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MSE News: Have you ever paid in euros abroad but been charged in pounds?
Former_MSE_Ben_S
Former MSE 39 Posts
MoneySavers are losing out by having payments processed in pounds even when selecting the local currency payment option...
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'Have you ever paid in euros abroad but been charged in pounds?'
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'Have you ever paid in euros abroad but been charged in pounds?'
Click reply below to discuss. If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply. If you aren’t sure how it all works, read our New to Forum? Intro Guide.
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http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?p=72507722
So seeing the waiter press the EUR option on the first screen wouldn't be enough you'd need to see what they did on the following screen.
As I said in the above thread, if it's a hand held terminal, keep hold of it after entering the PIN and answer the DCC questions yourself.
It's like ATMs which often ask a second time after you decline DCC. They want you to take the DCC option so they can profit from it.
Then I was handed two receipts, a shop one in local currency and the credit card one in pounds, which fortunately I looked at while about to leave the shop.
I went back to the same till, waited for the next person to pay, then queried it. Złotych, he said, pointing at the shop receipt. No, I said, this one has pounds. We can cancel this and then do it properly. I'll pay in złotych.
Even though he spoke no English, he understood me fully. He fetched the manager who spent about 10 minutes figuring out what she was doing, then refunded and did it properly.
Meanwhile, I overheard two Germans querying theirs, who had perhaps overheard me.
When I got home I calculated the difference. About 6.25%.
I contacted my card provider to ask how to complain, to ask MasterCard to review the forecourt's policy and prevent other people inadvertently being hit with this. They didn't know. I looked up phone numbers on the MasterCard website itself. It asked me to enter my card number, and transferred me to the issuer call centre.
Assuming that many of the customers there will be foreigners leaving Poland, I estimate the place could be making up to about £1 million a year extra profit from this, or more if lorries are falling for it too.
It was a double mistake going there anyway, as it was more expensive than anywhere else in Poland, in fact no cheaper than Germany.
I still wish that MasterCard itself had a proper complaint procedure for this sort of thing.
According to the MSE article:
A Mastercard spokesperson said: “No matter which card is used, it is the responsibility of the bank that provides card acceptance and dynamic currency conversion functionality to the shop who is responsible for ensuring the shop is compliant. If they remain uncompliant, ultimately they will have acceptance taken from them.”
Not in my experience there. Can anyone at MSE recommend how to contact MasterCard itself, without being transferred back to my card firm?
^^^This is part of the problem. Entry of the PIN should be the last step and should finalise the transaction. There should be no way to modify the transaction by changing the exchange rate after the PIN has been entered.
Mastercard and Visa should mandate that card terminals must display the amount and currency on the PIN entry screen, and that no alteration can be made after PIN entry.
Ask your card issuer for a chargeback, quoting Reason Code 4846 (Correct Transaction Currency Code Not Provided).
To clarify, I had this corrected for me during the visit, with 3 transactions, the first in pounds, the second refunding that, then the third in Polish currency.
But I was still annoyed when I got home, and wanted to report it anyway that the screen messages were not showing what was happening, and I didn't want others treated like this.
Incidentally Poland in general is one of the worst countries for unwanted DCC, others being China and India.
DCC rates in Poland are the worst rip-off's I've seen, judging by cashpoint offers - over 6% as mentioned above. Spain's rates seem much more reasonable, IIRC about 2.5% at ATMs, these rates could make it better to take the DCC offer if you've not got a fee free card, as most charge about 3%.
Never once encountered DCC in France, though apparently the Calais hypermarkets offer it.