I recently travelled to Eire on business and hired a small car. I collected this at Cork Airport and returned it to Dublin Airport the same day.
I always use Auto Europe (on-line) to make these reservations and I can thoroughly recommend them as being first class to deal with. Indeed if you do have to call them, the number is 0800 and is always answered very quickly by a real person.
Auto Europe have always arranged my car via Murrays/Sixt when I've been in Eire, however, on this occasion, it was Budget and with them I was charged a fuelling fee which would be refunded if I returned the car full of fuel, (as collected).
Now I normally make all my "foreign" currency transactions in the local currency with a credit card that does not charge an exchange commission, but I forgot to check this when I collected the car and ended-up paying the Euro deposit in UK Sterling. When I returned the car (the SAME DAY) the deposit was refunded, but the exchange rate was slightly different (worse) and as a result I ended-up paying 35p for NOTHING.
Now I'm not going to loose any sleep over this, as it was my fault that I did not have the presence of mind to check the CC machine when I entered my PIN upon collection, (however I'm slightly narked as otherwise I would not have posted this here). But if you think about how many times this probably happens world-wide on a daily basis, someone is onto a good thing!
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You'll find your credit card company and the hire company's bank applied slightly different exchange rates, hence the 35p difference.
For reasons I've never understood, different rates apply to buying Euro notes for Sterling, selling Euro notes for Sterling, credit cards, debit cards, electronic transfers and drafts. For someone who travels regularly to the UK from Ireland, its a bit of a nuisance.
On the same topic, be wary of hotels or ATM machines that offer to fix the exchange rate when you present a foreign bank card - the rate offered is invariably worse than the prevailing exchange rate.
Of course, if the UK joined the Euro, all this would be a thing of the past ... :-)
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I ended-up paying 35p for NOTHING.
Claim it back on expenses!
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I've been caught by the same company at the same airport. They carefully folded the receipt so I didn't notice I'd agreed to be charge in £UK and converted to Euros AT THEIR RATE. My card would happily accept Euro currency transactions and convert it to £UK at a rate far more beneficial to me.
They only reluctantly agreed to come and inspect the car with me to agree the considerable number of small dents and scratches it had.................
Guess who I won't touch with a bargepole now?
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