Nationwide Credit Cards

Someone asked recently how much do you need for spending money whilst in Florida. I decided to do a spreadsheet to see who spent what where as it's always a bone of contention between me and himself.

I was annoyed to find that when I used my Nationwide Credit Card in Ross although the amount was stated in $ there was a disclaimer stating that I had elected to pay this in £s. Needless to say I hadn't been asked this.

All the Walmart's went through ok, in future I will ask when I hand over my card to make sure it's always processed in $'s.

Don't know if anyone else has experienced the same.

Presumably the rate charged by Ross was worse than of Nationwide? If so by how much?

I have recently seen an article on this somewhere, and I think it said, that retailers are not allowed to do this and the rules were being tightened.

It is worth going back to Nationwide. We had the same thing happen to us on the ferry which runs from Harwich to Hook of Holland. When we reported it to Nationwide they refunded the difference.

The rate charged by Ross will be worse as they can set their own exchange rates (nice earner [msnmad]). will definitely be careful next time I shop in Ross to check my bill. We have never had any problems with Walmart - always been taken in dollars without asking.

Now you're are getting the little grey cells working, I paid $110.14 and was charged £65.36 on receipt at an pound sterling exchange rate of 0.5934, the day it went through on my account the rate for another Walmart transaction was 1.7435. The exchange rate I was given by Visa was 1.685 a difference of £2.17.

I too have read articles on this but thought it only occured in Spain where we have a holiday home. I also thought Nationwide would not reimburse you as you are supposed to be informed before the transaction is put through hence the wording on the receipt. But this receipt is given after you have signed electronically or on another piece of paper.

My understanding is that it is the Visa company who is dealing with the transaction who is creaming of the extra funds not Ross who will just get the $110.14. Probably this is Visa's way of getting back the lost revenue now we are all switching to Nationwide.

I still think the best option is when you hand over your card state that you want the amount to go through in $'s then the cashier will have to think about what she is doing. Perhaps she has to press a button, at least then you will have a case when you demand a refund when you see this phrase * I acknowledge I had a choice to pay in US Dollars and my choice of currency is final.

When I used to use a Barclaycard Visa any refunds used to come through at a different rate so you could loose out there too.

We went to France last week to stock up with supplies. In Auchan we were asked if we wanted to pay in Euros or Pounds as I gave them my Nationwide card. I remembered to ask to pay in the local currency but will certainly be aware in future that sometimes you might not be offered a choice.

Visa(the organisation itself and not the credit card company) have a fixed daily rate which today is £1=$1.85 and can be found here:

http://corporate.visa.com/pd/consume...o=USD&rate=0.0

Nationwide of course always charge that Visa rate for US$ purchases. However most other cards- Barclaycard, Virgin etc charge 2.75% on any transaction. So using today's Visa rate of £1 = £1.85(which you would get with Nationwide) you would get £1 = $1.799 with a Virgin card.

I don't know who 'Ross' are but I always been charged US$ for any US purchase and never ever given the option of paying in UK£s or any other currency. The average American checkout operator might recognise that you speak 'funny' but how would they know you are British? and not from Ireland or another country. Surely they cannot have a "button" for Euros, Canadian $s etc etc.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Robert5988
Visa(the organisation itself and not the credit card company) have a fixed daily rate which today is £1=$1.85 and can be found here:

http://corporate.visa.com/pd/consume...o=USD&rate=0.0

Nationwide of course always charge that Visa rate for US$ purchases. However most other cards- Barclaycard, Virgin etc charge 2.75% on any transaction. So using today's Visa rate of £1 = £1.85(which you would get with Nationwide) you would get £1 = $1.799 with a Virgin card.

I don't know who 'Ross' are but I always been charged US$ for any US purchase and never ever given the option of paying in UK£s or any other currency. The average American checkout operator might recognise that you speak 'funny' but how would they know you are British? and not from Ireland or another country. Surely they cannot have a "button" for Euros, Canadian $s etc etc.
[/quote]
Likewise Robert - I've never paid for anything I bought in the USA in any currency other than USD.

Ross is a store which sells clothes and household items similar to T K Max, its full name is Ross Dress for less. It has stores in Osceala Mall, The Loop, the new shopping area opposite Florida Mall and International Drive.

Why I wanted to bring this to everyones attention is because this is something that does happen when you use Nationwide Credit Cards abroad. Nationwide's website used to mention it as so many people were being caught out by it.

I can only describe what happened to me, I wasn't given an option of paying in dollars and when you look at the receipt that you sign or on the electronic screen only the amount in dollars is shown. It's only when you receive the printed bill that it tells you after given the card details and auth. code what the transaction currency is ie £ and what rate it was calculated at.

As Pat said she was offered a choice of currency, in Spain I always check before I sign to make sure this phrase hasn't been used. It doesn't happen everywhere, it depends on which banking system is used.

Ross is a store which can get very busy at times and has long lines at checkout. Maybe the cashier's are not aware that they are supposed to ask a question I don't really know how it works.

I used my credit card in a number of stores on the trip but this was the only one where this occured. Unfortuneately I realised too late to take any action

Bargainqueen it is something that can happen with any credit card used abroad. Do get in touch with Nationwide's dispute department and let them know what has happened. As mentioned we got caught out on a ferry in the same way even though we had said we wanted to pay in euros. Nationwide did refund the difference.

This is known as Dynamic Currency Conversion - the purchase is converted into £ at the point of sale, usually at a poor rate. Under their agreement with Visa and Mastercard, the shop is supposed to offer the customer a choice. It happened to us once in Florida with a Nationwide card (at a shop which did not see many foreign credit cards) - we were just presented with a credit card slip which said that we had chosen Dynamic Currency Conversion, whereas in fact we had not been offered a choice. I refused to sign, and even after a couple of phone calls to Visa the shop still could not work out how to charge us in dollars. We ended up using a US dollar credit card which we have.

I found this article about it:

http://money.uk.msn.com/Banking/Card...umentid=143035

Thanks for the link above I have printed it off for future reference. Now I can put a name to it, funny that it should be called Dynamic, Sneaky would be a better description[msnmad]

Will be interested to know if anyone else gets caught with this, even using the normal cards you will be worse off with DCC.

Thanks for the link shockey, good read..

Thanks for the link on dynamic currency conversion. The extract below is from the Visa website:


<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:What is Dynamic Currency Conversion?

Some merchants now offer to convert your bill into your home currency. This is called dynamic currency conversion and means the merchant—and not Visa—is converting the currency. As a consumer you may value knowing the exact price in your home currency at the point of sale but you should also know you may be charged extra for this service by the merchant. Visa requires that you are provided a meaningful choice at the point of sale and you have the right to buy your purchase in the local currency so that you do not incur any additional fees the merchant may assess. Visa also requires merchants offering this service to inform you of the exchange rate including any applicable commission being charged. If you choose DCC for a transaction, you receive the merchant rate, not Visa's rate.
[/quote]

Always confirm with the assistant when you hand over the card that you want to pay in DOLLARS.
The extra that gets creamed off goes to the Merchant. Good scam for those who aren't aware![msneek]