Halifax Clarity Card Foreign Exchange Rate

AndyAustralia

Hi All,
this is my first post, so please be gentle with me.....
I have a Halifax Clarity Credit Card and paid for a hotel booking in Australia for a forthcoming visit there. The transaction was processed on the 4th June 2015 when XE.COM showed the business rate for that day to vary between approximately 1.97 and 2.00 AUDs to the GPB.

However, when I checked the transaction on my Halifax online bill, the price in pounds worked out at an exchange rate of approximately 1.90 AUDs to the GBP.

I contacted Halifax who confirmed there are no fees that they have added and suggested that I contact Mastercard which I have been unable to do so far.

Any ideas please ?

Regards,
Andy

Biggles

AndyAustralia wrote: »

However, when I checked the transaction on my Halifax online bill, the price in pounds worked out at an exchange rate of approximately 1.90 AUDs to the GBP.

The Clarity online bill annoyingly only shows the GBP end amount, and not the foreign currency amount actually used or the exchange rate.

I suspect it's possible the hotel might have a) added a surcharge for the credit card; b) converted it to GBP themselves using DCC; or c) charged you a different price that you thought, for whatever reason. When you get your paper statement/PDF you'll see the AUD amount and the exchange rate. b) would be my favourite...

chattychappy

Unfortunately it sounds like you were billed in GBP.

If you were billed in AUD, your Clarity statement would show the transaction in this format:

dd/mmm dd/mmm MERCHANTNAME £xxx.xx
xxx.xx AUD @ 2.0144

According to the Mastercard site https://www.mastercard.com/global/currencyconversion/, if the transaction was indeed settled 4th June, you should have got 2.014354 when billed in AUD.

As you don't have the second line - ie you are just seeing the GBP amount, then it sounds like you were billed by the merchant directly in GBP - and they did the conversion from AUD at their own (profitable for them) exchange rate, perhaps using DCC (Dynamic Currency Conversion).

Roger1

Australian hotels typically add 1.5% at checkout for payment by credit card. This may be the problem.

http://thegate.boardingarea.com/1-5-surcharge-when-paying-with-a-credit-card-for-lodging-in-australia/

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g255068-d256687-r138773463-Stamford_Plaza_Brisbane-Brisbane_Queensland.html

Semple

As above, that sounds like the merchant did their conversion and charged you in £ rather than AUD.

When i've used mine in other countries, when you insert/swipe the card, it gives the option of paying in local currency or paying in £. ALWAYS choose to pay in local currency, as this means mastercard will apply the exchange rate rather than the merchant.

lisyloo

Do you have a bill from the hotel?
If they were charged a surcharge or converting the currency themselves then this should be on your paperwork and you should have been aware of what you were paying at the time. What did you pay at the time? Did you pay in AUD or GBP.
If you don't know, then I'm afraid you need to pay more attention. I've been caught out with this once as retailers sometimes (profitably for them) do the conversion for you. If you confront them then they either deny or knowledge and say that's how the machine works or in some countries they suddendly lose their grasp of English and pretend not to understand what you are saying, so you need to be very clear on what you are paying before you sign on the dotted line.

AndyAustralia

OK, Thanks Biggles. That's annoying if b) is the case as they did not offer me the option !!

lisyloo

That's annoying if b) is the case as they did not offer me the option

But didn't you know what you signed?

Not criticising but it would be handly to know exactly how you were caught out as it may help others.

In my case, I did check the recipt and it had Thai Baht in big letter and GBP in very small letters so I did not realise it was being converted.
So the information was there but I gave it too causual a glance rather than a thorough checking.

Biggles

chattychappy wrote: »

If you were billed in AUD, your Clarity statement would show the transaction in this format:

dd/mmm dd/mmm MERCHANTNAME £xxx.xx
xxx.xx AUD @ 2.0144

That's only when the final statement comes at the month end. Until then, the online list of transactions only shows the first line and I suspect that's also all the Halifax staff could see at that point, or they would have told him the actual rate used.

Biggles

AndyAustralia wrote: »

OK, Thanks Biggles. That's annoying if b) is the case as they did not offer me the option !!

They often don't! If you find you were actually charged by the hotel in GBP after agreeing to a price in AUD, tell Halifax you were charged without your agreement.

In similar circumstances a couple of years ago, Nationwide refunded me the difference.

adindas

Hi Andy
People could only guess at this stage. But people might be able to help you in more accurate way if you post the picture of the transaction appears on your clarity card.

Or just copy and paste exactly what appear n the statement for those related transaction.

AndyAustralia wrote: »

Hi All,
this is my first post, so please be gentle with me.....
I have a Halifax Clarity Credit Card and paid for a hotel booking in Australia for a forthcoming visit there. The transaction was processed on the 4th June 2015 when XE.COM showed the business rate for that day to vary between approximately 1.97 and 2.00 AUDs to the GPB.

However, when I checked the transaction on my Halifax online bill, the price in pounds worked out at an exchange rate of approximately 1.90 AUDs to the GBP.

I contacted Halifax who confirmed there are no fees that they have added and suggested that I contact Mastercard which I have been unable to do so far.

Any ideas please ?

Regards,
Andy