Help, i am being charged for something i didnt do !!

daz69kay

My partner went to a cash machine and after entering her pin she clicked on 100 euros and it said the exchange rate is 0.84 or something like that. Do you wish to continue? She said no and the card came out. We walked accross the street 2 mins away and tried a different bank. There rate was the same. Again she said no. At this point we said try a different banks exchange rate if its the same we'll just take it.
Anyway she got 100 euros from the 3rd bank at practically the same rate and just got on with it as normal.
After returning from our holiday abroad my partner checked her internet banking. There was 3 transactions of the same amount of money on the same day. When she rang Halifax to explain the situation they filed a dispute and said it will take about 3 weeks to sort the problem out. After 2 weeks my partner got her money back. She phoned them up to say that the money is now showing is that all sorted then. They said yes everything is fine.
2 weeks later she receives a letter stating that the funds were dispensed and no errors were recorded. They are going to debit 2 amounts of £90.70 on 15 May??
What can she do ? I advised her to transfer all her money into my bank and have her wages paid into my other account also. This way she will refuse to pay this money which is hers anyway? Is this the correct way to buy some time ?

dzug1

Not really - they'll take the money anyway and slap overdrawn charges on which you'll have a fight to get back. Still if she never uses the account again....

She's going to have to appeal to the bank.

Remember next time that all cash machines will give (to within a few thousandths of a cent) exactly the same exchange rate. They all (ultimately) go through the same network that sets the rate.

Captain_Mainwaring_2

I've never ever seen any cash machine where the current exchange rate is displayed .

olly300

Captain_Mainwaring wrote: »

I've never ever seen any cash machine where the current exchange rate is displayed .

Neither have I.

OP what country was that in?

BTW if the issue isn't sorted out, there is no money in the account and the account gets overdrawn then there will be a note on your partner's credit file.

jonesMUFCforever

I have seen these kinds of machines at airports.

Biggles

ATMs don't get normally involved in currency conversion. They give you EUR100 and pass the charge to your bank who may, or may not, add their own fee to the conversion. The ATM has no way of knowing your bank's policy.

It sounds like these ATMs were either in an airport or other tourist area and were using some form of 'dynamic currency conversion', where it detects that you have a GBP card and kindly converts it for you, taking a profit for the ATM owner. That would explain why the rates were poor.

Ignore such machines, in much the same way as, in a restaurant etc, you would send the bill back and insist on being charged in EUR.

BruceyBonus

Santander (aka Abbey) machines in Spain offer you a choice of them converting the currency or allowing your card issuer to do so.

Captain_Mainwaring_2

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

I have seen these kinds of machines at airports.

Where? I have taken 16 long haul flights this year and 187 in the last 5 years and never seen it.

BruceyBonus

Captain_Mainwaring wrote: »

Where? I have taken 16 long haul flights this year and 187 in the last 5 years and never seen it.

Once you have left the departure lounge at Gatwick South Terminal there is a machine that dispenses euros. It was out of order when I was there.

teeni

I noticed in spain last year that some cashpoints gave you the option of using the rate they showed on the screen or allowing your own bank to use their own rates yes no button on screen to take the option you preferred.

I think they were the santander cashpoints.

jonesMUFCforever

Captain_Mainwaring wrote: »

Where? I have taken 16 long haul flights this year and 187 in the last 5 years and never seen it.

Manchester airport near the entrance from the train station.