Warning Payment by Card!!!!!!!!!!

poet123

stilltheone wrote: »

It probably is. All of the attempted fraud on my cards originated from usage abroad.

And none of it on mine! not conclusive either way imo.

mick_vandick

In general, the merchant gives you the choice - pay in local currency, or in GBP...if you pay in local currency - your bank/card provider determinds the exchange rate...if you pay in GBP, the merchant determines the exchange rate (and it will be in their favour - the conversion to GBP will mean you will pay more in GBP than you would if you paid in local currency and your bank/card provider set the exchange rate).

As a rule - if you are offered the option, you want to pay in local currency.

Sorry, i have to disagree with this! In Spain i have always been given great rates in GBP and apart from when i was there this week and was given a poorer rate, paying in GBP has always been the better option.
Plus i don't get charged a commission fee from my card provider.
They probably give you a rate that makes them money, no doubt about that. However, so do the banks and credit card companies.
I always go in with a GBP price in mind knowing what kind of rate the Euro is and so i know whether the converted price is okay.
Whilst paying for my Toblerones (:D) this time, they quickly took back the payment machine and pressed Euro before i could press GBP. Strange...:cool:

zagfles

mick_vandick wrote: »

Sorry, i have to disagree with this! In Spain i have always been given great rates in GBP and apart from when i was there this week and was given a poorer rate, paying in GBP has always been the better option.
Plus i don't get charged a commission fee from my card provider.
They probably give you a rate that makes them money, no doubt about that. However, so do the banks and credit card companies.
I always go in with a GBP price in mind knowing what kind of rate the Euro is and so i know whether the converted price is okay.
Whilst paying for my Toblerones (:D) this time, they quickly took back the payment machine and pressed Euro before i could press GBP. Strange...:cool:

Your bank must rip you off big time if DCC is better value!

On this thread we're talking about cards where there is no bank conversion fee or only a small one. There is no way DCC will ever be better value than these.

stilltheone

mick_vandick wrote: »

Sorry, i have to disagree with this! In Spain i have always been given great rates in GBP and apart from when i was there this week and was given a poorer rate, paying in GBP has always been the better option.
Plus i don't get charged a commission fee from my card provider.
They probably give you a rate that makes them money, no doubt about that. However, so do the banks and credit card companies.
I always go in with a GBP price in mind knowing what kind of rate the Euro is and so i know whether the converted price is okay.
Whilst paying for my Toblerones (:D) this time, they quickly took back the payment machine and pressed Euro before i could press GBP. Strange...:cool:

:rotfl: Are you aware that this is a website for people who wish to save money?

mick_vandick

Are you aware that this is a website for people who wish to save money?

Really?!
I'm just saying what i have found, but clearly i must be making it all up....

lemontree

ferf1223 wrote: »

haha! Fair enough.

I guess since we mostly travel to the US, we haven't had as many issues...we're rarely even given the option to pay in anything other than USD...the once we were given the choice (before we knew to avoid it) we thought it was a 'nice' option (naive, much?)...by the time I read about DCC, it was too late to figure out how much we were screwed by - probably not enough to worry about especially now that we know to avoid it in the future..

The problem we have in the USA is that occasionally(especially when eating out) the waiter tries to take away the card.I insist that I go wherever the card goes and oversee the process.
I do get some strange looks but better safe than sorry!

poet123

I think you may be missing the point, you can still barter and get it down to an acceptable GB price in your mind, then pay in euros and get the card provider to do the conversion. One does not preclude the other. It really is an accepted fact that if paying by card for best price the conversion should be done by the card co and not the merchant.

ferf1223

lemontree wrote: »

The problem we have in the USA is that occasionally(especially when eating out) the waiter tries to take away the card.I insist that I go wherever the card goes and oversee the process.
I do get some strange looks but better safe than sorry!

Yes, agree that this is common...part of the reason we always pay with a credit card and never a debit card...at least if something goes wrong, it's not our money.

I'm still not sure that I trust the hand-held terminals they use in restaurants here though...I don't know anything about the technology or security around them, but I kind of don't like the idea of my card details winging their way somewhere wirelessly...but that's perhaps overly paranoid.

mick vandick - agree you must have one of the cards from hell if DCC is better for you...I'm sure that you aren't making it up - but may be worth looking into a better option in terms of card?

luci

Regardless of whether the terminal shows the amount you should be paying in euros or dollars, it is AFTER you have entered your PIN or signed that they press a button on the terminal to charge it in euros/dollars or GBP. We found this to our costs at a place in Spain. The terminal stated the amount in euros and only after we got the receipt did it state that we had "been offered to pay in sterling and accepted it". Like others, it was never mentioned.

In Girona I told the merchant that I wanted to pay in euros and he must have pressed the button for sterling as he then voided the transaction and put it through again in euros.

I have made hundreds of transactions in the US and never felt the need to say I wanted to pay in dollars as it was never an issue. However on our last trip, one shop put the transaction through in sterling at a DCC rate and again didn't mention it despite the receipt stating I had been offered.

ferf1223

where was that, luci? Just want to be sure I watch out for it - as it's almost never been an issue I might not even notice.
I think it was Macy's or Dillard's that offered us the choice several years ago before we knew better...