RYANAIR Dynamic Currency Conversion Rip Off?

peterbaker

Hi - I have just been checking my Nationwide Flexaccount statements and have noticed that online ticket purchases I've made with RYANAIR in non-GBP currency appear as simple GBP transactions on my statement.

From a number of previous Dynamic Currency Conversion Rip Off investigations I believe that the absence of any original foreign currency amount on my bank statement is a sure sign that the merchant, in this case RYANAIR, have applied Dynamic Currency Conversion without my knowledge.

If so, this is in clear breach of their merchant agreement with their VISA processing bankers, because it would indicate that RYANAIR (the merchant) has not given the customer (me) a choice of whether they wish to pay an extra 3% markup or not at RYANAIR's whim.

This is very annoying since RYANAIR already insist on charging a fee per passenger and per flight sector for any Debit Card transaction except a student Electron card.

It would be evidence of particularly very sharp practice indeed since absolutely no indication occurs online that the transaction is in any currency other than the non-GBP currency used in selecting the flight.

My bank, Nationwide, who are well known for not passing on any VISA charges (typically 2.75%) in foreign currency transactions, are investigating this for me and I expect to unearth a significant number of RYANAIR transactions over months, perhaps years, where this has occurred.

If you are a Nationwide (or Liverpool Victoria or perhaps one or two other enlightened banks') card user check your statements. I accept that if your bank normally charges you 2.75% for foreign currency and you don't min, then you probably can't be bothered about paying the extra 0.25%, but if you are canny and use a Nationwide or similar card to save 2.75% on every froreign transaction then make sure you haven't inadvertently let RYANAIR take you for 3%. If they have, kick up a stink.

peterbaker

Now I am really annoyed ... I have only gone back a year and I it looks to me like RYANAIR have been stealing my money all this time when I have contracted to purchase their tickets in Danish Krone online:

Contracted Est£ £Paid Date
Local
Currency

501.00 45.55 £48.91 10-Aug
433.00 39.36 £41.45 03-Sep
365.00 33.18 £34.50 19-Sep
395.00 35.91 £37.86 28-Nov
358.00 32.55 £34.42 03-Dec
398.00 36.18 £38.12 21-Feb
444.00 40.36 £42.92 22-Mar
176.00 16.00 £16.97 08-Jun
1122.00 102.00 £106.04 11-Aug
374.00 34.00 £35.35 11-Aug

TOTALS 4566.00 415.09 £436.54
-415.09
=£21.45 (DIFFERENCE)
(i.e. maybe 5% EXTRA)

Bloody crooks!

Sometimes accountants can be too creative Mr O'Clever Bloody Leary!

If any of you Moneysavers travel Ryanair as often as I do, sometimes using a GBP card to pay for journeys starting outside UK, and think the same has happened to you and are not sure which debits on your bank statemet are affected by the crooked use of "Dynamic Currency Conversion" then your bank statement will say something like "Ryanair Int DUBLIN" or "Ryanair Ireland" and maybe some nonsensical note like "Exchange Rate 1.00 GBP34.50" on the offending items. Normal GBP transactions just say Ryanair or Ryanair Ltd and of course Exchange Rates aren't applicable to those.

GRRRR!!!

PS And for any of you who travel abroad and don't yet know what the DCC phenomenum is, then I am not surprised. Most cardholding punters are wholly ignorant of who has their fingers in their pockets. My understanding is that DCC was a jolly 'wease' (as in 'weaselly' idea I suggest) dreamed up a couple or three years ago by Euro banks to con non-Euro punters like me into paying them a 'voluntary' surcharge. Yeah right - we all want to do that!

Unsurprisingly, the merchant (seller) has to get the punter's explicit agreement on every transaction in order to stay within their card merchant agreement. To achieve oh so profitable DCC on any regular basis of course, the rule gets broken and the dirty is done on us and the proceeds split. Correct me if I am wrong, anyone?

MarkyMarkD

I can't even see this mentioned in Ryanair's Ts & Cs (which is what I expected, rather than them highlighting it when you agree to the transaction).

Accordingly, I agree that they aren't getting your permission to apply DCC and that you should pursue disputing these charges with Nationwide.

Burtie_2

I bought Ryanair tickets from Bratislava to London using my Flex account and they have NOT performed any DCC.

My email receipt shows 1,710.70SKK and my Flex Account statement shows the same amount being converted in GBP.

coral

I too noticed this when purchasing a one way flight from Spain last week. Not too bothered as I had to use my Halifax debit card, who would have then charged me a fee, so it did actually save me money, but usually I use my nationwide account, so would have been a bit annoyed at that! Definatly complain to your credit card provider - I doubt you'll get very far with Ryanair!

trets77

is there no end to ryan airs sneaky add ons???

peterbaker

MarkyMarkD wrote:

I can't even see this mentioned in Ryanair's Ts & Cs (which is what I expected, rather than them highlighting it when you agree to the transaction).

S'funny Marky, I was thinking exactly the same as you based on their normal MO! I did find a sentence in their Conditions of Carriage under 'Currency' which said "We reserve the right to accept payment in a currency other than the local currency" or some such, but it just won't do!

Interesting that Burtie's didn't get dynamically converted - which card issuer was that Burtie?

Yeah I already decided months ago that bleating direct to Ryanair about anything other than perhaps "Mr O'Leary, Sir, had you noticed you're pants are on fire just now" is unlikely to achieve anything other than an early customer heart attack. With luck Nationwide will see it through so's that RYANAIR get their knuckles rapped sometime before Christmas.

Its so brazen of them, that's what gets me!

GRRRR!!!! GRRRRR!!!!

jamescredmond

please keep us all informed on the progress you have with this one peter

peterbaker

Well I have just signed Nationwide's Visa Debit Card Dispute Form, and I am about to contact Barclays to dispute no less than 8 Ryanair transactions on my Connect Card going back to May 2004 (out of principle - the additional amount taken from my Barclays account without authority is probably only around 0.25% of each Connect transaction).

Just think how much dosh RYANAIR must have collected over the last couple of years. They've secretly surcharged at least twenty quid from me alone. It must be millions they have siphoned off this way from parts of their customer base.

While I was scanning my Barclays statements I saw some other bloody annoying stuff from Barclays themselves - before I got my Nationwide Flexaccount, I thought my Connect Card might attract 2.75% VISA charge in a foreign ATM but no surcharge, but the small print on the statement shows I have been docked a "fee" of £1.50 on amounts as small as £20 from large bank ATMs abroad.

Can you believe that on my Barclays statement, the small print next to a Gibraltar ATM transaction says the statement debited amount includes a fee of £1.34?!!! EEEK!! And that's when I drew out fifty quid sterling from Barclays in Gibraltar! I can see however that their computer system hasn't actually dared to charge it - some Barclays IT guy has long since intervened to prevent that particular method of poking customer's eyes with a sharp stick caused by their dodgy interbank fee structure!

Why should I have to check up on these people? Are many big businesses corrupted by greedy and oh so clever management accounting types, or what?

richardw

Get a bit of each customer amounts to a lot when you have millions of customers. The energy companies do it aswell. The legislators do nothing.

Burtie_2

Mine was a Nationwide Flex account (i.e a current/debit card).

The online statement (when expended into "detailed" mode) shows the Ryanair transaction as being in a foreign currency.