Bike24 - exchange rate question

[Sweep]

I regularly use Rose of Germany.

Who of course allow you to see things in pounds sterling.

But the Bike24 website seems to just show euros, I can see no way of selecting sterling, and even when I throw things into the basket, they are still priced in euros.

How do I know what I am going to be charged/what sort of exchange rate (or transaction fees) they are going to be using?

[richardfm]

That will be down to how you pay and the charges from your credit card company, bank or PayPal

[Sweep]

That will be down to how you pay and the charges from your credit card company, bank or PayPal

Yes but do you (or anyone) know whether I can see this before I hit the BUY button?

I don't believe in buying blind.

I do sometimes but foreign stuff on ebay with paypal which is initially priced in dollars or whatever but it always indicates an exchange rate and an "estimate" of what the sterling amount will be.

And by the by when the final receipt back comes I very often find that it has been a penny or two or three less than initially indicated.

[richardfm]

If the website doesn't have facilities for multi currencies then you'd have to ask who provides your payment method what their exchange rates and charges are, unless you use PayPal, which as you say shows the amount in sterling before you complete the transaction

[PH]

If you do a fair bit of shopping and/or travel abroad it might be worth looking at a prepaid travel debit card where you can make the exchange before use.
I use weswap which is simple and convenient and has offered reasonable exchange rates in the currencies I've used it in - Euro, US Dollar and Swiss franc

I don't think there is a way for the retailer charging you in one currency to tell you how much it'll be in another unless they're accepting payment in that currency (Which is what Rose do), as richardfm says that depends on who's making the exchange for you.

[slowster]

Unless you are making a large purchase, the fee charged by many/most credit card companies on any foreign currency purchase is probably going to matter as much - if not not more - than the (I think) relatively minor differences in the exchange rates used by most of the big card providers.

So check first if your card provider has a fee, and then see what exchange rate it uses, i.e. if your provider issues a Visa card, then it probably uses the Visa exchange rate (see here).

In my experience, where the German webshops offer a Sterling price at the card payment stage in addition to the Euro price, the Sterling price is worse than I get by buying in Euros (i.e. my card provider does not charge a fee and has a more favourable exchange rate, and I suspect that some of the webshops may be making a bit of extra profit for themselves on the currency conversion by way of commission or similar), such that now I no longer bother to check what the exchange rate is for my card before completing the purchase.

[Sweep]

Thanks folks.

Sounds like a good idea to use paypal then.

[rotavator]

What Slowster said.

I also got a much better rate by paying euros than paying the sterling price indicated in one of the German web shops. Also it might be worth getting a credit card which does not have a special fee for paying in a foreign currency; I got mine from the Post Office.

[st599_uk]

I'm lucky in that I work a lot around Europe and get some of my salary in Euros into an account in the EU.

Rose will be pricing in Euros and the sterling price will depend on what the inter-bank rate is at the instant you buy and how much commission your card issuer charges you. Under the SEPA arrangement, payments from the UK should go through almost instantly. If they advertise a price in sterling, they will have to hedge for currency movements so they don't make a loss. It's therefore nearly always cheaper to pay in Euros.

If you travel a bit in Europe, something like Monzo or Revolut is worth a look.

https://www.revolut.com/en-PL/
https://monzo.com/

Work really well, and all the guys I work with have one as they make monitoring and moving money between Sterling and Euro easy.

(Or you could go the whole hog and get a euro account in Estonia, only really necessary if you work in a Euro - or Euro-roadmap - country)

[Redvee]

I've got both Monzo & Revolut cards with the Monzo being the newer addition in January. I took my Revolut card with me to spain last September and was getting a very good exchange rate, more than I paid when I got Euros before I went. I later found out that Revolut charges the interbank exchange rate whereas Monzo charges Mastercard exchange rate, both with no commision on transactions but the interbank rate is the better deal. When I say the beter deal we're only talking pennies as it were but it all adds up. This year I'll be taking less Euros but will have more available to load Revolut with.