RYANAIR Dynamic Currency Conversion Rip Off?

iwantitnow

lijaloo wrote: »

Have been reading this thread with interest. I recently booked the homeward bound part of a journey using my Abbey Electron card. The 2 euro cost was charged as £2.90. That makes an exchange rate of £1.45 to the Euro and that was back in August!

If it was 2 euros and they charged you £2.90 then you got about 0.70 euros to the £

lijaloo

iwantitnow wrote: »

If it was 2 euros and they charged you £2.90 then you got about 0.70 euros to the £

That's right. 2 euros even at todays rate should have only been £1.71 or 1.17 euros to a pound.
NB I'm not complaining about the cost just pointing out the exchange rate used.

Si67

I was 'tricked' out of some money in this way only last week by Ryanair abusing the DCC system.

I booked some flights back from Spain to the UK for a total of 311.12 Euros. As the fare was quoted in Euros, I used my Nationwide card in order to get the VISA wholesale exchange rate and avoid conversion charges. However, it wasn't until after I'd clicked the 'Purchase' button when it was revealed that, instead of charging me the quoted amount of 311.12 Euros, Ryanair had actually charged me in pounds. Furthermore, they had applied their own exchange rate of 1.098, as opposed to the rate of 1.173 that would (should) have been applied if they'd charged in Euros as per the quote.

I therefore ended up paying £283.34 instead of £265.23, i.e. a difference of £18.11. This is, of course, in addition to the charges for what they somehow consider to be "optional extras", such as paying and checking-in.

How are Ryanair being allowed to get away with this? They quoted in Euros, and as I understood it, the EU consumer has the right to pay in Euros (or indeed whichever currency the consumer chooses). However, Ryanair seem to be forcing the consumer to pay in whichever currency suits Ryanair, whilst effectively misleading the consumer as to which currency is actually being charged.

Their business model just seems to be based upon trickery and deception. Can nothing be done about their questionable (to put it mildly) business practises?

headcone

Si67 wrote: »

I was 'tricked' out of some money in this way only last week by Ryanair abusing the DCC system.

I booked some flights back from Spain to the UK for a total of 311.12 Euros. As the fare was quoted in Euros, I used my Nationwide card in order to get the VISA wholesale exchange rate and avoid conversion charges. However, it wasn't until after I'd clicked the 'Purchase' button when it was revealed that, instead of charging me the quoted amount of 311.12 Euros, Ryanair had actually charged me in pounds. Furthermore, they had applied their own exchange rate of 1.098, as opposed to the rate of 1.173 that would (should) have been applied if they'd charged in Euros as per the quote.

I therefore ended up paying £283.34 instead of £265.23, i.e. a difference of £18.11. This is, of course, in addition to the charges for what they somehow consider to be "optional extras", such as paying and checking-in.

How are Ryanair being allowed to get away with this? They quoted in Euros, and as I understood it, the EU consumer has the right to pay in Euros (or indeed whichever currency the consumer chooses). However, Ryanair seem to be forcing the consumer to pay in whichever currency suits Ryanair, whilst effectively misleading the consumer as to which currency is actually being charged.

Their business model just seems to be based upon trickery and deception. Can nothing be done about their questionable (to put it mildly) business practises?

I find it hard to believe that a reputable company like Ryanair would employ such devious practices.

AVOID is the answer.

simongregson

File a dispute with Nationwide stating that you were not offered the option of paying in Euro?