# Do you pay in €'s or £'s ?



## peejay (May 10, 2005)

Bonsoir mes amis;

Just back from a jaunt across the water. A lot of the large supermarkets near the ports now seem to be giving you the option to pay in either euros or sterling.

Which way is the best, or doesn't it make any difference?

Madame in Auchan said it was best to pay in sterling, was she ripping me off or did she just fancy me ( :roll: ) and give me a good tip off?

pete


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## CLS (Jul 25, 2005)

I too paid in £,s only because i never had euros with me  also they were able to change £,s to euros at the supermarket. As to which is the best deal i did,nt figure out the exchange rate and try to convert it


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## autostratus (May 9, 2005)

Hi Pete

It probably depends on which credit card you use.

With Nationwide where you get the bank exchange rate it is probably a better rate than the exchange rate used by Auchan for their customers.
If Auchan are recommending using Stirling then it probably means there's more in it for them.


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## androidGB (May 26, 2005)

Using a Nationwide Credit Card I always pay in Euros, as they always give a cracking rate of exchange. If you pay in Sterling I presume you are using Auchan's rate of exchange which I doubt is so competitive. 

So probably it was a case or her fancying you, I get the same problem so I sympathize 


 


Andrew


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## Pusser (May 9, 2005)

I use Heather Cards so it works out very competitive for me.


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## peejay (May 10, 2005)

I'm pretty sure she had the hots for me, but thinking about it i'm not so sure the advice she gave was so good. Gillian is probably correct, I can just imagine the daily Auchan employee brief instructing them which is the best payment advice to give to Rosbif customers, more than likely heavily tilted towards the monetary benefit of Auchan plc :roll: .

Strange that this option is not given at the Auchan fuel pumps across the road though.

pete.


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## sersol (Aug 1, 2005)

Euro every time,better exchange rate.


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## thesnail (May 1, 2005)

*how to pay?*

We have travelled pretty extensively particularly in France and Spain Portugal, and always the best exchange rate is on your credit card.
They use the international banking exchange rate, and even though they charge you between 1% and 3% it still works out cheaper, the tourist rate is ALWAYS lower than the international banking exchange. If you have a card that doesn't charge you any fees then use it, but find out first if they use the Tourist exchange rate or not first.
Shops and businesses in this country will accept Euros, but they set the exchange rate themselves, I don't know, but I guess it's the same in France etc
Rosemary Snail


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## 88838 (May 9, 2005)

looks like we're overwhelmingly in favour of the euro, it's certainly been the best deal for us.
altho last time I bought anything on 'tobacco alley' the price of goods was so heavily in favour of paying in sterling [of the folding variety] I was amazed and ended up digging thro trouser pockets and down the back of the seats to get enough money together. Don't know what was in it for them tho

8)


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## Suenliam (Mar 22, 2006)

Seem to remember a thread about this some time ago and the overwhelming opinion was to avoid sterling like the plague. It appears to be a friendly gesture by the checkout staff, but is a very expensive way of paying.

Sue


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## Stanner (Aug 17, 2006)

twooks said:


> looks like we're overwhelmingly in favour of the euro, it's certainly been the best deal for us.
> altho last time I bought anything on 'tobacco alley' the price of goods was so heavily in favour of paying in sterling [of the folding variety] I was amazed and ended up digging thro trouser pockets and down the back of the seats to get enough money together. Don't know what was in it for them tho
> 
> 8)


What's in it for them is the ability to be "economical" with the price. 
The Euro price (in Belgium) is set by law and it's stamped on the end of the packs, but they can set their own "exchange rate", just as Auchan or anybody else does and so offer a better price in Sterling by improving on the official exchange rate. Usually by between 5 and 10%.


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## Vennwood (Feb 4, 2007)

peejay said:


> Bonsoir mes amis;
> 
> Just back from a jaunt across the water. A lot of the large supermarkets near the ports now seem to be giving you the option to pay in either euros or sterling.
> 
> ...


Hi Pete,

In my experience it all depends on the Auchan exchange rate at the time. If you visit the one in Cochelles then the Sterling rate is displayed on the way in. This is updated once a month, based on the previous months average. There were times last year when the "Auchan rate" was 1.1299 while the over the counter rate in banks etc. was only 1.04 - so clearly better to use the Auchan rate at that time. Last October we called in and the Auchan rate was 1.025 yet we had been getting 1.08 at the banks

So the answer IMO is to check on the way in - if the Auchan rate is good then pay in Sterling, if not then pay in Euros

Pete


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## Boff (May 10, 2005)

Hi,

I have an exchange rate converter on my PDA, with daily updates, and for some time I have used it when I was offered to pay in non-local currency. This converter also has an option to automatically add any credit card foreign payment fees.

However, no matter when or where, *it turned out that the exchange rates offered by the shops were always in favour of said shops.*

So, a few years ago I have given up and always and only pay in local currency. Admittedly, my own currency is €, not £, but I am sure in the other direction it is the same.

Best Regards,
Gerhard


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## peribro (Sep 6, 2009)

Like the other posters here, I always pay in local currency. Some years ago, I started to keep track of the currency rates that shops were offering and it was always substantially in their favour to pay by sterling.
On one trip abroad, a shop persuaded my wife to pay by sterling (I wasn't with her) and when I got my credit card statement we had been charged twice - once in euros that the cc company had converted into sterling and once in sterling by the shop! I can't remember the exact amount of the sterling difference between the two but the sterling transaction by the shop was quite a bit higher - it was that one that I had the cc people charge back to the merchant!


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## geordie01 (Apr 20, 2006)

euro i asked the nice lady on the check out at auchan in boulogne and she said it was best


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## Rapide561 (Oct 1, 2005)

*Prices*

There is another angle to see this from though, and that might be that the shop involved offers a good rate when allowing customers to pay in sterling, because the retailer might NEED sterling.

When I was in Majorca, some shops offered 20% discount for payment in sterling. Something that was 34 euro was discounted to 27.20 euro and then converted at 1.09. That rate was the same as the banks and also compared to 1.12 from a Nationwide transaction. I assumed that the British owned retailer NEEDED sterling and it may have been to their advantage to get sterling this way, rather than exchange rates in banks, noting the large spread between the bank buy and sell rates.

Russell


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## eddied (May 9, 2005)

*Sterling or Euro*

 Ciao tutti, well a recent flying trip to UK has shown me that UK traders have nothing to learn from their European counterparts, when it comes to ripping off the payer. A well known hotel chain, Ramada, was offering me 75 pence for a Euro - an exchange rate about 2 years old if not more! So I paid in Sterling of course; left over from a previous trip, a bit tatty but still money.
saluti,
eddied


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## ThursdaysChild (Aug 2, 2008)

As 561 has mentioned, many of the tobacco traders originate from the UK and by kindly letting you pay in sterling they avoid the bank charges in getting the loot back to the East End.


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