Timeline for Why are two currency options available when paying via card at airports abroad?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
26 events
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| Jul 30, 2017 at 7:17 | comment | added | Gayot Fow | @BurhanKhalid so noted. I'll think it over for a bit and see if it continues to make sense or not. | |
| Jul 30, 2017 at 7:06 | comment | added | Burhan Khalid | I mean, the OP is asking for using credit cards at airports (presumably not accessing Amazon from a laptop at an airport) - adding Amazon to the mix just confuses matters IMO. | |
| Jul 30, 2017 at 7:05 | comment | added | Gayot Fow | @BurhanKhalid it's an online screen accessible to lots of people that shows an implementation of DCC and thus removes it from the abstract, but your down vote is fine anyway. | |
| Jul 30, 2017 at 6:55 | comment | added | Gayot Fow | @Doc go back to oanda.com and try to get that rate for a quantity of GBP 44.97! (in the money transfer tab) And in this case anyway, USD is local currency for that card because it's denominated in USD. | |
| Jul 30, 2017 at 6:51 | comment | added | Burhan Khalid | What does Amazon have to do with this? -1 | |
| Jul 30, 2017 at 5:52 | comment | added | Doc | "so in this case DCC makes sense". What? Hell no it doesn't! Based on oanda.com, this rate is over 4 worse than the spot rate on the day of your post. If you have a credit card that gives spot rate or similar (and there are many that do now days) then this would leave you far, far worse off than paying in local currency. | |
| Jul 30, 2017 at 4:54 | history | edited | Gayot Fow | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 30, 2017 at 4:47 | history | edited | Gayot Fow | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 27, 2017 at 16:28 | comment | added | Gayot Fow | @lxgr astute comment! Well received too, can you read it now? | |
| Jul 27, 2017 at 16:01 | history | edited | Gayot Fow | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 27, 2017 at 15:51 | comment | added | lxgr | Merchants are not exposed to any fluctuation risk as they will always receive the amount as billed by them in the local currency. They do however get a kickback from the DCC provider. | |
| Jul 27, 2017 at 15:06 | history | edited | Gayot Fow | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 27, 2017 at 15:01 | comment | added | Calchas | If you are talking about ticket sales, BA is very happy to do the currency conversion for you by telephone or in person. They will use the IATA Consolidated Exchange Rates, which is essentially the average of yesterday's buy price for the currency pair in question. It is usually very close to the spot rate. It's necessary for all (network) airlines and TAs to agree on exchange rates to ensure that if a ticket is reissued/exchanged/refunded in a different sales office, the correct money can be moved around. | |
| Jul 26, 2017 at 22:43 | comment | added | Relaxed | And I am certainly not suggesting that knowing the number ought to be important or is important to me. I never use DCC. What I am saying is that people are tempted to do it because it gives them a feeling of certainty. By contrast, the main benefit of being charged in the local currency is that it is actually cheaper. The answer gets both of these points exactly backwards. | |
| Jul 26, 2017 at 22:34 | comment | added | Relaxed | @BenVoigt I am indeed focusing on knowing the number at the time of the transaction, I was very explicit about that and I explained why. That's precisely why I think the answer gets things backwards by focusing on something else. How is that a misinterpretation? | |
| Jul 26, 2017 at 20:21 | comment | added | Ben Voigt | @Relaxed: You're focused on knowing the number at the time of transaction, while Gayot focused on knowing who controls the number. You're misinterpreting the answer based on your own opinion of which is more important. | |
| Jul 26, 2017 at 18:31 | comment | added | Relaxed | @BenVoigt That's exactly what I am saying and the opposite of what the answer implies, so which is it? Also, realistically, most people haven't looked up the fees beforehand, which is precisely why it feels like an unknown quantity. Even if it's possible to look them up (although finding the exact exchange rate isn't necessarily trivial) and generally a better deal. | |
| Jul 26, 2017 at 16:43 | comment | added | Ben Voigt | @Relaxed: The answer is right. When you choose to pay in home currency, you know the final bill, but you don't know how that number was obtained. When you choose to pay in local currency, you don't know the final amount, but you know it is being calculated by your financial network. | |
| Jul 26, 2017 at 10:33 | history | edited | Gayot Fow | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 26, 2017 at 9:54 | comment | added | Relaxed | By contrast, when paying in a local currency, you don't actually know what you will be charged in your home currency (the only one relevant to almost everybody as that's the one you can most easily relate to, the one you are using to judge prices usually and the one in which you are paid). You could look up the card issuer's fees and conditions and you will almost always get a better deal that way but the number you see on the screen is more difficult to interpret. The number that will appear on your bank account statement is not transparent and feels “unknown”. | |
| Jul 26, 2017 at 9:53 | comment | added | Relaxed | I think you have things backwards: It's when paying in your own currency that you “know” what the transaction involves and that's what banks are preying on. Sure, you have no way to judge how good the exchange rate is and you will be overcharged but the number you see is a number you recognise and that's also the number that will be charged to your bank account. | |
| Jul 26, 2017 at 7:59 | comment | added | Chris H - UK | w.r.t your last para: Strangely, unlike BA, Brittany Ferries offers GBP & EUR on board (as well as for ticket sales) and earlier this month it was advantageous to pay them in GBP. Their costs are likely to be weighted towards EUR (HQ, suppliers). Presumably it can be taken into account in a hedging strategy, maybe even used in one. | |
| Jul 26, 2017 at 5:46 | history | edited | Gayot Fow | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 26, 2017 at 5:27 | history | edited | Gayot Fow | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 26, 2017 at 5:19 | history | edited | Gayot Fow | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 26, 2017 at 5:13 | history | answered | Gayot Fow | CC BY-SA 3.0 |