Confused about Foreign Hotel Charge

moneysavvy35

Hi Everyone

I will be going to Turkey for my holidays this year. I have to pay my hotel the online rate of 4812 (Turkish Lira). When the website converts this to english pounds it comes to £1150.57.

Reading about Foreign transactions, its always stated if they ask you pay in local currency or pounds you should always pay in the local currency, however, by using a currency converter if I say I want to pay the local currency of lira 4812 (TL) this equates to £1280 in english pounds which is a difference of £130. So am I right in thinking I should opt to pay in english currency on this occasion or am I doing something wrong?

Thoughts?.....

PS - I used Asda & M&S for currency conversion
PPS If opting to pay in pounds I plan to get the halifax card

ferf1223

if you used the Halifax card you would get a better rate of exchange than M&S or Asda are showing you.

This will give a more accurate conversion rate

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

DTDfanBoy

You're going wrong by using loaded rates from Asda & M&S for your conversion.

The Mastercard settlement rate on the 7th was Turkish lira 4.115609, which would equate to £1169.20. The pound has strengthened again the TRY since then so the MC rate today should be very close to the £1,050.27 you are being quoted.

MC rates

XE GBP/TRY chart for the past week

dzug1

moneysavvy35 wrote: »

. So am I right in thinking I should opt to pay in english currency on this occasion or am I doing something wrong?

Thoughts?.....

PS - I used Asda & M&S for currency conversion
PPS If opting to pay in pounds I plan to get the halifax card

The normal advice would be to pay in lira with the Clarity card


If you pay in ££ with the card someone (= a Turkish bank) will be charging you something to convert

Halifax will charge nothing except interest on cash

eDicky

Right now, the website quoting the hotel price is giving conversion to GBP at a perfect mid-market rate, without any profit margin that the ASDA and M&S sites are including in their quotes. So you should just pay in pounds through that booking website.

If you do get a Halifax Clarity MasterCard, do not pay on pounds with it, always pay in the local currency to get their perfect MasterCard conversion rates.

DTDfanBoy

eDicky wrote: »

Right now, the website quoting the hotel price is giving conversion to GBP at a perfect mid-market rate, without any profit margin that the ASDA and M&S sites are including in their quotes. So you should just pay in pounds through that booking website.

Just be sure that the booking website will actually charge in pounds, there are many out there that display a price in GPB as guidance, but they will still bill you in the local currency