The Nationwide Building Society is warning customers not to be taken in by fees on credit cards when they are abroad.
With winter sports especially popular right now the Nationwide Building Society is making skiers and snowboarders aware of something called Dynamic Currency Conversion or DCC. This basically allows the retailer to decide on the exchange rate if the cardholder decides to use Sterling as the currency for the transaction. A small study of just four ski resorts in Europe found that UK credit card holders spent an extra GBP34,000 because they fell under the remit of DCC.
The trend to make transactions in Sterling is increasing, no doubt fuelled by the concern about exchange rates in the first place, but Dynamic Currency Conversion puts the power back with the retailer, which the Nationwide Building Society survey shows is costing customers money.