halifax clarity card

vickk

Hi, does anyone else use this card. I got one last year for our trip and was pleased with the rates I got and no charges.However I have used it this month in spain to pay for car hire and my statement has just come through. The only info the statement shows is the uk charge in pounds, it does not show the charge in euro or the rate of exchange. They say they have been doing it like this for a couple of months now.The bill was 460 euro and I have been charged 405 pounds which I work out at a rate around 1.13 which is nowhere near the rate during May. To my mind this means I have been charged the wrong rate or that the car hire company applied a charge higher than the bill. Either way despite phoning Halifax they can not tell me the rate used or the euro charge applied by the car hire companyAnyone else had this problem recently? I don't understand why they have stopped showing the details on the statement and have put in a written complaint. Even the customer service guy didnt know they had stopped it

zagfles

vickk wrote: »

Hi, does anyone else use this card. I got one last year for our trip and was pleased with the rates I got and no charges.However I have used it this month in spain to pay for car hire and my statement has just come through. The only info the statement shows is the uk charge in pounds, it does not show the charge in euro or the rate of exchange. They say they have been doing it like this for a couple of months now.The bill was 460 euro and I have been charged 405 pounds which I work out at a rate around 1.13 which is nowhere near the rate during May. To my mind this means I have been charged the wrong rate or that the car hire company applied a charge higher than the bill. Either way despite phoning Halifax they can not tell me the rate used or the euro charge applied by the car hire companyAnyone else had this problem recently? I don't understand why they have stopped showing the details on the statement and have put in a written complaint. Even the customer service guy didnt know they had stopped it

You've been conned by DCC (dynamic currency conversion, google it). It's nothing to do with Halifax. The car hire company have decided to convert the currency, probably because they get a cut of the rip-off DCC rate.

Check the agreement carefully - does it state they'll convert the currency? Have you got a CC receipt showing the amount in GBP? The car hire company or any retailer must get your consent to do this - but a lot don't. If you didn't agree to the currency conversion then demand a chargeback from Halifax - but check the agreement small print because it might state they will convert the currency.

andyuk01

Are you sure the car hire company didn't do the currency conversion?

vickk

It may be the hire company did the conversion but if they did I was not aware of it. I will check my paperwork. However my gripe with the halifax is that they say they no longer show the transaction in both currencies and the exchange rate and despite 30 minutes on the phone with them they never came up with the suggestion that you guys have

dzug1

If DCC has been done to you then there is no conversion for Halifax to show - the transaction hits them in ££

jennifernil

We are in Europe at present (since 28/04), using our Clarity cards, and have used euros, Danish kroner, Swedish kroner and Norwegian kroner, all the exchange rates have been very good.

I noticed that the statements did not give the currency amount or exchange rate, whereas they did last year.

The poor rate you got must be to do with the car hire place.

vickk

dzug1 wrote: »

If DCC has been done to you then there is no conversion for Halifax to show - the transaction hits them in ££

And if they had said that was why no conversion was showing I would have understood but the agent said their statements no longer showed conversion rates or the foreign currency charge as they changed the statement layout in feb.

zagfles

vickk wrote: »

It may be the hire company did the conversion but if they did I was not aware of it. I will check my paperwork. However my gripe with the halifax is that they say they no longer show the transaction in both currencies and the exchange rate

They do on statements, they might not do online.

and despite 30 minutes on the phone with them they never came up with the suggestion that you guys have

Some bank CS staff are clueless. It should have been obvious to them that the only way you'd get a rate of 1.13 is if you'd been stung by DCC. If you'd been charged in Euros you'd have got the Mastercard rate, which you can check here:

https://www.mastercard.com/global/currencyconversion/index.html

vickk

jennifernil wrote: »

We are in Europe at present (since 28/04), using our Clarity cards, and have used euros, Danish kroner, Swedish kroner and Norwegian kroner, all the exchange rates have been very good.

I noticed that the statements did not give the currency amount or exchange rate, whereas they did last year.

The poor rate you got must be to do with the car hire place.

I think it looks like it may be down to the car hire firm and at least that is better than it being a poor rate from Mastercard. I like you have used the card in many parts of the USA and got good rates and have a 3 week trip soon. I still find it disappointing that Halifax have changed their statements format. I have checked my agreement with the hire firm and nowhere does it say they will do the conversion however there are some paragraphs on the receipt in spanish only but the sum is only quoted in Euro.

zagfles

jennifernil wrote: »

We are in Europe at present (since 28/04), using our Clarity cards, and have used euros, Danish kroner, Swedish kroner and Norwegian kroner, all the exchange rates have been very good.

I noticed that the statements did not give the currency amount or exchange rate, whereas they did last year.

Even paper statements? ISTR online it didn't show the rate/foreign currency but the paper statements did, but I've not used mine since Feb...

vickk

zagfles wrote: »

They do on statements, they might not do online. Some bank CS staff are clueless. It should have been obvious to them that the only way you'd get a rate of 1.13 is if you'd been stung by DCC. If you'd been charged in Euros you'd have got the Mastercard rate, which you can check here:

https://www.mastercard.com/global/currencyconversion/index.html

It was a paper statement that I got today, I had been waiting for it because the rate does not show online but it seems it does not show on paper ones also.

I had already been on the mastercard link as the first agent told me that I could find the rate for the day in question on there and that they only use the mastercard rate. I pointed out that the euro had not been down to 1.13 all year and she said well it must have been when they processed the transaction.