Buying off Amazon.com with Natwest Debit Card...advice needed!

Jinxii

Hello everyone!

I have a friend who is in Seattle for a few weeks and they've generously said I can buy stuff off amazon.com to have delivered to their hotel so they can bring it back for me. It's all personal stuff, nothing to resell or anything. Anyway, I have a Natwest debit card. I don't own a credit card at all. Using Natwest's currency converter I worked out my total spend in pounds should come to about £118. There is a single transaction charge of £1.25 on top of that. However, when I got to the check-out of Amazon it said I could pay in pounds for £138, which is about 17% more, wiping out a lot of my savings. On Amazon.com it gives me the option to 'pay in dollars' and this seems like the obvious choice, saving about twenty quid. Is there anything I should be aware of here like hidden charges? I'm only 21 and not hugely up on money conversion and banks and things and I don't want to get stung!

Any advice would be massively appreciated.

Thanks!

Edit: Oh yes, there's sales tax as well to be added onto the first figure but that's only 3%. Amazon's charge includes everything.

ferf1223

generally you don't want an American retailer setting the exchange rate, so I think you're right to pay in USD.

Looking at this - I think you will have a 2.75% load fee in addition to the £1.25 transaction fee...not sure if you have factored that into your calculations.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/overseas-card-charges

Oh - and some hotels will charge to accept parcels for guests - worth having your friends check into this if they haven't already.

Jinxii

Thank you so much. To clarify:

Total spend: $208.95
+ 3% Washington sales tax: $215.22

Amazon conversion including all fees as it takes the money out of my account in sterling: £138.73

Natwest conversion: £121.36
+ 2.75% load fee: £124.70
+ £1.25 transaction fee: £125.95

Do you think that'll be everything? I know the £13 isn't a massive deal but I resent paying it if I don't have to! I guess I'm just wary because debit cards are supposed to be shocking for abroad spending but I think that's because if you're making a lot of small purchases those £1.25 transaction fees mount up.

I'm getting my friend to look into parcel collection in the morning. I think it's quite a nice hotel though so fingers crossed it'll be complimentary. Thanks for the tip!

macman

Some retailers will only process the order if the card's registered address matches the delivery address. And a hotel delivery address is going to ring alarm bells anyway, as it's transient.
Never accept the retailer offering dynamic currency conversion, the only reason they do it is because the rate is set heavily in their favour.

ferf1223

amazon doesn't restrict delivery to the card address though I agree that a few retailers do. I doubt that amazon would reject the sale due to the address, but suppose it's possible that the card issuer might.

I'm not sure I get the Natwest conversion rate though.

$215.22 converted to £121.36 seems wrong. That would indicate an exchange rate of more than 1.77 which is quite a lot higher than it is currently.

May be better to try the calculation somewhere like this which is working with live data:

http://corporate.visa.com/pd/consumer_services/consumer_ex_rates.jsp

photome

Jinxii wrote: »

Thank you so much. To clarify:

Total spend: $208.95
+ 3% Washington sales tax: $215.22

Amazon conversion including all fees as it takes the money out of my account in sterling: £138.73

Natwest conversion: £121.36
+ 2.75% load fee: £124.70
+ £1.25 transaction fee: £125.95

Do you think that'll be everything? I know the £13 isn't a massive deal but I resent paying it if I don't have to! I guess I'm just wary because debit cards are supposed to be shocking for abroad spending but I think that's because if you're making a lot of small purchases those £1.25 transaction fees mount up.

I'm getting my friend to look into parcel collection in the morning. I think it's quite a nice hotel though so fingers crossed it'll be complimentary. Thanks for the tip!

I am with ferf in the in thinking that your conversion is wrong.

$215.22 with a conversion rate of 1.62 (about what it is today) works out at £132.85, then adding natwest fees brings it to about £137.75, very little difference between that and Amazons conversion

James_H_2

photome wrote: »

I am with ferf in the in thinking that your conversion is wrong.

$215.22 with a conversion rate of 1.62 (about what it is today) works out at £132.85, then adding natwest fees brings it to about £137.75, very little difference between that and Amazons conversion

Plus I know from personal experience that Natwest sometimes offer a terrible rate on currency conversions. I bought an Android app in USD once, the book price was $0.99, but after the poor currency exchange, £1.25 charge and £0.02 ERTF charge I ended up paying nearly £2 for a 99 cents app!

4046 02FEB10 , GOOGLE  , GOOGLE.COM/CH US , USD 0.99, RATE 1.5967, CHARGE 1.25,
ERTF 0.02    -     1.89

Needless to say, I use a credit card now for app purchases!

It's a shame you didn't know sooner, could maybe a prepaid MasterCard/Visa may have been the way forward for this?

Jinxii

Oh wow, thank you so much for all your responses! I'm using Natwest's converter here: http://www.natwest.com/tools/personal/currency_converter/default_results.asp

I really need to do this tomorrow to ensure he gets it before he leaves, that would be a bit of a disaster otherwise I think!

ferf1223

something's wrong with that converter...I know that selling rates and buying rates vary, but it seems to be a crazy swing, and neither seems to be indicative of what the bank rate is today...unless on the buying $$ rates they are already factoring in their charges? I haven't tried working it out.

If I put in $100 - convert to GBP - it gives me £56.44

If I put in £56.44 - convert to USD - it gives me $87.08

I guess the converter does say:

The currency converter contains indication rates only. These rates exclude any commission or other associated charges which may apply. Please ask your branch for details of exchange rates at the time of making the transaction.

But to my mind it's largely useless..