Cross border credit card transactions

J

Joe1234

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Does a retailer in northern Ireland have to charge you in sterling if you use your credit card? I was recently using my irish credit card in Northern Ireland and the retailer would only charge me in euro, at a much less favourable rate, of course.
 
Be aware that this can be the basis of a well known scam where the retailer creams it at your expense on the forex margin! Avoid - and stick to having the transaction charged to your card in the local currency and with the normal CC forex margin and any other charges that apply.
 
Joe, you can insist they charge you in their local currency, i.e. Sterling. It's a violation of the card scheme to force Dynamic Currency Conversion on cardholders.

If you feel strongly enough about it, write to your issuing bank enclosing a copy of the receipt and asking them to credit you with the forex commission. If the merchant has a head office, I would also write to them asking for same, mentioning that
This practice violates the rules of the VISA and MasterCard schemes. This means you are in violation of your merchant agreement with your acquiring bank(s). This may expose you to chargebacks, higher transaction processing fees, and increased liability for fraudulent transactions.
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Then escalate through both complaints procedures. You may or may not get satisfaction, but if enough people complain, merchants will come under pressure not to do this.

ClubMan: I think that's Joe's point!
 
OK - they don't have to charge you in the local currency but it will probably be in your best interests to opt for this or insist that they do!
 
they don't have to charge you in the local currency
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Just to be crystal clear: Unless the cardholder decides otherwise, a merchant must raise credit card transactions in the merchant's local currency (and not the local currency of the card.).
 
Thanks all for your quick replies. I definately wanted to be charged in sterling, but couldn't argue with them as i was not 100% sure of the legalities of the situation.
 
Are you sure about that? I thought that it was perfectly legal and within the terms & conditions of the relevant card retailer/merchant agreement for them to offer the customer the option of charging it in any currency? Of course it looks like in this case the customer was given no option...
 
ClubMan: I think you misinterpreted the original query. The question is not "must a NI merchant charge in Sterling", the question is "do they (an NI merchant) have to charge you in Sterling" if that's what you insist on. And that's all I'm saying, where DCC is available, it's the cardholder's decision whether to use it. If the merchant forces DCC on the cardholder, they are in violation.
 
Just phoned my 2 credit card companies. AIB told me that the retailer can charge me in euro, but if the bill is say £100 stg and they convert it to €140, and if I give my pin for €140, I will be charged the banks rate of, say €135.

MBNA have told me that if the want to charge me in euro, at their rate, then I ave the right to insist on being charged in sterling.
 
Whoever you spoke to in AIB is wrong, on both counts. Hopefully you used an AIB card, so your statement will prove their second point is wrong!
 
MugsGame said:
Whoever you spoke to in AIB is wrong, on both counts. Hopefully you used an AIB card, so your statement will prove their second point is wrong!
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Yes I did use an AIB card and have just checked online. The woman in AIB was wrong!
 
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