Paying for foreign hotel.

samsam89

Hi all.

Going to book a French hotel for next year. The direct hotel website is priced at 1029 EUR, and an intermediary is charged at £1029.

The direct hotel site will accept payment via MasterCard in EUR.

Which am I better off going for?my payment would be John Lewis Partnership MasterCard.

Alfrescodave

Is there any reason why you need to book it now? If and when some kind of normality returns there could well be some good deals on offer to entice tourists back. 

bagand96

MasterCard exchange rate yesterday was €1 = £0.8768.   So your €1029 would be £902.23.  According to the MSE article (I haven’t verified it, but they usually are) the John Lewis credit card charges a 2.75% load fee on the exchange rate, so the amount would be £927.04. So you’re still better paying in EUR on your card. 

MasterCard have a very helpful calculator that shows all this https://www.mastercard.co.uk/en-gb/consumers/get-support/convert-currency.html

The MSE article is also worth a read as it explains it all, and also talks about how you could save yourself the extra £22 by getting a card that charges no fees so you’d only pay the £902.  https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/travel-credit-cards/

samsam89

Brilliant! Thank you for the reply.