Using Vanquis Card abroad

Holidayghirl

Hi there

I'm looking for some advice on using my card abroad. This is my first credit card, and so far I've just been using it to pay for groceries and then paying the balance in full.

I go on holiday in a few weeks and would like to use my card to pay for car hire and also to be swiped in the hotel if needed. I'd just like to know if I'm likely to be hit with big charges if I do this? I've had a look at the terms and conditions, but they're not very clear. It seems there is a 2.99% fee for every transaction.

Thank you

eskbanker

See their guide at http://www.vanquis.co.uk/my-vanquis/using-your-vanquis-visa-card-abroad but yes, if you're using your card abroad then there will be a non-sterling transaction fee imposed (the 2.99%), which applies to most cards.

If any merchant gives you the options of paying in local currency or sterling, choose the local currency option as their conversion rate will be worse than the 2.99%!

Holidayghirl

eskbanker wrote: »

If any merchant gives you the options of paying in local currency or sterling, choose the local currency option as their conversion rate will be worse than the 2.99%!

Thank you very much for that advice.:)

Anthorn

eskbanker wrote: »

See their guide at http://www.vanquis.co.uk/my-vanquis/using-your-vanquis-visa-card-abroad but yes, if you're using your card abroad then there will be a non-sterling transaction fee imposed (the 2.99%), which applies to most cards.

If any merchant gives you the options of paying in local currency or sterling, choose the local currency option as their conversion rate will be worse than the 2.99%!

It's the opposite: If you pay in local currency you are paying in non-sterling and therefore incur the non-sterling transaction fee of 2.99%. In order to avoid the fee you need to pay in sterling, i.e. GBP, and indeed some merchants particularly in Europe offer that option. Conversion rates are set by VISA.

reclusive46

Anthorn wrote: »

It's the opposite: If you pay in local currency you are paying in non-sterling and therefore incur the non-sterling transaction fee of 2.99%. In order to avoid the fee you need to pay in sterling, i.e. GBP, and indeed some merchants particularly in Europe offer that option. Conversion rates are set by VISA.

No the OP doesn't want to select the GBP option. The exchange rate offered by the merchant is normally far far worse than the 2.99% fee charged for making a purchase in another currency.

Anthorn

reclusive46 wrote: »

No the OP doesn't want to select the GBP option. The exchange rate offered by the merchant is normally far far worse than the 2.99% fee charged for making a purchase in another currency.

Let's get our definitions correct here. The "Merchant" is the payment processing service the retailer uses. In my experience retailers themselves don't do the currency conversion.

There is another element and that is the conversion rate calculated by VISA which you likely don't know at the time of purchase. When you pay in GBP that's what you see on your statement and that's easier to calculate.

Edit: Let's go through it.

When you pay in local currency VISA calculates the conversion from the local currency to GBP and debits your account along with a non-sterling transaction charge of 2.99%.

When you pay in GBP the price is converted by the merchant from the local currency and that's what you pay and that's what appears on your statement

reclusive46

Anthorn wrote: »

When you pay in local currency VISA calculates the conversion from the local currency to GBP and debits your account along with a non-sterling transaction charge of 2.99%.

When you pay in GBP the price is converted by the merchant from the local currency and that's what you pay and that's what appears on your statement

Yes but when the merchant converts it to GBP when you pay, it is not done at the Visa rate. It is done at the merchant bank's rate (Which is usually much worse than the Visa/MC/Amex rate) + around 3% commission .

eskbanker

Anthorn wrote: »

When you pay in GBP the price is converted by the merchant from the local currency and that's what you pay and that's what appears on your statement

The point being that such conversion rates aren't the official Visa (etc) ones or subject to any oversight/regulation/control and so essentially the merchant can set a rate to their advantage and therefore the customer's disadvantage, even though it does give the fixed GBP amount so the customer can tell how badly they've been shafted immediately!

Google 'dynamic currency conversion' for the fuller version (or search this forum for tales of woe about DCC, etc) and you'll struggle to find anyone who'd claim that it's more cost-effective to pay that way when abroad.

Anthorn

eskbanker wrote: »

The point being that such conversion rates aren't the official Visa (etc) ones or subject to any oversight/regulation/control and so essentially the merchant can set a rate to their advantage

But you don't know that until you find out who the payment processor is and what their conversion rates are. It could be that you will get a better rate from the merchant - likely in the Euro Zone. The fact remains that paying in GBP is the surer method. When you pay in local currency you essentially don't know what has been debited until you take a gander at your statement probably on-line.

reclusive46

Anthorn wrote: »

But you don't know that until you find out who the payment processor is and what their conversion rates are. It could be that you will get a better rate from the merchant - likely in the Euro Zone. The fact remains that paying in GBP is the surer method. When you pay in local currency you essentially don't know what has been debited until you take a gander at your statement probably on-line.

I have never ever seen DCC that has been preferential, I've seen it a lot in Europe recently and its been offering 1.16 (a few different merchant banks) + around 3.4% commission. The Visa/MC/Amex exchange rate was about 1.22 at the time. I've never seen it very competitive in the US either but I've only seen it once or twice as I use my forex free Amex most of the time, which doesn't allow DCC.

System

Better recommending something such as the Capital One Classic Extra card with no 2.99% fee to replace Vanquis.

Visa doesn't debit the account nor charge a 2.99% loading- the card issuer does this.

Also, on the few occasions that i've been offered DCC, the rate has been very poor. Only really worth considering if you have a % loading and transaction fee such as a MSE 'debit card from hell'.

Anthorn wrote: »

When you pay in local currency VISA calculates the conversion from the local currency to GBP and debits your account along with a non-sterling transaction charge of 2.99%.

When you pay in GBP the price is converted by the merchant from the local currency and that's what you pay and that's what appears on your statement