New User advice - Amazon.it Purchase

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Hi,
Sorry if this is in the wrong place but I was looking to get some advice on how to proceeed with a payment. I am currently in the process of purchasing something from amazon.it however when i use the monzo card it still uses the amazon currency converter. If i change my card to ‘My credit card is in Euro (EUR)’ would that use the monzo rates ? any help would be appreciated :slight_smile:

Update - Change your card to ‘My credit card is in Euro (EUR)’ and you’ll get the monzo rate instead of the amazon one :smiley: Thank you

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It should do but having never done this myself it is just an educated guess.

If you do go ahead with the purchase, it would be great if you could let us know how it charged your card :credit_card:

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If i change my card to ‘My credit card is in Euro (EUR)’ would that use the monzo rates ?

I think you’re right, if I can correctly remember how Amazon US worked when I did this :slight_smile:

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A lot of providers ‘try to help you’ make purchases in other currencies by converting them to your local one and taking a little slice of the pie. Simply ask to pay in the currency for that website and it will process it (i.e. in Euros) and then it is converted to GBP by Monzo. Or, well, should do.

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Should do. By the rules of the major networks - MasterCard and Visa, ‘must’ do. But not always so simple. Forced DCC is forbidden, but some sites (AirBNB being one of the most infamous) simply do not let you pay in the local currency. They technically use multi-currency processing where they have accounts in more than one currency, rather than DCC, thus skirt around the rules.

Others, like PayPal, are clearly DCC and you can avoid it, but it’s often very difficult. For example, I remember at one point you had to use the desktop website to avoid DCC on PayPal, and at another point you had to change settings in your account - it wasn’t a choice on the checkout page.

Remember that DCC is extremely profitable, with markup ranging typically from 3-10% over MasterCard rates. That adds up fast for these shops, and they know they can get away with it because most consumers don’t treat it nearly as seriously as other forms of overcharging because currency conversion confuses most people at the best of times. This is simply overcharging you, and should be treated the same as anyone else who charges your card more than was agreed, unless you actively said yes to it.

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