Halifax Clarity Card Foreign Exchange Rate

zagfles

sidefx wrote: »

Slightly off topic but I booked a flight with Ryanair last night.
Flight price in euros as departure airport is in Europe.
I was paying with a (Barclays)Visa debit card due to the cost of using a CC .
I do have a Halifax Clarity Card which I use abroad.

As I was about to pay I looked at the conversion rate and what my card would be charged in pounds. An exchange rate which clearly Ryanair have used. I clicked on the more info and in a pop up box in tiny writing it said something about ticking the box if I wanted my card provider to use their own exchange rate!

Never come across this before and it was late and I was tired so just went ahead and booked it

Does anyone know if the rate ryanair use is on a par with bank rates or would I have been better off using my Halifax CC (at extra cost) and using their euro rate ?

Sorry for the long post and hope it makes sense.

You would probably have been better off with the Clarity as the DCC commission is likely to be more than the 2% CC charge Ryanair charge.

But as you found out you have to take care to avoid DCC anyway. There've been threads about people finding it very hard to avoid on the Ryanair website.

sidefx

zagfles wrote: »

You would probably have been better off with the Clarity as the DCC commission is likely to be more than the 2% CC charge Ryanair charge.

But as you found out you have to take care to avoid DCC anyway. There've been threads about people finding it very hard to avoid on the Ryanair website.

Thank you, I'll remember that for next time.

Forgive my ignorance, but what does DCC stand for?

zagfles

sidefx wrote: »

Thank you, I'll remember that for next time.

Forgive my ignorance, but what does DCC stand for?

Dynamic currency conversion. When the retailer converts the currency, not your bank. The rate is usually cr4p, but retailers like to push it as they get a cut of the commission in the rate.

pvt

adindas wrote: »

Well just wonder If you pay through booking.com even with credit card did you get s75 protection? Is not that booking.com here work as intermidiary ??

Are you trying to compare this with the PayPal situation?

With Booking.com, they are providing a booking service, not a money payment service. So if something goes wrong with your booking, you can pursue Booking.com, and thus under S75 your CC provider as well.

With PayPal it is different, they provide a payment service, and so long as they fulfill their obligation to pay the entity you tell them to, you have no comeback against them, whether or not there is a problem with the goods or service you ultimately paid for.