Amazon "Pay in euro" -Beware

_Whimsical_

damemcd wrote: »

With theECB planning to start printing money ,euro shoppers are going to find buying from .co.uk amazon more and more painful.

Wonder if it's a good idea to buy some amazon vouchers in advance of that happening. Maybe 100 pounds worth if you regularly buy supplies there like nappies, groceries or even if you just shop there a lot, it might cushion the blow when the euro takes the further tumble that it inevitably will.

NotYourYear20

danjo-xx wrote: »

Taking advice from here, I bought an item in sterling, which in euro would cost me €5.40 but by paying in sterling has cost me €5.78:(

I made the mistake of selecting Euro and was stung. But now that I've spotted the helpful tip in here, I'll be wiser in future.

zzap64

_Whimsical_ wrote: »

Wonder if it's a good idea to buy some amazon vouchers in advance of that happening. Maybe 100 pounds worth if you regularly buy supplies there like nappies, groceries or even if you just shop there a lot, it might cushion the blow when the euro takes the further tumble that it inevitably will.

That's a really good idea! I never thought of that before. I must try to remember it when (if) the exchange rate goes back more in our favour.

I would assume that's it's possible to buy and spend the voucher from the same Amazon account...

Greenmachine

Only ordered once on amazon, and I used euro. Transaction was on debit card, sterling price £29, euro price €39. If I was using my credit card I would have chosen sterling as the rate is pretty good on the credit card. Since I was using my current account, i had no idea what kind of fees the bank would want to charge on the currency exchange so I took it out of the equation.

_Whimsical_

zzap64 wrote: »

That's a really good idea! I never thought of that before. I must try to remember it when (if) the exchange rate goes back more in our favour.

I would assume that's it's possible to buy and spend the voucher from the same Amazon account...

It is,i did it Friday and tested.

zzap64

_Whimsical_ wrote: »

It is,i did it Friday and tested.

Good to know, although it turns us into currency traders and the punt could go the other way! ;-) (ah the old Punt, pun not intended!)

Libera

I always select sterling but due to weakening euro of late, it actually would have been cheaper to take the euro figure offered by Amazon (on a £60 item). It's a gamble!

_Whimsical_

You always have to bear in mind that you won't get the currency rate quoted by xe.com , your credit card provider will invariably have a less favourable rate and they charge a small percentage to convert currency too.
Last week I bought something and amazon worked out pretty similar conversion wise to my visa card.

Patty O Furniture

Does that only matter on small items only?

Also when does that come in that you don't have to pay IE tax on Amazon & just pay in the country your buying from, i suppose that's gotta work in your favour or will it hit you somewhere else :rolleyes:

_Whimsical_

xe rate today : 1 GBP = 1.33850 EUR
Visa rate today :1 GBP = 1.3740828750 EUR + conversion fee
Amazons rate today :1 GBP = 1.3961226325 EUR

This is Visa currency calculator.
http://www.visaeurope.com/making-payments/exchange-rates

You have to check on the site for your own card to see what their conversion fee is, mine is tesco visa so it's 1.75% of the transaction.
For me my card words out at 2 euro cheaper on a purchase of 100 than amazons rate. Not a massive saving but better in my pocket than theirs!

Libera

My point was that when you buy something it can take a few days before Amazon dispatch, so you are charged the sterling rate as at that date. If i had taken the euro option (which in this instance would have been cheaper due to euro falling), it would have applied to the rate that day, not when item was dispatched (Amazon would be taking the hit when euro falls in the meantime). Thus, in current times it is difficult to call it unless you can predict the direction of the rates (which in hindsight we now know are heading to the floor!). When rates are stable (or euro rising), euro makes sense and has always worked out cheaper for me in the past.

My last two transactions worked out more expensive paying in sterling with my credit card which annoyed me so I paid in euro for my latest transaction.

Greenmachine

_Whimsical_ wrote: »

xe rate today : 1 GBP = 1.33850 EUR
Visa rate today :1 GBP = 1.3740828750 EUR + conversion fee
Amazons rate today :1 GBP = 1.3961226325 EUR

This is Visa currency calculator.
http://www.visaeurope.com/making-payments/exchange-rates

You have to check on the site for your own card to see what their conversion rate is, mine is tesco visa so it's 1.75% of the transaction.
For me my card words out at 2 euro cheaper on a purchase of 100 than amazons rate. Not a massive saving but better in my pocket than theirs!

Handy website. I tended to ball park by adding 2% to the cost of xe.com exchange rate to estimate what a bill will be when there is no option to choose a currency. Just one thing you mentioned the currency fee, but did not say what it was in your case.

Just done my last transaction on amazon on 09 Jan
Currency exchange fee 2.65%
Total GBP:.... 29.36
Amazon rate 38.98
Calculated Rate 29.36 BRITISH POUND = 38.6336520956 EURO
an extra 35 cent effectively, in my case an extra 0.1% would make more different on an expensive item like a 50" Smart tv.

_Whimsical_

Greenmachine wrote: »

Handy website. I tended to ball park by adding 2% to the cost of xe.com exchange rate to estimate what a bill will be when there is no option to choose a currency. Just one thing you mentioned the currency fee, but did not say what it was in your case.

Just done my last transaction on amazon on 09 Jan
Currency exchange fee 2.65%
Total GBP:.... 29.36
Amazon rate 38.98
Calculated Rate 29.36 BRITISH POUND = 38.6336520956 EURO
an extra 35 cent effectively, in my case an extra 0.1% would make more different on an expensive item like a 50" Smart tv.

Sorry, I incorrectly said my conversion rate was 1.75% when I meant the conversation fee on my card is 1.75%. I've corrected it now.

