What is euro$????

Euro dollars exist on the international monetary exchange but not in every day life.

The name of the currency is the euro and the plural of the name of the currency is euro like "It cost 50 euro."

wow, get a life!!!

AA...

What would you say to some well meaning European who came into your shop or whatever and asked how many dollar€ does this cost? You would simply find him ill informed and correct him...now it is very rare for a European to come into the US and not know the name of the currency is the dollar and that something costs 25 dollars and I doubt extremely if anybody would say 25 dollar euros so I always find it strange when Americans call the European currency the eurodollar and I've seen it happen quite often.

As far as the plural thing is concerned, it alwahys good to be correctly informed. Before the euro, you wouldn't say something cost 15,000 liras or if you go to Japan you don't say something cost 5,000 yens so please don't take it personally or as an attack on you, just trying to help.

Thanks AA!

Keith

Hi xyz,

"No good deed goes unpunished".

The plural isn't "euro" in a few countries.

From the euro website:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/economy_fi...pelling_en.pdf

When I was in Italy in September, I ran into the DCC especially in Venice and Florence. I didn't run into it all in Tuscany, and by the time I got to Rome, I was tired of worrying about it and paid cash for everything except the hotel.

Several times in Venice and Florence, even though I specified I wanted to be charged in Euro and they agreed, the slip still came through with US$ shown. They insisted this was just for information purposes. Of course, I knew this wasn't true and insisted they change it. I got the usual story that it couldn't be changed. In every single case, it was obvious that the clerk didn't know anything about it, but the manager always knew exactly what I was talking about it and credited the US$ and did it in Euro. You do have to be insistent!

<i>Don't pay cash!!</i>

The only way we're going to erase this scourge from the face of the earth is to stand up for our rights.

When you pay cash, the merchant couldn't be happier. First of all, he doesn't have to book the transaction, which makes it possible to evade taxation, and second, he doesn't have to pay the card issuer its discount points. Merchants have to pay 1-5% (depending on volume and average ticket size) to their processor, but when you pay cash they don't - the difference goes directly to their bottom line.

Stand your ground. The more merchants know that consumers are aware of their rights, the more likely they are to give up at the first resistance.

Write this above your signature:
<b><font color="blue">CHOICE OF LOCAL CURRENCY NOT OFFERED</font></b>
and you will be putting the merchant on notice that you are aware that he has violated his Merchant Agreement, and that you intend to dispute the charge when the bill comes. If they're smart, they'll rerun the transaction in local, thereby saving themselves the trouble of responding to the dispute and having the sale back-charged anyway.

Robespierre, I know you're right, but I just got tired of having to be vigilant! I was there to enjoy Italy, not to police their charging practices.

the problem I'm seeing with this is if you don't make your case right away and they charge you in US dollars and you make them change it... it could tie up your money.

If I'm checking out of a hotel and have spent $300 US dollars on the room, they pull the scam and you force them to change it to local currency, you may have tied up the credited 300 dollars for 5 to 7 business days and may not have access to it. Yeah, it's wrong, yeah, its a pain, and yeah, you're getting jipped... but I'd much rather have most of my money to enjoy my vacation rather than being forced with NSF issues back home. I'm on vacation! I'm willing to spend $7.00 dollars on a stupid hotdog or whatever...

if you ask up front and insist on local currency and it dosen't happen, (for me) oh well, they got me and its off to the next leg of my vacation! I'm not willing to tie up my money on a $5.00 scam.

but thats just me.

Er, you were going to pay the $300 bill anyway. So all that's &quot;suspensed&quot; (to use the accounting term) is the amount of the Dynamic Currency Conversion rip-off.

In your example, if the difference between the bank's and DCC's rate is 5%, then $15 is all that will be tied up by disputing the charge.

And as I have said, the more we do this, the less likely the merchants will be to try it - if they learn that they will always lose, what would motivate them to continue trying?

It just occurred to me that if you're talking about a <i>credit</i> card, then you actually benefit by bouncing a charge, because you don't have to pay it until the final amount is calculated by the card issuer deducting the DCC charge.

[Exercise: diagram the above sentence.]

Thank you everyone for your input. I feel I have a much better handle on the subject and am better equipped to deal with the situation should the need arise.

Can anyone suggest useful words/phrases/sentences to make sure we're not unfairly charged? I'm going to Spain in March, so I'm most interested in Spanish, but I'd appreciate know what to say in any language.

Robspierre, leaving aside the Dynamic Currency Coversion issue, can ask why you feel it is incumbent upon us &quot;foreigners&quot; to make sure the &quot;locals&quot; pay their taxes? Is that your only argument against paying cash?

I'm a small merchant in the US and I'm THRILLED when folks pay cash. It doesn't mean I don't report it to Uncle Sam, it just means that 2% of my bottom line doesn't go to some megacorporation.

boklady, read my post again.

I never said I cared whether any furrin' merchant pays his taxes or not. I <i>did</i> say that they like cash for that reason in addition to the other one.

booklady...

Then why do you take credit cards???? And isn't the 2% you charge incorporated as a business expense ultimately in the prices you charge including the price of maintaining a bank account, of doing your sales tax report, of everything else?

Golly, robespierre, didn't realize that accidentally misspelling a name around here was such a sin.

My apologies.

And I read your post again. (thanks for the tip). Still seems to be an implication that&quot; we&quot; should do what we can to keep &quot;them&quot; on the path of righteous taxation. Or maybe I'm just infurrin' it.

xyz123, of course I take them. Doesn't mean I have to like it.

Robespierre, if the merchant does not reverse the charges and charge in local currency, how do you calculate how much to dispute with your card company? Does the card company know how to calculate the difference easily? Just curious how this would work practically (if you had to go so far as to dispute). Thanks.