Cost of paying in your home currency.

Additionally, one needs to be fairly assertive and say IN ADVANCE that you want to be charged in LOCAL currency, dont wait to be asked. Many times you will NOT be asked which you prefer! It can be difficult to have the charge changed once it's done! Experience speaking

Am I the only one that wonders why they needed twins for this experiment?

FWIW every time you are offered this service the card swiper or ATM machine will tell you the exact charge in your local currency. The number nerds among us remember to always select EUR and then we do some math to sort out just how outrageous the charges are. I have never seen the 10% that the article claims (perhaps in some of the generic ATMs), but for sure there is a price to pay for the conversion.

To @OTH86 comment about making your intentions known in advance, remember that it is the establishment that is making money on this service so it is very possible that they do it deliberately. HOWEVER, it is against the law for them to do so and depending on how much you wish to fight for justice you are well within your right to request a charge reversal and that the purchase be reapplied in the local currency. If they refuse, politely ask for a complaint form (Hoja de Reclamacion) and they will almost certainly reconsider.

One way that you can try to dissuade this from happening in the first place is to not hand over your credit card for them to walk away with. When I pay anywhere with a card I simply let them know that I would like to pay with a credit card (Me gustaría pagar con tarjeta <-- simple and polite) and they bring the swiper to the table. This is less of an issue now that PIN codes are so commonplace.

There is a bit of good news here; there has been so much grumbling regarding this 'service' that the EU is taking action to make them more transparent.

wisepilgrim said:

Am I the only one that wonders why they needed twins for this experiment?

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I just literally had a chuckle out loud, reading this at work, re the twins bit. Why, indeed??

tillyjones said:

I just literally had a chuckle out loud, reading this at work, re the twins bit. Why, indeed??

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Maybe because there's the presumption that cute, blonde twins are always going to have an advantage in life, and EVEN THEY get screwed by currency conversion.

I just assumed that the twins thing was a gimmick: to illustrate that everything was "identical" except for the ultimate financial result.

I use the simple phrase, "Euros, por favor."

This phrase works anywhere in Europe by substituting the local polite word for "please".

-Paul