[Johnny5a]

If you live in London and a UK resident try – Metro Bank they have zero charges when you use their Debit (Mastercard) or Credit Card abroad.

[MartynSinclair]

This month I had to cancel some longhaul flights all purchased using Amex and all charged in Euros.

Forgetting the time it takes for the refund to come through, and forgetting the purchase commission and excahnge rates used for the purchases…..

I was trying to work out why the refunded amount didnt match the purchase cost.

I was somewhat suprised to see that for refunds, Amex charge a commission ….. for credit payments made in Euros.

In total,the commission charged for the refunds came through at over a £200++

Is this normal practise…..?

[Raffles99]

When you refund a transaction in a foreign currency, the 3% commission you originally paid is also refunded.

If the FX rate was the same on the day you booked and the day you cancelled, you would get back exactly the same.

However, remember a) BA has charged you £15 per person for cancelling your flight – £25 if an Avios booking – unless you are BA Gold and b) the FX rate will have moved.

(I booked £25k of cancellable Euro and $ denominated transactions during the Lloyds TSB promotion earlier this year, all of which I cancelled later, so I took a keen interest in how this worked!)

I assume you used Quidco to book these flights as well? The cashback on revenue tickets offsets the cancellation fees 🙂

[MartynSinclair]

Hi Raffles

Thanks for your reply.

I accept that fx rates may differ, byt my concern/complaint is that Amex have charged commission firstly on the debits(when the tickets were booked) and then as well on the credits when the airline refunded the tickets.

BA did not charge me anything as I am a Gold card holder.

I have received a private email from a poster who has advised that a gentle word to Amex could resolve this, which is what I intend doing. The wider concern is whether Amex (or other charge card companies) charge commission on foreign currency refunds.

[first_class_please]

Martyn, are you sure the commission is a charge, not a re-credit of the 2.75% commission?

I`ve just applied for the Halifax clarity card which doesn`t charge any fees, for all my personal overseas expenses.

I figure the 2.75% saved more than covers the amount of avios earned, especially when i receive more than sufficient from actual travel.

[LuganoPirate]

Had the FX moved in your favour Maryyn, I wonder if Amex would have paid you the extra gained?

If you regularly buy tickets in Euro’s I’d recommend getting a € denominated credit card. This will save FX commissions and the ripoff 3% they charge.

[Raffles99]

The thing is … the Lloyds Amex Avios cards use Amex for processing (obviously) and I am 100% certain that they DO refund the 3%.

Unless you know the spot FX rate on the day you did the refund – actually, the day Amex processed the refund – I’m not sure how you know that Amex has not adjusted the rate.

When I was cancelling and refunding on the Lloyds Amex cards I kept a detailed record of the spot rates on the day I did the transactions, because I didn’t want to take an FX loss. A transaction when the spot rate was $1.45 would go through at $1.41, whether it was a refund or a purchase.

[Raffles99]

Actually, I have found a real-life example for you. Back in February I cancelled a BA redemption ticket in WTP to rebook in Club World. This was on my BA Amex.

The cancelled ticket triggered a refund of Euro 286.62 which went through at £248.05. FX rate of 1.156.

The rebooked ticket – which was processed 1 day later – was Euro 282.31, leading to a charge of £243.83. FX rate of 1.157.

As you can see, as near as matters (given the 1 day processing difference) the same FX rate was used on the purchase and the refund.

[conair346]

For all my european escapdes I use a Caxton FX Card (www.caxtonfx.co.uk).
Minimum £150 load, no fees, no commissions, generally excellent email service too. I’ve only ever noticed that it’s maybe €0.01 below the best rates which attact commissions and fees so it works out best using the Caxton card as its zero anything. Its a Visa so quite widely accepted and easy for leaving deposits at hotels or cash from machines locally and as its loaded in Euro’s you always know locally how much is left.

I previously used ICE Plc’s Euro card which Natwest decided would be a good idea to charge me forex fees even though the loads were conducted in GBP (with ICE doing the exchange). Amazingly Natwest & Ulster haven’t caught on that Caxton is basically the same.

[JamesMoloney5]

To go back to the OP question…how to avoid the charge in your own currency and the extortionate exchange rate……

If you read the credit card slip it says words to the effect of “I acknowledge that I have been given a choice of accepting the charge in my own or the local currency……” I NEVER sign the slip unless the local currency option has been ticked and, in the event that some slippery hotel merchant has already processed the payment in my home currency, I just point out the words on the slip and I ask them if they can remember offering me a choice..then I make them reverse the transaction, despite all the “it take long time to do this”…..or…. “cannot, already finished”…I just tell them I have plenty of time, or ask for the General Manager or the Finance Manager to come to the front desk…that usually gets it sorted pronto.

Hotels are the worst offenders by far !!

[SwissExPat]

Also beware if you use an “express check out” facility at the hotel……. They will always use the DCC unless you leave written instructions not to.

Happened me once in KL. I made a transaction at the rail station in MYR immediately after checking out so had 2 transactions to compare.

The DCC ripped me off for $30….

[LuganoPirate]

I made two identical purchases at ZRH to see the difference using my HSBC MasterCard. Paying in local currency was way more expensive. Repeated the exercise at DOH, same thing.

[LuganoPirate]

Anyone have any experience of the Moneycorp debit card? I’ve read the blurb and it seems quite interesting but curious if any fellow posters have practical experience before I get one.

[Author]

Posts