Pay in sterling / euro

dollydishmop

Hi all

I'm presuming this is a consumer issue, but mods please move to more appropriate section if necessary.

Looking to buy an item in Northern Ireland. Their sterling price is £385, their euro price is €485. Both prices include delivery to RoI.
Maybe at some point in exchange rates history, that made sense.

Obviously I'd prefer to pay their sterling price. Will be using a Visa Debit from an RoI bank account.

Can I do this? (Probably a really dumb & obvious question, but my head is fried today so humour me <blush>)

3DataModem

dollydishmop wrote: »

Hi all

I'm presuming this is a consumer issue, but mods please move to more appropriate section if necessary.

Looking to buy an item in Northern Ireland. Their sterling price is £385, their euro price is €485. Both prices include delivery to RoI.
Maybe at some point in exchange rates history, that made sense.

Obviously I'd prefer to pay their sterling price. Will be using a Visa Debit from an RoI bank account.

Can I do this? (Probably a really dumb & obvious question, but my head is fried today so humour me <blush>)

It was pretty close to that last year.

Anyway, they probably won't ship to Euroland unless you pay in Euros. They may be sophisticated enough to stop you using a Euro card to pay in Sterling,

Just try it and see. No risk to you.

Nody

Should not be a problem with the card; the store may insist possibly but if it is in Northern Ireland it should not be a problem there either.

Gott

Generally it will convert it to euros anyway.

I use an Irish Mastercard to pay for items I buy off eBay in the UK (I live there) and the price they always take is in Euro instead.

In this case they'll probably charge you the price quoted in Euro, since you're paying with an Irish card.

Jev/N

Gott wrote: »

In this case they'll probably charge you the price quoted in Euro, since you're paying with an Irish card.

For credit cards at least you can select whether to convert or not at checkout. Usually much better to pay in Sterling rather than Euro as the rate is never preferable.

dudara

Moved to Online Buying & Auctions

dudara

rubadub

What is the item & company? If this is the likes of www.chainreactioncycles.com up north they are a large company and do over the €35,000 limit of trading here, so they are obliged to pay Irish VAT. EDIT: I see now you said both prices incl delivery so maybe it is just down to a cautious exchange rate they use (and rarely change)

You can attempt to get to the checkout page and see what happens.

You could also consider using parcel motel if the sterling was refused.

If buying from amazon.co.uk I always pay in sterling and let the bank to the exchange, it is invariably cheaper than using amazons rate (and I have kept note of them)

dollydishmop

Thanks everyone for your replies, and thanks Dudara for moving to a more relevant section.

I tried the online checkout, and the moment I put my address in it changes to price to €485.

So I've emailed them to ask if can pay in sterling, and how to do so.

Thanks again.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

coylemj

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

+1 If they are insisting that you pay in Euros that is gouging. Like an earlier poster, I always pay Amazon UK in sterling because the CC exchange rate is better.

The larger UK retailers like Amazon will bump the price when you ask for delivery to Ireland but that's as a result of them changing the VAT from the UK rate to ours because they pay VAT to the Irish revenue but you should still have the option to pay in sterling. Having an Irish CC shouldn't be an issue, the CC company will pay them in sterling same as if you had a UK card.

Parcel Motel (with delivery to their Belfast depot) is the solution.

sandin

dollydishmop wrote: »

, Their sterling price is £385, their euro price is €485. Both prices include delivery to RoI.
Maybe at some point in exchange rates history, that made sense.

Obviously I'd prefer to pay their sterling price. Will be using a Visa Debit from an RoI bank account.

£385 x consumer exchange rate this morning at 1.994 (lets say 1.2) = 462.00 + visa foreign exchange debit fee of up to 2% = 471.00. Add in the extra irish vat and you are at 485.

Yesterday the calculation would have been 473.50 + extra vat = 488 last week it would have been 476 + extra vat and about 4 weeks ago it would have been about 460+ extra vat and 3 months ago it would have been 490+ extra vat.

In December, it would have been about €515 when you converted.

If you pay in euro, the supplier has the same costs as you, but in reverse. My guess is the supplier would love you to pay in sterling as it takes the exchange risk out for him/her - but be aware of all the additional charges and the correct consumer exchange rate you will be charged from your bank.

But my guess is its set at euro for irish deliveries to make the accounting for extra vat easy - the sterling price to you will be about £397, which will be so close to 485, or even higher after charges it simply won't have been worth your while.

MBSnr

coylemj wrote: »

+1 If they are insisting that you pay in Euros that is gouging. Like an earlier poster, I always pay Amazon UK in sterling because the CC exchange rate is better.

The larger UK retailers like Amazon will bump the price when you ask for delivery to Ireland but that's as a result of them changing the VAT from the UK rate to ours because they pay VAT to the Irish revenue but you should still have the option to pay in sterling. Having an Irish CC shouldn't be an issue, the CC company will pay them in sterling same as if you had a UK card.

Parcel Motel (with delivery to their Belfast depot) is the solution.

You're right, I'd agree that paying in Sterling is a better exchange rate most of the time. The only thing I'll add is it's best to check how much you're saving and offset the price of PM and hassle of getting to your local one verses Amazon free delivery (if available on your order).
For every 100GBP (Inc UK 20% VAT) spent works out as 102.50GBP with Irish 23% VAT. On smaller value items (~200GBP) I find the difference (5GBP) makes it just as handy to get them directly delivered here.

rubadub

Post a link to the item as it might become more obvious, or somebody might spot a way to pay in sterling.

dollydishmop

Just to update you all.

They replied promptly to my email. I then paid, in sterling, over the phone.

Job done, and item is with courier already. Happy days.

Thanks again everyone.

sandin

dollydishmop wrote: »

Just to update you all.

They replied promptly to my email. I then paid, in sterling, over the phone.

Job done, and item is with courier already. Happy days.

Thanks again everyone.

As expected cos there is no real advantage to them in the euro price.

When you see the conversion on your bank statement, can you post to show the exact amount in Euro - it would be interesting to know if there was a discernible difference after currency charges and commission.