Charged and refunded on the same day - vastly different rates

lucaspiller

I stayed at an Ibis hotel in Spain last week and I gave my Nationwide Select Credit Card (no charges for foreign transactions) when booking and when I paid at the hotel upon check-in. Looking at my statement now there are a total of five transactions from them:

13 Sep, IBIS BUDGET MAD CENTR VE 43.00EUROPEAN M at 1.26025791, paid out £34.12
13 Sep, IBIS BUDGET MAD CENTR VE 43.00EUROPEAN M at 1.26025791, paid out £34.12
13 Sep, IBIS BUDGET MAD CENTR VE, paid in £35.25
13 Sep, IBIS BUDGET MAD CENTR VE, paid in £35.25
14 Sep, IBIS BUDGET MAD CENTR VE 86.00EUROPEAN M at 1.25273124, paid out £68.65

I phoned the hotel and the manager explained that they charge you the day before the stay, then refund you, then charge you again when you check-in.

I understand if you are refunded it does it in the local currency amount, so if you pay €10 which is £8 and ten days later are refunded €10 it could be £7.80, so you will lose out. The thing is the initial charge and refunds have vastly different exchange rates even though they were on the same day. Even taking the rate on the second day which was lower, the difference would only be about 20p not over £2 in this case.

The other thing is I can't find any mention of the hotel saying they do this in their T&Cs or the communications they sent me. If they want to make sure I've got the money, can't they just do an authorisation? Given this wasn't mentioned, would I be able to claim this as an unauthorised charge?

Thoughts / suggestions?

dzug1

Some thoughts:


Unless I'm reading it back to front (quite likely) haven't you actually gained from this?


Rates can and do vary in the course of a day - at the time this happened wasn't the Scottish referendum causing mayhem with the £ and €?


Whilst there may be no foreign transaction charges on your account, buying and selling rates can still be different


The Accor group - of which Ibis are part - do seem to be a law unto themselves about card usage.


Not sure if any of that helps?

Hooloovoo

Every foreign exchange agency, whether it's a travel agent, the post office, a credit card, or anywhere, will have two rates - the buy and sell rate.

For any given "exchange rate" the rate they sell you the currency will be different from the rate they buy it back, even if the actual "exchange rate" has not changed.

You have to be wary of this whenever getting a refund in a foreign transaction. It's especially annoying if it's the retailer that has made a mistake, because you never get your full money back.

Aquamania

lucaspiller wrote: »

I stayed at an Ibis hotel in Spain last week and I gave my Nationwide Select Credit Card (no charges for foreign transactions) when booking and when I paid at the hotel upon check-in. Looking at my statement now there are a total of five transactions from them:

13 Sep, IBIS BUDGET MAD CENTR VE 43.00EUROPEAN M at 1.26025791, paid out £34.12
13 Sep, IBIS BUDGET MAD CENTR VE 43.00EUROPEAN M at 1.26025791, paid out £34.12
13 Sep, IBIS BUDGET MAD CENTR VE, paid in £35.25
13 Sep, IBIS BUDGET MAD CENTR VE, paid in £35.25
14 Sep, IBIS BUDGET MAD CENTR VE 86.00EUROPEAN M at 1.25273124, paid out £68.65

I phoned the hotel and the manager explained that they charge you the day before the stay, then refund you, then charge you again when you check-in.

I understand if you are refunded it does it in the local currency amount, so if you pay €10 which is £8 and ten days later are refunded €10 it could be £7.80, so you will lose out. The thing is the initial charge and refunds have vastly different exchange rates even though they were on the same day. Even taking the rate on the second day which was lower, the difference would only be about 20p not over £2 in this case.

The other thing is I can't find any mention of the hotel saying they do this in their T&Cs or the communications they sent me. If they want to make sure I've got the money, can't they just do an authorisation? Given this wasn't mentioned, would I be able to claim this as an unauthorised charge?

Thoughts / suggestions?

From what you appear to have quoted from the statement, I would say although you paid in Euros, the hotel refunded you in your own currency, i.e. GBP

I've stayed in the Ibis hotel before, in Spain too (maybe not the same one as you though) and whilst I remember they want payment in advance, I can't remember any of this nonsense of refunding you and charging you again on arrival.

Still, you seem to have made money from it, so best keep schtum

agrinnall

As I read it your stay actually cost you £66.39. That's lower than both the charge made before you arrived and the charge made when you left, so you've had your room for less that you would have done otherwise. As Aquamania says, silence would appear to be the best policy here.

James_B.

As well as the rates working in your favour, II'd also say that the rates are not "vastly" different at all, that's really quite a small difference, 1.253 - 1.260

It's half a penny difference per Euro bought.

SnowTiger

As others have pointed out, you appear to have gained from this, so no need to complain this time. :rotfl:

I suspect the hotel charged you in Euros and refunded in GBP, giving you a profit of £2.26. Nice!

Oddly, the Visa Europe Exchange Rate on 13th September was

1 BRITISH POUND = 1.2528204120 EURO

and not 1.26025791 as per your statement, so you appear to have made 40p on conversion done by Nationwide too.

Note to Hooloovoo: Nationwide Select credit card uses Visa Europe exchange rates, published at http://www.visaeurope.com/en/cardholders/exchange_rates.aspx.

Hooloovoo

SnowTiger wrote: »

Note to Hooloovoo: Nationwide Select credit card uses Visa Europe exchange rates, published at http://www.visaeurope.com/en/cardholders/exchange_rates.aspx.

Likewise my Post Office card uses the "raw" Mastercard rates with no loading and no charges for foreign transactions.

But there is still the buy/sell spread as far as I know.

vns

SnowTiger wrote: »

As others have pointed out, you appear to have gained from this, so no need to complain this time. :rotfl:

I suspect the hotel charged you in Euros and refunded in GBP, giving you a profit of £2.26. Nice!

Oddly, the Visa Europe Exchange Rate on 13th September was



and not 1.26025791 as per your statement, so you appear to have made 40p on conversion done by Nationwide too.

Note to Hooloovoo: Nationwide Select credit card uses Visa Europe exchange rates, published at http://www.visaeurope.com/en/cardholders/exchange_rates.aspx.

It fluctuates, its the spot rate - not the day rate.

I bought a couple items from the apple store in the US in June 15 mins apart and the rate had changed, ever so slightly - but the point is still valid.