buying from Amazon.fr and paying with sterling credit card?

[Hereford]

Mint:  I bought three different itmes just this last week with Amazon.fr and paid for all three with NW card and it went through as euros so rate decided by NW.

Two items were second hand books (so each one goes through separately even if bought at the same time) and one was the battery that is now in this laptop!

We have money here in France but using the NW card gets us a better rate than transferring more money! We are often amazed as the rate is close to the spot rate you see on tv screen scrolling along the page. (We don't have UK tv except for BBC World on our TNT box but they show exchange rates when business news is on).

I will need to buy more books soon so will see if system has changed.

[AnOther]

[quote user="mint"]I bought something from Germany, using my NW card but paying them in euros and no rate was dictated by the company and I saw on my CC account that the rate of the day was used in calculating the sterling equivalent.[/quote]I don't think you can rationally compare buying from an individual or company in another country with buying through a multinational like Amazon.

For many items Amazon are just acting as an agent, much like Paypal is an agent for eBay, so a sterling payment will be been accepted as such then internally converted to Euros to pass on to the seller with a cut for Amazon for the service.

[mint]

Right, sorry if I have stirred up a hornets' nest![I][:$]

Mrs Hereford, thank you for telling me that your purchases are recent and you have confirmed to me what pomme explained as well.

I think I got worried about the new info re paying in the currency of your card with the rate displayed.  As I have said, this is my first Amazon.fr purchase for many months and I do not remember ever seeing any exchange rate before.  I always just chose euros and was always happy with the NW rate.

As an aside, I do agree with Mrs H that the NW rate is always fair and is the "official" rate at the time the purchase goes onto your card.

Maybe all of this is another side effect of impending Brexit?  OK, I've got my tin hat on and I'm being a bit provocative!  It could be that all of Europe are getting ready for Brexit, all that is, EXCEPT the UK.............[;-)]

Judith, you big spender[:D] what you do sounds very complicated to me.  Did you not hang on to your euros when you sold your property?

Ano, it wasn't just a German company, it had branches in the UK and France and I am not sure where else.  In fact, I couldn't believe it when the parcel I sent back went on Monday from a one-horse town near me and reached Bavaria on Thursday and my money was put back into by credit card on Friday.

Id, I don't think it could be that much of a problem for big companies and indeed, even for smallish ones.  If, say, I opt to pay in US dollars buying from Amazon.com then it's my bank or my credit card company that will do the conversion and charge me accordingly.

For most banks, you do pay a surcharge (I think Chancer said 2.5% for him) but with NW, there are no charges to pay on their credit card and some years ago, when they put charges on the debit card, there were howls of anguish (mine being one of the loudest)[6]

Edit:  to clarify for id, I paid using a sterling card but I paid the full euro amount.  In fact the rate was less favourable when I bought and it went up in the last few days for sterling so I would expect to have lost a quid or two just on the transaction.

[Judith]

"Judith, you big spender what you do sounds very complicated to me.  Did you not hang on to your euros when you sold your property?"

Hi Mint, yes, of course - at last I can post - again!  They went back into the savings we raided to buy before selling .... and whether or not I had spare euros here, I still buy from the cheaper site!!!  I have money coming in each month in euros (here) and sterling (there) so I spread the load, and like you, use my NW card if needed to buy here, instead of transferring sterling across.  Simple.

[mint]

Bonjour, Judith.  Nice position to be in, isn't it, to have a choice to buy here, there or anywhere else and not have to look at exchange rates?

The rates at the moment are doing crazy things and in fact I lost more than a quid or two but that's OK because I have found a replacement that is lots cheaper and better[:)]