Thomson exchange rates and buy back guarantee.

squealpiggy

Hey, I am 22 years old and a novice when it comes to this kind of stuff. I took out £500 from my bank and headed to thomsons to get it exchanged into euros as I am heading to Greece on Wednesday. I decided I would exchange £400 (I didn't ask what the rate was to exchange) and keep £100 for when I got over there. The women behind the counter asked if I could do £411.95 to make it an even number, so I said yeah okay. She gave me back 510 euros out of the £411.95 which is worked out at a rate of only 1.25 which is low and she also added a "buy back guarantee" onto my bill which was £3.95 without asking me if I wanted it. So my enquiry is... Can she change the exchange rate when she sees a novice coming or is that just the poor rate thomsons offers and can she charge me the £3.95 for the guarantee without my permission.
Thanks.

whatmichaelsays

She won't 'change the rate because she sees a novice' (not entirely sure how she'd know this) - High Street travel agents offer notoriously poor rates.

As for the buyback guarantee, they should be informing you of this. In most cases, when I've bought currency, the agent has gone through the itemised bill with me.

stephb34

squealpiggy wrote: »

Hey, I am 22 years old and a novice when it comes to this kind of stuff. I took out £500 from my bank and headed to thomsons to get it exchanged into euros as I am heading to Greece on Wednesday. I decided I would exchange £400 (I didn't ask what the rate was to exchange) and keep £100 for when I got over there. The women behind the counter asked if I could do £411.95 to make it an even number, so I said yeah okay. She gave me back 510 euros out of the £411.95 which is worked out at a rate of only 1.25 which is low and she also added a "buy back guarantee" onto my bill which was £3.95 without asking me if I wanted it. So my enquiry is... Can she change the exchange rate when she sees a novice coming or is that just the poor rate thomsons offers and can she charge me the £3.95 for the guarantee without my permission.You Thanks.

You didn't ask the rate so you got the download rate which is rubbish, had you asked you would have got the best rate they could give you, which depending what day it was last week would define what rate you were given, Thursday was the worst day last week. No they can't charge you for buy back without asking you, also I don't think 510 is a round figure I would say 500 is a round figure. I don't think you can do anything about the rate as legally she didn't do anything wrong but I would ask for the £3.95 back.

callum9999

whatmichaelsays wrote: »

She won't 'change the rate because she sees a novice' (not entirely sure how she'd know this) - High Street travel agents offer notoriously poor rates.

As for the buyback guarantee, they should be informing you of this. In most cases, when I've bought currency, the agent has gone through the itemised bill with me.

Walking into Thomsons and asking to change £400 into € is a bit of a giveaway!

callum9999

stephb34 wrote: »

You didn't ask the rate so you got the download rate which is rubbish, had you asked you would have got the best rate they could give you, which depending what day it was last week would define what rate you were given, Thursday was the worst day last week. No they can't charge you for buy back without asking you, also I don't think 510 is a round figure I would say 500 is a round figure. I don't think you can do anything about the rate as legally she didn't do anything wrong but I would ask for the £3.95 back.

510 is a round figure - they just mean a figure they can provide in notes. If £400 came to €502 then they'll try and get you to buy €550 for £411.95, or whatever the actual rates are.

What is the buy-back guarantee exactly? Because they'd be far better off getting them to buy-back the whole lot (if it's allowed?), writing off the £3.95 and getting their Euros at a better rate elsewhere. On that amount they'd be able to get an extra €50 pretty easily.

stephb34

Working on the figures provided, I would have thought a round figure was 500 euros not 510. Yes you are right if squealpiggy sells all his euros back to Thomsons for what he paid for them then all he has lost is £3.95, then he could take his pounds and go elsewhere making sure he asks the rate first. On the high street the post office is rubbish, TC walk in rate is rubbish, but order online to pay and collect in a Thomas cook on the high street he would have got a rate of 1.3484 today so 550 euros would cost £407.89. Not sure who else could better that on your average high street.

callum9999

stephb34 wrote: »

Working on the figures provided, I would have thought a round figure was 500 euros not 510. Yes you are right if squealpiggy sells all his euros back to Thomsons for what he paid for them then all he has lost is £3.95, then he could take his pounds and go elsewhere making sure he asks the rate first. On the high street the post office is rubbish, TC walk in rate is rubbish, but order online to pay and collect in a Thomas cook on the high street he would have got a rate of 1.3484 today so 550 euros would cost £407.89. Not sure who else could better that on your average high street.

Ah I see, the way you typed it I thought you meant 500 would always be the round number because it's an even hundred.

A rate of 1.25 would make 500 the logical choice, though 1.25 seems far too vague to me. I'd imagine it would be 4 decimals, so maybe £400 actually came to €501 or something? And with horrible rates like that, I'm sure they'd rather round up to €510 than round down to €500!

As to where they'd get the best rate now. London would be best at 1.378, then a variety of airports come in above 1.36 if you pre-book. On the high street Debenhams has the best at 1.353 with Tesco, Asda and Sainsburys not far behind.

squealpiggy

Thanks for the replies, will visit the shop when I get up see what I can do.