UK website prices, actually getting worse!?!? See why (example)

Home:Ballyhoura

Hi, I know that the Euro to British Pound exchange rate hit the lowest ever in the last few days (£0.98 is €1 and £1 is €1.02). I have taken advantage of this situation too many times recently, but I just realised that is coming to an end quite soon:( Yes I know that is terrible news for us compulsive buyers! The increased price for UK retailers to import (due to the weak Sterling) is becoming apparent in the more recent prices. Just an example of mine:

I first looked at the Tacx Satori about a month ago at £132 (converting to €165 at the time). I waited around for a while and got it for €150 before Christmas, but sadly saw it drop to €135 with this all time low! Now, CRC raised the price to £170 (around €180 at the moment). Thats more expensive than the price in the first place, maybe they are expecting the GBP to weaken further! (Look at the difference: nearly €50 between the price, just one week apart!)

I also saw this happening on Wiggle, I was looking at a Polar CS200 Cadence. Price went up around the same time as CRC, but luckily I got it at an unbelievable price of €90 in total (using a voucher just before this chaos started)

Both of the examples above are probably still better value than what we can get here in Ireland in our LBS, so you can still spend away to your hearts content! Hope this is of some help to someone!

BostonB

I've been waiting for my job to give details of the cycle to work scheme, but I'm wondering would it better just to pick up something now from the UK. Might be months before it gets organised through work.

bcmf

Learned a valuable lesson of my wife the other day.
When on a site that gives you the option to buy in many currencies ie Stg,Eur,kron,Dollars etc BUY IN STG (presuming the website is in the UK).The conversion rate will be out of date on their website but if you buy in stg your credit card will give you the best rate at the time of purchase.
EG
Just booked the ferry for nxt summers hols and if we had of booked in Euro from their site and were being qouted in the region of a grand BUT when we chose to book in STG it came in around €800.

zzzzzzzz

bcmf wrote: »

Learned a valuable lesson of my wife the other day.
When on a site that gives you the option to buy in many currencies ie Stg,Eur,kron,Dollars etc BUY IN STG (presuming the website is in the UK).The conversion rate will be out of date on their website but if you buy in stg your credit card will give you the best rate at the time of purchase.
EG
Just booked the ferry for nxt summers hols and if we had of booked in Euro from their site and were being qouted in the region of a grand BUT when we chose to book in STG it came in around €800.

I think on Wiggle & CRC you're billed in sterling regardless of what currency you choose to display. The currency conversion is only there to serve as a guide - you'd need to check with your credit card company what exchange rate they offer.

cgf

I use Paypal when ordering.

You see the exact rate & cost in Euro that you are paying when you confirm payment and your CC is billed in the Euro amount quoted so none of this Cross Border currency conversion fee rubbish.

I am not sure if it is the "best" rate but at least I know the exact amount in Euro that I am paying.

Home:Ballyhoura

Hi guys, just to let u know, it doesn't matter what currency/conversion rate you get billed in any more. I know all these tricks myself, its just that the actual base price in sterling is being raised, so much so that the prices are more expensive than they ever were in the first place! I'm not sure if it just happened to the items I was looking at, so let's hope it doesn't happen to everything!

TinyExplosions

Prices will go up soon... I think it's because we're riding the crest of the current wave where the UK shops brought stock when the exchange rate was great, and so are getting hammered selling it back. Soon, when they but more stock for '09, they'll have to pay more because sterling is weaker, and will have to charge more For example, if wiggle brought a load of Focus bike at 1000 euro last year, they'd have paid in the region of 750 or maybe less in stg. Stick their markup on it, and they sell the bike at 800 (simplistic, but you get the point). Now if they buy the same bike at the same price, it's costing them 1000, so they have to put prices up.

Buy now, before the stock is all gone is what I'd suggest!

Lumen

Indeed.