Santander charges currency Post Office

LabTechsRule

I recently bought currency through the Post Office. The member of staff asked if I wanted to pay by credit or debit card. I paid with my Santander Credit Card. Next statement I get charged £25 interest by Santander. On telephoning Santander I discover that they treated this transaction as if I had withdrawn cash with my card. I assumed that as I was dealing with the Post Office then it would be the same as if I had used the card for a goods purchase. I was not warned at the Post Office either. I then had to borrow from my partner to pay the statement balance immediately to avoid accruing any more interest. Is this normal practice for banks and has this happened to anyone else?

mab3000

Nothing the Post Office has done wrong, not down to them to advise. This is quite a common thing with credit card providers to treat transactions of purchasing foreign currency differently and would have been in the terms and conditions when you signed up for the credit card.

EveryWhere

Your other blunder was buying currency from the Post Office.
You have a fantastic resource here for getting the best value for your money. But somehow, you only found it after failing to take any notice of what is written here in the first place.

d123

LabTechsRule wrote: »

I recently bought currency through the Post Office. The member of staff asked if I wanted to pay by credit or debit card. I paid with my Santander Credit Card. Next statement I get charged £25 interest by Santander. On telephoning Santander I discover that they treated this transaction as if I had withdrawn cash with my card. I assumed that as I was dealing with the Post Office then it would be the same as if I had used the card for a goods purchase. I was not warned at the Post Office either. I then had to borrow from my partner to pay the statement balance immediately to avoid accruing any more interest. Is this normal practice for banks and has this happened to anyone else?

Well, in truth that is exactly what you did.