Can you confirm that you were in Canada when you booked the extras and not still back at home.

And if so, did they put the transaction through an online system (as a Canadian transaction) or a paper form which somehow found it's way back to the UK and was put through as a UK transaction.

I was in Canada with an Ingham's Rep at the time.

They filled in one of their credit card slips and then took a credit card print. This slip must be sent internally by Inghams to an HQ somewhere.

Hi, I think there's a good chance that you've fallen foul of what is becoming a very common practice whereby the retailer or service provider asks whether you want to be billed in local currency or £sterling. If given this option you are usually best advised to always state that you wish to be billed in the local currency - that way it will be billed on the basis of the exchange rate charged by your debit or credit card provider. If you say that you want to be billed in £sterling then you will be billed in line with the retialed or service providers' exchange rate (invariably higher than the 'going rate') not that used by your credit or debit card provider and I suspect that this is what has happened here. There's nothing your credit card company can do about this - they will have received details of the transaction in £sterling, not Canadian$s and will have been obliged to process the transaction on that basis.

I suspect that the best you can do is try and prove that you weren't offered the choice of which currency you would be charged in but I wouldn't hold your breath - it's going to be your word against that of the Rep unless you can prove otherwise. On the whole the best exchange rate for paying for trips and excursions is always likely to be the one you got from a decent currency provider in this country before you left - in other words budget for this when planning on how much currency or travellers cheques you take with you rather than putting it on a card unless you are absolutely certain that you will be billed in local currency with your card provider doing the currency exchange calculation.

SM

Did the $1.82 rate include the foreign usage fee or was that shown seperately?

It seems to me that the problem is not that Inghams overcharged you but that your card company were giving an amazing rate! The bulk rate this afternoon was around $1.75 (and the pound hasn't varied wildly for some weeks) so I would have expected your card company to have charged something like that minus the foreign use fee. I walked past Thomas Cook about an hour ago and the "sell" rate for Canadian dollars in their window wasn't far off what Inghams charged you.

This was a few months ago. Yes, I use a Post Office credit card (the best for offshore transactions). Because 'I' get a good deal does NOT mean that a travel agency should rip me off for their 'own' version of the rate.

This was a few months ago

Depending on how long a 'few' is I'm not sure that there's much you can do about this now. You acknowledge in your original post that the credit card slip made it quite clear what the exchange rate that would be applied was and knowing that, you signed the slip which I'm fairly sure would be regarded in law as you accepting that rate. The fact that you later discovered that your credit card issuer was applying a more generous exchange rate than the one you signed for is beside the point. I don't really see that you have grounds for a formal complaint here. Traders are allowed to use their own exchange rate and charge you in £sterling which is what I think you probably signed for in this instance. The only way to avoid this in future is to insist that you are charged in the local currency or pay in cash in that local currency. You could try taking this up with Inghams but as you acknowledge, this was some months ago and I don't think that you'll be able to get them to take this seriously after such a time delay - they have the signed slip saying that you agreed to this rate. At best, I think all you can do is point out to them that you didn't realise this at the time and that they should make sure that reps fully explain this to customers in future.

SM

The worst company I came across for using this money grabbing technique was JMC.
I went to Turkey with JMC a couple of times and was wise to it the second time around so paid in the correct currency. It was so long ago (2001) I can't quite remember the exact mechanics but it was on the lines of, assuming for simplicities sake an exchange rate of 2million lira to the £ and exaggerating the numbers to illustrate the point:

Trips were advertised in £s and could be paid for in sterling (cash or travellers cheques).
So £50 trip cost £50.....
Charges to credit cards were converted to Lira on the day by the JMC rep so a £50 trip would be converted to 120million lira using the JMC exchange rate of the day. Other charges were added to this by various "banks" so the billed amount would be converted back to sterling at the other rate and show on the statement as up to £70.
It came as quite a shock to see the final totals back in the UK as there are 7 in my family! I am not even sure that they did the conversion in front of us or I would have realised.
I was under the impression that the card transaction was done in sterling until I opened the statement back in the UK.
Strangely enough using the card elsewhere in Turkey (non JMC) for a similar transaction resulted in a UK statement showing both conversions and charges coming out at £49, ie actually cheaper than advertised.

Since then I have always double checked but have not found any other company so blatant.
When I returned with JMC in 2003, I paid in wads of cash but for one extra trip I decided on late in the holiday, which went on the card.
Sure enough the same conversion 'procedure' was applied despite my protestations, but this time it WAS done in front of me and so I at least knew how much more I was actually paying..

Not been back on holiday with them or Tho Cook since, so their customer service certainly had an impact.

Is Inghams part of the group perchance?

That one is interesting because they are converting from the GBP back into the foreign currency.

Most travel agents will protest that their offices are back in the UK and that they HAVE to convert from the advertised foreign price to GBP. Well then, why advertise in the foreign price?

However, my cause for concern is that they have no right to convert anything! They get their cut from the operator they are using for the trip. How you pay it should not concern them.

Most travel agents will protest that their offices are back in the UK and that they HAVE to convert from the advertised foreign price to GBP.

All the TOs have financial commitments in these countries which require local currency. I find it strange that monies collected in resort are remitted back to the UK and then sent back to pay the bills.

When I was working "cash" was used where possible for payments to avoid the charges made by the bank for depositing. One reason why supermarkets are happy to give "cashback" is it saves them money.

There is of course the other matter of the charges TOs make for trips. It is often much cheaper to book with local agents.

fwh