Halifax Clarity cost me more than expected for a purchase abroad

zerog

chattychappy wrote: »

In theory, you can dispute a transaction where you didn't agree to DCC. Whether your CC believe your story is another matter.

Surely with the Clarity card it would be unreasonable for anyone to agree to DCC.

OllyM

This is where the Lloyds Avios Amex and MBNA Everyday Amex with no foreign transaction fees have a distinct advantage as Amex doesn't allow DCC, so there's no risk of being charged in £.

Doshwaster

bigadaj wrote: »

Yes, it is common. Had it with a hotel in Spain a couple of years ago, told the staff member to reverse it and paid in Euro but she looked very confused as to why I wanted it done that way. It could be that staff are being Mis trained to believe this approach is advantageous to the customer when it's actually worse.

Was also in Portugal a few weeks ago and every cash machine defaulted to dcc, or at least made it more prominent. There must be millions of people being disadvantaged every year.

Yes, it's very, very, common in the tourist areas of Spain. It's as if they are doing you a favour in doing the conversion for you to save you the trouble of working out the amount yourself.

The on-screen messages on ATMs can also be deliberately misleading to make you think that being charged in pounds is the cheaper option.

System

There is probably not much of a difference when using a card that does charge loading.

I've only experienced it once, in the US, but the cashier seemed slightly confused what GBP was and preselected USD without asking..!

Doshwaster wrote: »

Yes, it's very, very, common in the tourist areas of Spain. It's as if they are doing you a favour in doing the conversion for you to save you the trouble of working out the amount yourself.

The on-screen messages on ATMs can also be deliberately misleading to make you think that being charged in pounds is the cheaper option.

nearlyrich

We are in South Africa and I got a Clarity card just before we came on holiday, have used it in restaurants and checked on my Halifax app and got the price expected never been asked to pick a currency.

catwoman73

It happened to me at the Tobacconists outside Malaga airport - I didn't notice at the time, but complained later to Halifax and they refunded the difference.

I've also had to ask for them to change the transaction back to euros a couple of times when they've 'helpfully' handed my the pin machine saying 'I've changed it to pounds so it's cheaper'.

You really have to have your wits about you or else everyone seems to want to take a little cut for themselves.

Doshwaster

Heng_Leng wrote: »

There is probably not much of a difference when using a card that does charge loading.

I've only experienced it once, in the US, but the cashier seemed slightly confused what GBP was and preselected USD without asking..!

Actually, the US is one country where I've never experienced DCC. I just assumed that it was because they thought that the dollar was the only currency in existence and there systems weren't setup to charge in the pounds.