Sterling & Euro Warning

[mylestheslasher]

All.

Thought I'd give the southerners a warning about their christmas shopping if buying online. take a look at the foreign exchanges rates today and you'll see that the euro is worth .85p sterling. Now visit the likes of play.com and check the prices in Sterling and then the prices in Euro. You'll see a fair rip off on the exchange rates. A popular purchase like Football Manager is a good example...

play.com sterling price = £29.99 sterling

but click the euro tab at the top left and you get a price of

play.com euro price = €41.99 (This should be €35 at todays rates)

Thats a rip off to the tune of 17% folks. I see the same crap going on in Smiths Toystores where both the sterling and euro prices are listed and huge discrepancies are obvious. My advise is to use ebay to search for goods as they'll charge something close to actual exchange rates or buy from a UK store, in sterling, with your credit card.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

You're spot on there Myles: what a lot of these retail outlets will offer is the 'convenience' of being priced in your native currency, but will pocket the huge markup they apply to the current exchange rates. Rule of thumb: always transact through the currency of the seller, and take the forex hit through your credit card provider. Not cheap necessarily, but much cheaper.

[Bud Wiser]

I got an invoice from PMC Advertiser, a Plant & Machinery Mag up there for £150 and they invoiced me for Euro. 225.00, and made no bones about it.  They said thats the way their computer is set up and that was it.  Only for I've taken up hurling again after a long lay off I would have gone up there and sorted them out.

[aroundincircles]

HEART ATTACK MATERIAL.

[TacadoirArdMhacha]

I got an invoice from PMC Advertiser, a Plant & Machinery Mag up there for £150 and they invoiced me for Euro. 225.00, and made no bones about it.  They said thats the way their computer is set up and that was it.  Only for I've taken up hurling again after a long lay off I would have gone up there and sorted them out.

Why don't you just send them Sterling Bud and keep your €50?

[Owenmoresider]

All.

Thought I'd give the southerners a warning about their christmas shopping if buying online. take a look at the foreign exchanges rates today and you'll see that the euro is worth .85p sterling. Now visit the likes of play.com and check the prices in Sterling and then the prices in Euro. You'll see a fair rip off on the exchange rates. A popular purchase like Football Manager is a good example...

play.com sterling price = £29.99 sterling

but click the euro tab at the top left and you get a price of

play.com euro price = €41.99 (This should be €35 at todays rates)

Thats a rip off to the tune of 17% folks. I see the same crap going on in Smiths Toystores where both the sterling and euro prices are listed and huge discrepancies are obvious. My advise is to use ebay to search for goods as they'll charge something close to actual exchange rates or buy from a UK store, in sterling, with your credit card.

Would that be the same with amazon myles? Was looking at FM myself, £29.99 there too, but can't seem to get the euro prices up on it for some reason.

[Bud Wiser]

I paid them with Barclaycard but they lost an add every month for a year cause I would not advertise with them again.

[mylestheslasher]

All.

Thought I'd give the southerners a warning about their christmas shopping if buying online. take a look at the foreign exchanges rates today and you'll see that the euro is worth .85p sterling. Now visit the likes of play.com and check the prices in Sterling and then the prices in Euro. You'll see a fair rip off on the exchange rates. A popular purchase like Football Manager is a good example...

play.com sterling price = £29.99 sterling

but click the euro tab at the top left and you get a price of

play.com euro price = €41.99 (This should be €35 at todays rates)

Thats a rip off to the tune of 17% folks. I see the same crap going on in Smiths Toystores where both the sterling and euro prices are listed and huge discrepancies are obvious. My advise is to use ebay to search for goods as they'll charge something close to actual exchange rates or buy from a UK store, in sterling, with your credit card.

Would that be the same with amazon myles? Was looking at FM myself, £29.99 there too, but can't seem to get the euro prices up on it for some reason.

Not sure. It depends on check out whether they convert your bill to euro or not. Go through the system of checking out and if at the final "confirm" screen you are being charged £30 or €35 or so then you are fine.

[Louth Exile]

You're spot on there Myles: what a lot of these retail outlets will offer is the 'convenience' of being priced in your native currency, but will pocket the huge markup they apply to the current exchange rates. Rule of thumb: always transact through the currency of the seller, and take the forex hit through your credit card provider. Not cheap necessarily, but much cheaper.

