Refund from euros to sterling

Havent_got_a_clue

Hi
I need to arrange for a refund for items which were purchased in euros using my clarity card.
This was done when the exchange rate was at 1.10 euros to the pound.
As the exchange rate has since improved, I am thinking that It is more favourable to me to get this credited to a card that does not have a perfect exchange rate?
Does anyone have any knowledge of this, and if so could you advise, please.
Many thanks

TadleyBaggie

You might be disappointed, the difference in rate between buying and selling foreign currencies can be considerable.

Havent_got_a_clue

Thank you- so even if I used the clarity it they might use a different rate from today’s rate?

Bermonia

Firstly refunds are usually required to be on the card used to make the purchase - but either way I would not expect a financial win on this one as previously stated the difference between by and sell rates are usually considerable enough.

eDicky

Effectively the pound is now more expensive to buy with your refunded euros, you will be unable to avoid receiving less than you started with (at this time...).

Havent_got_a_clue

Thanks all!


I know I am going to be down- I’m just trying to minimise the loss.
So I wondered if it made more sense to put it on one of the cards reported here as not offering perfect exchange rate (Tesco for example) I hadn’t really thought of it in terms them buying currency- I was just thinking that if their conversion rate for pounds to euros was poor, then that would work in my favour in reverse.

I have been asked to give the details again as it was with booking.com and they tell me that . once cancelled, the hotel proprietors do not have access to credit card details used to pay!

I think I’ll play it safe and just get it refunded to the clarity.

Thanks again

Terry_Towelling

If the card transaction is going through Visa or MasterCard, your refund will be converted at whatever rate those payment schemes happen to be using on the day the refund transaction is processed through them - regardless of your card-issuing bank.

However, if you use a card that 'loads' foreign-currency purchases, that loading will be taken off the refund amount, making it even less. My understanding is that Clarity cards do not load (unload) foreign-currency transactions.

There is a way for credit transactions in a foreign currency to exactly match their prior purchase amount, and that is called a Reversal. That will normally only be done where an error has occurred in processing a sale and normally requires the intervention of a processing bank to send the credit through with the same processing date as the original sale - but you aren't going to get that unless the retailer agrees to contact his processor and say the sale was an error and needs to be reversed rather than refunded.

PRAISETHESUN

The refund for your euro payment will be processed back to your card and then converted back to GBP at whatever the prevailing rate is on the day the refund is processed - a similar thing happened to me when I was using my Starling card. If the exchange rate improves then you actually get refunded more than you spent but if it falls then you don't get the complete refund in GBP, but since 100% of the euro payment was sent back then the refund is complete as far as the banks are concerned.

eDicky

Havent_got_a_clue wrote: »

I was just thinking that if their conversion rate for pounds to euros was poor, then that would work in my favour in reverse.

The daily MasterCard and Visa conversion rates are the same for all cards, but most card companies add a percentage 'loading', so costing the user more than with a fee free card. That's why your idea will not help you, and could well cost you the 'load' percentage extra on the refund.

dj1471

Why are they refunding you?

You could avoid losing any money by getting Halifax to chargeback the original transaction, if you have a valid reason for doing so.

pvt

dj1471 wrote: »

Why are they refunding you?

You could avoid losing any money by getting Halifax to chargeback the original transaction, if you have a valid reason for doing so.

From post #6 it looks like the OP is cancelling a hotel reservation. Chargeback is not an appropriate way to do this.

I'm guessing the OP authorised the Hotel to take a payment for a reservation, and now want that reservation cancelled and the payment refunded. The appropriate way to do this is to have the Hotel refund it to the original card used for the payment, and suck up any currency losses incurred.