Credit Card Scam for UK tourists

Seth Brundle

My inlaws (from Norn Iron) were telling me of the latest rip off in this poxy country. Apparently, this happened them, my father-in-laws brother and his daughter on separate occasions.
When tourists from the UK try to pay for goods or accommodation here the shop / hotel / whatever converts the euro charge into sterling (at their chosen rate) and then gets the customer to sign the receipt. They claim this is done to aid convenience for the customer.
However, what they dont state is the exchange rate they use to convert into sterling. Usually this is about 10-15%.
If you try and complain the premises try and state that they cannot undo the transaction on the CC machine or use some other bull**** excuse to emabrras the tourist into accepting the charge.
Apparently this happened quite a lot over in the west but also in leading places such as Arnotts.
Killian

Our man in Havana

How can they charge sterling on CC machine? Euro is the only legal currency in Ireland.

They should be charged euro andthen the bank does the conversion automaticaly.
What happens if you tell then to charge you in euro?

Seth Brundle

As I said it didn't happen to me but apparently they somehow manage it. If you try and protest then they claim that it has gone through, etc. but they are lying as nothing is confirmed until your John Hancock goes on the piece of paper. They also try and make you feel petty for raising the issue with them.

LFCFan

just add it to the list of rip offs in this country. If something isn't done soon we're gonna be in serious trouble as we'll have no tourist industry and with the Euro being so strong against Sterling and the Dollar our exports will make things worse. Sometimes I really hate this country.

Originally posted by kbannon
My inlaws (from Norn Iron) were telling me of the latest rip off in this poxy country. Apparently, this happened them, my father-in-laws brother and his daughter on separate occasions.
When tourists from the UK try to pay for goods or accommodation here the shop / hotel / whatever converts the euro charge into sterling (at their chosen rate) and then gets the customer to sign the receipt. They claim this is done to aid convenience for the customer.

This sounds like patent nonsense to me.
Are you suggesting that when a UK tourist pays for something, the very second their accent is heard, the shop assistant say's ..."wait a second till I charge you in sterling for that..."

Or that hotels in this country, when they hear your accent charge you in sterling??
Or that when you present a UK credit card, you will automatically be charged in sterling??
I have a UK credit card and use it all the time and this has never been done.
I'm not ruling out the possibility that someone somewhere ripped off your Nor Iron relatives, but thats all it was , and not so representative of everywhere as to merit being described as a credit card scam for UK tourists.
mm

Seth Brundle

ok then I will ask arnotts what the official line is and will let you know when they come back to me.
K.

eth0_

Originally posted by kbannon
ok then I will ask arnotts what the official line is and will let you know when they come back to me.
K.

I can't wait to hear what they say. Because afaik it's impossible for a shop to charge the currency they're charging credit cards for.

It's like when you buy something, from a US website, they charge you in dollars but it's your credit card company who deals with the exchange rate and puts the euro value on your statement...

LFCFan

this is so much bullsh1t. There's no way a shop can charge a tourist in their native currency. We use the Euro here and that's that. The credit card company do any currency conversions and charge the proper rate on the users bill. If anyone has been charged sterling like that chap has said then I'm sorry but they are the doziest dopes ever for letting it happen no matter what the shopkeeper/hotelier tells them.

Victor

If they try anything like this, just say "actually, I'll pay in cash, wheres the nearest cash machine".