Price in GBP but charged in USD

cardinalbiggles

Can a company registered in the UK, from their UK website advertise something in Sterling, you buy that product (Only seeing the UK price) then you get billed in US Dollars plus get stung for transaction fees from your credit card provider for the currency conversion?

bris

What does their T&C,s say? It's common from Chinese sellers who have a domain in every country to look like they are local but everything is shipped from China as it's where they are really based, usually with a drop down box to change to your contries currancy then converted to dollars.

Link the website so someone can have a look and see.

cardinalbiggles

holidayautos.co.uk

nt78seo

It looks like there is something in their pricing terms about this:

The foreign exchange rates used by Holiday Autos to display prices in the currency chosen by the consumer are updated frequently. Foreign exchanges rates used by your credit card company may vary. Holiday Autos cannot be held responsible for any discrepancy between the price displayed by Holiday Autos and the amount charged by your credit card company due to the rate of exchange used.

unholyangel

A bit strange.

Registered with a london address and UK limited company number yet when you go into terms and conditions, it states its governed by the republic of ireland law!

It doesnt tell you in the terms what currency you'll pay (well I had a glance but couldnt see it) but they do say that exchange rates may vary between them and your card company.

Personally any one of those would be enough to put me off them!

However even if the contracts are governed by irish law, they'll also be governed by european law. Or at least european law should be incorporated into their own statute - which includes the EU unfair commercial practices directive - which gave us our consumer protection from unfair trading regulations - which states all sorts of things that would make this practice illegal.

LilElvis

Out of interest I compared holidayautos to the price I have paid through Autoeurope for my 20 day car hire booked for March and it would be 30% more for exactly the same car! Plus 1) I was quoted and paid in GBP 2) I have already cancelled and rebooked twice (as the exchange rate has worked in our favour) and received an immediate and full refund each time 3) You know at the quote stage exactly which car hire companies you are looking at as opposed to only after the booking has been confirmed.

Sadly looks as though holidayautos do show in their T&Cs that you could end up with a price difference on exchange, though most people would assume that the price they were being quoted would be the price they would pay. Not really very transparent or fair.

bris

Nothing unfair about their terms as far as I can see, the currency you pay in would be determined by the currency of the car rental country.

Pretty normal and fair, they are just a brokers who who bring the customer and and rental company together for a fee.

unholyangel

bris wrote: »

Nothing unfair about their terms as far as I can see, the currency you pay in would be determined by the currency of the car rental country.

Pretty normal and fair, they are just a brokers who who bring the customer and and rental company together for a fee.

Anything that can affect the price is under high scrutiny under unfair contract terms. However, the act I was referring to is consumer protection from unfair trading regulations, not the unfair terms in consumer contract regulations.

If an exact price cannot be given, they need to make it clear how they intend to calculate the price as the price is deemed material information. If they made it clear....cardinal wouldnt have missed it (giving OP benefit of the doubt of course). There should be no misleading by action or omission.

LilElvis

bris wrote: »

Nothing unfair about their terms as far as I can see, the currency you pay in would be determined by the currency of the car rental country.

Pretty normal and fair, they are just a brokers who who bring the customer and and rental company together for a fee.

But Autoeurope manage to quote and bill me in GBP for a car rental in South Africa. They obviously operate a different model, but deal with many of the same rental companies, and manage to do it cheaper.

cardinalbiggles

Firstly, thanks for everyones help!

I did speak to what was Consumer Direct, I cant remember off hand what they are now and they have apparently passed it on to Trading Standards, they recon the fees that your bank charge for transactions in foreign currency may be seen as a consequential loss which should be clear at the point of sale.

Anyway, I will let you know if I get a refund from them but its certainly worth taking note if you ever intend on using them in the future.

Also, this has not always been the case, I used them a few years back and it was paid in GBP for a US car hire so its something that's not always happened.

I certainly will be looking at other companies in the future.

visidigi

cardinalbiggles wrote: »

Firstly, thanks for everyones help!

I did speak to what was Consumer Direct, I cant remember off hand what they are now and they have apparently passed it on to Trading Standards, they recon the fees that your bank charge for transactions in foreign currency may be seen as a consequential loss which should be clear at the point of sale.

Anyway, I will let you know if I get a refund from them but its certainly worth taking note if you ever intend on using them in the future.

Also, this has not always been the case, I used them a few years back and it was paid in GBP for a US car hire so its something that's not always happened.

I certainly will be looking at other companies in the future.

You do realise the refund will be done in $ and you'll get hit with yet another exchange rate fee that's even worse than the initial transaction right?