House Rental Advice (Money issue)

[Stacy9402]

Hello,
We are renting a house in WH this year for a week. The owner lives in United Kingdom. So it was a pain to pay by credit card because he had to have some lady call me.. So I sat home for a few days and finally got the call. I confirmed I was paying the whole amount and I said dollars. Example: If it was $2000 for the whole week including taxes. I said I am going to pay the full amount of $2000 dollars. so it will be easier.
Plus on the agreement it was listed in USD.

So here is the problem I get my receipt today and it is in pounds. but supposedly comes out to the amount we agreed to in USD. But the problem is I was not told I would be charged in foreign currency so now I will be hit with the 3% extra from my credit card. which I think comes to be around $50.


What would you do?

Thanks in advance..

 

[Brian Noble]

I would mention it to the owner, and recommend that s/he make it clear to renters in the future that the transaction would be in pounds, so that they could choose the appropriate payment instrument.

I wouldn't probably ask for anything back though---the owner didn't get that $50, your credit card company did. You could ask them to reverse the charge if there is some other way you'd prefer to pay that had lower fees to convert to pounds, but for $50, I'd probably just let it slide. Not worth the hassle for such a small sum. And, I suspect that the 3% is about as low as you could go for a currency conversion. Paypal charges that much just to pay someone in dollars.

Edited to add: I'm a *little* surprised that the owners didn't have a US account in dollars, though. Both times I've rented at WH, it was from UK owners, and both had agents in the US that could take payments in dollars.

 

[Stacy9402]

Yeah we aren't looking for a reversal or refund of anything just annoyed that we wasn't told as I could have probably used a card with lower transaction fees.
Plus I had to sit home to wait for the call and I can't do that again with 3 kids it was hard and I was getting worried.

I am going to let the owners know just so they know to make mention of it in the future.

Thanks

 

[Stacy9402]

Oh and Capital One doesn't charge for foreign transactions fees..