Euros and Ireland
 

I've been perusing Ireland threads here and noted the occasional comment regarding some hotels and shopkeepers converting the bill to American Dollars (at a very poor rate of exchange) before processing the credit card charge? Is this still happening? With great frequency? If you insist, is your card charge in the Euro prices? Thank you!

Don't know if it is great frequency but it is done in many tourist shops where people are directed. Of course, as with many thieves, the people doing this are most soft spoken and try to explain to you that they are doing you a favour as you will know the exact price of the purchase. Of course, many of the stupid Americans buy this garbage and so get ripped off big time.<BR><BR>You can absolutely insist the chare be written up in Euro and should absolutely do so.

I never heard of that happening but then I live in Ireland so no establishmnet is likely to do that with an Irish person. As far as I'm aware all prices are charged in Euro!

I too live in Ireland so it hasn't happened to me, but if it happens to you, don't accept it. there's no way they can insist and they are NOT doing you a favour..

It has happened to me in the past and I have asked to be charged in Euro and they have (Blarney Woolen Mills)

I had that happen to me for the first time at my favorite hotel. I'd never heard of it before, so I didn't protest. In the end, they actually gave me a very fair rate. However, they didn't seem to notice that my credit card is with a bank in Northern Ireland, not America, so maybe that's why the exchange worked out in my favor somehow.

Just come back from two weeks in Ireland and can tell you this has happened to me twice, both at hotels belonging to a chain (Travelodge). As the cashier swiped my UK credit card through their machine and typed in the amount in euro, the printed slip I was asked to sign had sterling amount converted at a rate about 3% worse than interbank rate. There was no way I could insist being billed in euro, except of course by paying cash, and nothing the cashier could do - it was done automatically. In other places where I used cards - restaurants, supermarkets, fuel stations etc - I was always billed in euro.

Alec, That is absolutely outrageous & unacceptable. I have never heard of anything like that happening anywhere else in the world. If Travelodge are in fact doing this then they shouldn't be allowed to get away with it. They should be complained to the authorities. How dare they, there is no justification for doing this.