2.65 percent is a high enough rate. Visa credit and debit fee for AIB,BOI and PTSB is 1.75. You might be better using your visa debit if you're making a big purchase in foreign currency.

Greenmachine

_Whimsical_ wrote: »

Sorry, I incorrectly said my conversion rate was 1.75% when I meant the conversation fee on my card is 1.75%. I've corrected it now.

2.65 percent is a high enough rate. Visa credit and debit fee for AIB,BOI and PTSB is 1.75. You might be better using your visa debit if you're making a big purchase in foreign currency.

Just to be clear I used my debit card. The 2.65% is what I would have payed if I used my credit card. Haven't use that in month, working to clear that. :P

DoYouEvenLift

So which should I pay in? I use an AIB card if that's relative

mac.in

DoYouEvenLift wrote: »

So which should I pay in? I use an AIB card if that's relative

For this amount, pay in Sterling GBP if you are using AIB debit card. That works out cheaper for you.

DoYouEvenLift

mac.in wrote: »

For this amount, pay in Sterling GBP if you are using AIB debit card. That works out cheaper for you.

Thanks! Came to €157.60, not a bad saving from just clicking a simple option. Don't think I would've tried this without this thread

_Whimsical_

DoYouEvenLift wrote: »

Thanks! Came to €157.60, not a bad saving from just clicking a simple option. Don't think I would've tried this without this thread

Was 157.60 charged to your account?

Just that via visa's own calculator it says it should come to 160.36.
If Visa calc is over estimating I'd consider that good news
http://www.visaeurope.com/making-payments/exchange-rates

DoYouEvenLift

_Whimsical_ wrote: »

Was 157.60 charged to your account?

Just that via visa's own calculator it says it should come to 160.36.
If Visa calc is over estimating I'd consider that good news
http://www.visaeurope.com/making-payments/exchange-rates

Yep

CYHSN

Spent £86.38 last week on amazon, was EUR 120,06 using amazon's conversion, bought in sterling which came to EUR 118.19 on aib, not much of a saving but better than nothing.

Patty O Furniture

CYHSN wrote: »

Spent £86.38 last week on amazon, was EUR 120,06 using amazon's conversion, bought in sterling which came to EUR 118.19 on aib, not much of a saving but better than nothing.

I didn't realise it had changed that much, as it was about £1.23 afaik before xmas, & now £1.38, the euro's up **** creek at moment :eek:

Also as, as i've moved over to BOI & got a visa debit card, what would you get charged on that, afaik that's the best of both worlds & better than a credit card?

power101

***********UPDATE***********

Just to add to this.

Today I Booked flights with Ryanair to the UK. Due to the flight times I booked my two flights separately. Apart from the fact that Ryanair do not allow you to book your single leg from the UK in euros they also try to force you to take bad exchange rate on their sterling prices.

Cost of Ryanair Flights in Sterling : £73.98
Cost of flights per their automatic euro exchange rate €108.79
Cost of flights after I selected to pay in sterling(AIB Fx) €102.21

Therefore by sticking with their sterling price I saved €6.58. €102.21 is what actually was charged to my AIB debit card instead of €108.79.

NEVER TAKE THE EXCHANGE RATE/EURO PRICE WHEN BUYING ANYTHING IN STERLING. ALWAYS PAY IN STERLING.

groom

I normally agree with this but I find PayPal rates to be pretty good meaning I find it's normally better to take their € amount when buying stuff in a different currency.

househero

meathman0 wrote: »

I always use PayPal , and think they give a bad rate, would I be better paying by credit card direct?

Sometimes... and i only mean sometimes. If its a really low cost item, paypay works out better as your bank MAY charge a minimum for foreign transactions. Anything over a few quid and you are always better off with your bank.

AIB is particularly bad with their charges

CiniO

That's why it's best to have separate cards in € and £ and change curreny using online providers which do it at excellent rates.

crasy dash

CiniO wrote: »

That's why it's best to have separate cards in € and £ and change curreny using online providers which do it at excellent rates.

Any links to sites you use to change currency?

CiniO

crasy dash wrote: »

Any links to sites you use to change currency?

Well as far as I'm aware, there no bank in Ireland which would offer sterling account with debit card. If there was it would be brilliant.

Possibly an option would be to have account in UK bank with debit card, and transfer € money from you Irish bank account through currencyfair or transferwise to UK sterling account.
They both seem to offer competitive currency exchange rates.

Only problem might be obtaining UK bank account.

I personally use Polish bank which offers accounts in Polish zloty, sterling, euro, american dollars and swiss franks.
Have three of them (zł, £ and €), and use walutomat.pl for currency exchange between those accounts.
walutomat is a kind of service where you swap currencies with other users.
So. f.e. user A logs in, and wants to change 1000€ to £. He asks for average rate so f.e. 1=1.386 He puts up a transaction and waits for other party.
Then a bit later user B logs in and wants to change £ to €. He agrees user A rate, and transaction goes ahead. waultomat service charges 0.02% commission on it, which is very cheap (f.e. €2 of €1000 transaction).
Great thing about it is that you can generally swap currencies at average market rate, so you are not affected by spread.
But again same thing - it's not easy to obtain bank account in Poland if you don't live there or at least haven't lived there.

myshirt

Problem with that Cinio is the constant Capital Gains Tax implications. It just eats into any savings you make, and costs you time in filling out the forms.

Most of the posters here are not that sophisticated. Revenue Commissioners then get their hands on it and you are facing interest and penalties, and all that crap. In my view, not worth it unless you do big enough transactions often.

groom

Ulster bank will let you have a £ account. It's totally legit and you normal address is the one you give them. It's the same amount of hassle as setting up an Irish bank account.

Xetrade do fx transfers. So do transfermate. There are probably countless others