Ceisteanna for you Fear... What do you mean by taking the forex hit from your credit card provider??
I would normally use my CC when up the north and I noticed recently that the exchange rates is different for every single transaction!! Best example, two seperate transactions carried out in M&S Newry on the same day and both had different exchange rates!! Anyone know why this is??

For a certain 'big shop' I am planning to head North and I was wondering whether I should stick it on the card or am I better off exchanging cash down here and heading up with the wads of sterling?? Anyone any advice??

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

You're spot on there Myles: what a lot of these retail outlets will offer is the 'convenience' of being priced in your native currency, but will pocket the huge markup they apply to the current exchange rates. Rule of thumb: always transact through the currency of the seller, and take the forex hit through your credit card provider. Not cheap necessarily, but much cheaper.

Ceisteanna for you Fear... What do you mean by taking the forex hit from your credit card provider??
I would normally use my CC when up the north and I noticed recently that the exchange rates is different for every single transaction!! Best example, two seperate transactions carried out in M&S Newry on the same day and both had different exchange rates!! Anyone know why this is??

For a certain 'big shop' I am planning to head North and I was wondering whether I should stick it on the card or am I better off exchanging cash down here and heading up with the wads of sterling?? Anyone any advice??

What I mean there LE is that you're going to lose somewhere in the conversion, and if you take a retail outlet's pre-cooked conversion you're going to take a bigger hit.

And I'd say that the reason you had different exchange rates for the same day was that M & S were taking up-to-the-second forex rates, and they will vary by the second (although usually it would be the end-of-day rates).

Regarding changing your euro before you go: it may make no appreciable difference, in that whatever rate you'd get by changing your wads is what the bank should apply anyway in the CC conversion, the only difference being the fluctuation in the end-of-day exchange rate, i.e., at least when you change before you go you know exactly the rate you're getting, but if you leave it for the card, the rate could rise (or fall) between when you transact and it reaches your bank.

[Doohicky]

Now, I don't know how Amazon/Play etc 'buy' their currency exchanges, but the following is a way that a lot of business' do.

They settle on an exchange rate for the entire year with a bank. For that entire year they will then get all exchanges at a set rate, no matter what the actual rate is.
This can lead to what is happening now, where ther rate changes in a way that means they look like they are overcharging.
However this can also mean that at times they are able to pass on a better rate. Although, knowing most companies they wouldn't pass on the better rate, but will use the base rate and pocket the difference.

[orangeman]

If you're booking flights with Aer Lingus or Ryanairwith a sterling credit card and if you're flying out of Dublin, they give you some riding !

[Louth Exile]

You're spot on there Myles: what a lot of these retail outlets will offer is the 'convenience' of being priced in your native currency, but will pocket the huge markup they apply to the current exchange rates. Rule of thumb: always transact through the currency of the seller, and take the forex hit through your credit card provider. Not cheap necessarily, but much cheaper.

Ceisteanna for you Fear... What do you mean by taking the forex hit from your credit card provider??
I would normally use my CC when up the north and I noticed recently that the exchange rates is different for every single transaction!! Best example, two seperate transactions carried out in M&S Newry on the same day and both had different exchange rates!! Anyone know why this is??

For a certain 'big shop' I am planning to head North and I was wondering whether I should stick it on the card or am I better off exchanging cash down here and heading up with the wads of sterling?? Anyone any advice??

What I mean there LE is that you're going to lose somewhere in the conversion, and if you take a retail outlet's pre-cooked conversion you're going to take a bigger hit.

And I'd say that the reason you had different exchange rates for the same day was that M & S were taking up-to-the-second forex rates, and they will vary by the second (although usually it would be the end-of-day rates).

Regarding changing your euro before you go: it may make no appreciable difference, in that whatever rate you'd get by changing your wads is what the bank should apply anyway in the CC conversion, the only difference being the fluctuation in the end-of-day exchange rate, i.e., at least when you change before you go you know exactly the rate you're getting, but if you leave it for the card, the rate could rise (or fall) between when you transact and it reaches your bank.

Go raibh a maith agat Fear. That makes things a lot clearer for me, basically forget about exchanging in the shops, use the CC. Or, if you want to know exactly how much you are paying then exchange beforehand down south

[FermGael]

For anybody that heads to enniskillen to do there shopping,There is a currency exchange in the center of the town.
Does a very competitive rate.
Only probem this week was there was such a demand for sterling, they ran out

[nifan]

moneysavingexpert.com has a lot of info on this sort of thing.
Written from a uk slant, but much of the advice stands for any currency conversion going on.