I remember as a teenager on inter-rail. I used travelers checks issued in Deutche Mark 
Then there were a myriad of currencies to keep track of. Today they are myriads of apps. Same shit, different wrappings
One of the things guaranteed to make me try and avoid using a company is them requiring customers to download their app or create an account.
@Peter I’m not sure I’d just have paid up if they did that to me. The cock-up which necessitates the extra cost is theirs, so I’d have deducted that cost from the bill when paying.
‘Cardholder not present’ transactions – which is what the industry calls those done over the phone – are absolutely invaluable.
Graham wrote:
‘Cardholder not present’ transactions – which is what the industry calls those done over the phone – are absolutely invaluable
I can confirm the bellow, in UK it’s possible and very common & convenient to pay by phone but it’s not the norm everywhere
Accepting credit card payments „over the phone“ is a very British thing. i have never seen it elsewhere and it certainly doesn‘t exist in Germany.
In many countries, you can’t ‘pay by phone’ and lot of people who are not used to this tend to avoid it the same when they go to US and leave their cards with the ‘random guy’ in the restaurant, many prefer to use PIN and pay at the counter…
PS: I even recall someone giving his credit card details on VHF after they started the engine without paying in one of the airfields in the south-east
Peter wrote:
So I got an invoice in the email. But they don’t accept cards unless the cardholder is present… so I have to set up a bank payment, which costs an extra 20-30 euros. What a stupid system, not accepting cards over the phone. Especially as it was 100% their fault.Use TransferWise.
I would use a better system if I had to do this often, but with most stuff being payable with a CC, I set up only maybe 1 new non-UK payee per year.
boscomantico wrote:
Accepting credit card payments „over the phone“ is a very British thing. i have never seen it elsewhere and it certainly doesn‘t exist in Germany.
Hmmm. I’m pretty sure I’ve done it with Golze.
Accepting credit card payments „over the phone“ is a very British thing. i have never seen it elsewhere and it certainly doesn‘t exist in Germany.Hmmm. I’m pretty sure I’ve done it with Golze.
Yes I process such payments in Germany but it is not that common. The issue is that you pay a monthly fee for every credit card channel. So you can process physical payments with the actual card, online shop checkout type payments and mailorder / over the phone payments. Having each channel only makes sense if you have lots of such payments or the monthly fees will be more than your turnover…
For an airport it makes no sense to accept over the phone payments. But as written above today you can use services like Wise (Transferwise) to make small wire transfers in foreign currency at very reasonable cost.
Notwithstanding all this, it is the airport which created this situation and they should pay for it.
If it was my business, I would say to customers caught out by my IT cockup that they don’t need to pay anything. After all, the marginal cost of having people fly there is absolutely zero, zilch, nothing, not a cent.
The office said they were “upgrading” their software. Well, what sort of dickhead is going to be “upgrading” their IT system on the last day of an exhibition, when loads of people, from all over Europe (not just Euroland), are flying back home.
The suggested route of not paying is dangerous because you could get picked up by German police in 10 years’ time.
Next time you go to Euroland just pick up the amount in coins and send them that in a nice parcel. I guess it might be called ‘coinholder not present’.
Bank transfers via the SEPA system should be free of charge. What can make a (big) difference is the exchange rate of your local bank to get EUR from GBP. If it’s good (ECB-rates are the best for cross-check), you can execute the transfer via your bank. If it’s bad, you can use Wise or Revolut for such kinds of things. Especially from foreign currency to Euro, Revolut might be the cheapest option. You can even “buy” Euros using your creditcard with Revolut, and then send a classic SEPA bank transfer, which is free of charge.
