the hotels chancing their arms and if so, is there anyway round it.

I did ask to pay in euro but wasn't really sure of what i was talking about to be particularly forceful in my demands

Wee_Bargain_Hunter

I'm no expert but AFAIK you were well within your rights to ask to pay in euros. Don't know the law or what visa/mc t&c's say, but the sunday papers have had this story a few times & the hotel HAS to let you pay in the local currency.

Ps does anyone know if Nationwide is the best card for people in NI to pay with down south or are the local banks better?

D.A.

If I'm not mistaken, xe.com actually gives the lowest possible rate, probably that used by the money markets or something. I could be wrong though!

tee_3

This is becoming a very common issue.

You must stipulate that you want to pay in euro - when the receptionist asks you to verify transaction with your pin it should state on the screen the amount - the currency will be stated, so if it states a stg amount DO NOT enter your pin but ask the receptionist to put transaction through in euro.

This is only of real benefit to people using Nationwide (some others may also have similar deal, but not so common) credit cards which do not charge a currency conversion fee. Most other cards (eg Northern, Ulster etc) do charge fees, normaly about 1.5% to 2.5% which is loaded onto the exchange rate. This same loading is what is effectively happening when the hotel automatically puts your transaction through in stg (thus they get the 2.5% fee instead of your credit card company), so only really of benefit when you use Nationwide credit/debit card.

Visa actually set the exchange rate, and the only difference in rates stated on your credit card statement relates to this 1.5% to 2.5% loading. So as you can see nationwide customers see the best rate as they get Visa rate + 0%, whereas others get Visa rate +2.5%, etc

hope this makes some sense!

Holiday

Petrol stations on the border (Donegal) do this but they usually give the option of sterling or euros. I usually take euros as I figure they are doing you no favours. Perhaps I'm wrong?