Paid Credit Card in Sterling Instead of Euros

cepheus

After examining my bills, it seems that some retailers will charge in Sterling by default unless you specifically ask them to charge in Euros on your credit card. This increased the cost of the purchases by around 4% overall on my Santander 'Zero' and Nationwide Gold CCs. Why the Thomas Cook representative didn't have an option to charge in Euro, I have no idea though.

At foreign ATMs I was charged the Mastercard rate on the Santander Zero, even though it indicated a less favourable rate on the screen. I was also given an option of Euros or £s but I only had a few seconds and missed it on one (Barclays strangely enough). Presumably it must have charged me in Euros since the exchange rate was OK.

The trick of charging in £s by default is something to watch out for though, they probably think they are doing you a favour!

Biggles

cepheus wrote: »

they probably think they are doing you a favour!

No. They know they are doing themselves a favour, but they want you to think they are doing you one. A win-win for them!

cepheus

Biggles wrote: »

No. They know they are doing themselves a favour, but they want you to think they are doing you one. A win-win for them!

Well in the case of Thomas Cook perhaps, but the local tobacco shop, how do they gain? With regards to Thomas Cook, I have a few issues with them over the holiday, of which these payments are only one.

dzug1

Biggles wrote: »

No. They know they are doing themselves a favour, but they want you to think they are doing you one. A win-win for them!

The clerk who is doing the payment may well think they are doing you a favour and is probably totally clueless as to the ins and outs of it.

Management of the establishment may have a clue - but even then they may think it's win win. You pay them rather than your CC issuer. The finer points of it and the fact that some CC issuers don't charge are things they probably don't think about.

cepheus

I have my reply back from Thomas Cook

The PDF card reader does not recognize any other currency other than Sterling and this is why our representative was not able to give you the option of paying in another currency. As you know a charge of 2% occurs for all transactions... which represents the charge which you incurred at the time........

Actually my loss after exchange rates was about 4%, whereas when using it for Euro transactions is was virtually nothing.

So it appears as if these "no charge" "VISA exchange rates" such as Santander Zero are nothing of the sort when using Thomas Cook machines they will rip you off just like when using any other card!

So my advice is when using a British operator abroad pay them in cash withdrawn using the Zero rated card, not the credit card directly!

nomoneytoday

It's the French fry syndrome. They make a few extra cents by giving you a small portion, and then lose a large amount when the customers shop elsewhere !