Currency question

Dear KB,

It depends how the company takes the money - if they have a merchant id on their EUR account and they debit your card using that, then yes, they will debit a GBP amount from your card and credit EUR to their account.

If the merchant id is linked to a GBP account, they will only be able to take GBP.

Hope that makes sense - let me know if you want a more in-depth explanation!

Annabel.

So as long as the UK based company has a Euro account (which they do) they will take the Euro amount and my card company will charge me the sterling equivilant?

Sorry for the late reply - had to go off for meetings for the rest of the day.

To take money from credit cards, a company or person has to have a merchant id provided by a merchant acquirer (usually a bank). A merchant id is linked to a bank account so that when the company put in your card details to their system, your card is debited and their bank account is credited.

If the company only have an id linked to a GBP bank account, they can only debit GBP amounts.

For example, if a company only have an id connected to a GBP bank account but are selling an item and the price is quoted as $40 or £25, if someone in the US wanted to pay the $40, the company could only debit £25 and the person in the US would be debited whatever the exchange rate was, which at £12, would be $50.

If the company had an id connected to a USD bank account then they could debit $40 and that is what the card holder would see being debited from their card.

So to finally answer your question! If the company you are buying from have an id connected to their EUR account then they can take the EUR amount and you will get a GBP amount debited from your card. If the company don't have an id connected to their EUR account then they won't be able to debit EUR.

Does that make more sense?

Annabel, I'm having a party next week and only the most engaging, interesting and entertaining people are coming. there is a space though, so, are you free? ?

Sorry I don't know the technicalities, I can only tell you I've never had a problem doing this with my bank accounts. I'd ring your CC provide and ask them. Sadly though, I bet this means I won't be invited to NickJ's party.