Bits: mystery Supercard charges, £120 LAN Madrid to Frankfurt business class deal

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• Hugh says:

  13 Jul13 July 05:16

  I’m sure this used to happen occasionally with the old card, but the movement was a few pennies – i track my spending using the YNAB app, so would enter what the app said was to be charged at the time of purchase, but when it came to reconciling, it could occasionally be out by 2-3p

  • Stu R says:

    13 Jul13 July 05:30

    I used my pilot card a total of 46 times, and only once was charged a different sum to the app notified figure, and then it was only a penny. The article references one reader getting £50 in additional changes – ‘this’ never used to happen with the old card.

    • Travelbug says:

      13 Jul13 July 05:34

      I used my trial card all around the world for a fair few transactions and never recall being charged extra just that sometimes the transactions took a while to show.

    • John says:

      13 Jul13 July 07:38

      Same here, a penny out once out of almost 100 uses.

  • Mr Dee says:

    13 Jul13 July 10:03

    Used 500+ times in the beta only noticed the change in charges towards the end of the beta period (Last Month), it would initially track at a certain amount then be charged at a slightly different rates a couple of pence difference.

    I assume the fluctuations in charges have been due to the exchange rates being poor against the pound recently and if you purchased before Brexit and it posted after then you would lose out there.

    This charge is ridiculous, I have not used the new supercard yet and if there charges are going to be appearing I will probably stick to my Lloyds Avios cards, I also doubt if the fluctuations are in your favour that they will refund you any money.

• Stu R says:

  13 Jul13 July 05:24

  The Supercard rate charge is frankly a deal breaker for me; the one thing I liked most about the pilot was the ability to budget on my trips, knowing exactly at the point of purchase how much I would be charged. Knowing how ‘slack’ (to say the least) Supercard are at charging sums to the linked card, the thought that I could be charged random amounts 2 or 3 weeks after the event is unnerving.

  I guess the moral of this story is ‘always read the small print’ ….

• Travelbug says:

  13 Jul13 July 05:32

  I have made a few purchases coming up about £1600 on my Supercard. I have now had an extra £5.21 charge taken off my credit card and all it says is Supercard ‘CASH’ on the statement and nothing in the app. Messaged them on Twitter and they said it was for changes in the rate, I asked them to show me in the t&c’s that they will do this and they never came back to me, maybe I missed it. I am starting to think that this card might not be the best to use.

• AJ says:

  13 Jul13 July 05:55

  Logged an complaint with the Supercard helpdesk yesterday which should have triggered a telephone response within 2 hours, but no call back as yet .

  I too was a pilot customer and never saw any retrospective charges liek this with the VISA card.

• Mr Bridge says:

  13 Jul13 July 06:05

  This seems odd.
  Like other my pilot supercard never did this.

  Personally, if true, I think it’s a breach of their own and mastercards t+cs, because you are only authorising a single transaction, not two transactions.
  The exchange rate billed should be included in the main transaction.

  The scenario outlined in the article would seem to suggest that its travelex that are converting currency, not mastercard.
  so you spend $, and travelex convert to £ . It should not matter when it hits your linked card, because the conversion is already done, this is why your own statement does not show the fx rate or bill you the 3% fx fee.

  I would sugguest that any one affected contacts their linked card provider to dispute the extra transaction, as you have not, according to supercards t+cs, authorised the extra transaction:-

  Transaction” means any transaction which can be executed using your Supercard including a POS Transaction, an E-Commerce Transaction and/or an ATM Transaction;

  Authorising Transactions

  4.1. You will be asked to authorise each Transaction at the time it is initiated by you through the Supercard. A Transaction will be regarded as authorised by you where you:
  (a) authorise a POS Transaction by following the instructions provided by the merchant or retailer to authorise the POS Transaction which might include: (i) entering your Supercard PIN; (ii) signing a sales voucher; (iii) providing the Supercard details and/or providing any other details as requested; (iv) inserting your Supercard into a card reading device for the purpose of making a payment; (v) swiping your Supercard through a card reader;
  (b) authorise an E-Commerce Transaction by following the instructions provided by the merchant or retailer to authorise the E-Commerce Transaction and by providing the Supercard details and/or any other details as requested; or
  (c) authorise an ATM Transaction by inserting your Supercard and entering your Supercard PIN to request a cash withdrawal.

  • Genghis says:

    13 Jul13 July 06:18

    The pilot was a Visa card. As I understand it exchange rates on visa are fixed at point of sale. That’s why visa rates are generally worse than MC rates as they built in a premium for FX movements.

    • John says:

      13 Jul13 July 07:36

      Supposedly so, but I think I only heard this (“that’s why Visa rates are worse than MC”) on HFP.

      Visa Europe website publishes the rate for the next working day shortly after midnight CET. With Supercard Pilot I always got this rate.

      Previously I used to use Santander Zero Visa debit for cash withdrawals abroad, but I never received the rate on the day, always the rate a day or 2 later.

• AJ says:

  13 Jul13 July 06:32

  My main beef is that the app does not update the amount when it moves from Pending to Purchase.

• Mike says:

  13 Jul13 July 06:51

  I have noticed a similar issue on my Santander Zero Mastercard. E.g. I booked a Hilton hotel and got a text saying I’ve made a purchase of £218. When it appeared online it had changed to £222. Never seems to be in my favour!

  • Mr Bridge says:

    13 Jul13 July 07:40

    but that’s not the same as an extra charge separate to the main tx

  • John says:

    13 Jul13 July 07:41

    Yet if you check the interbank rate, there is a greater than 50% chance that you will have paid less. Maybe not right now when the pound moves up and down several % every day.

    MC rates usually better than interbank by around 1% if the interbank rate has been stable for the past week.

  • Per says:

    13 Jul13 July 10:27

    Halifax Clarity Mastercard is the same. I’ve previously noted the amount charge when transactions are in a status of pending, and it’s always different by the time it actually lands on my account.

    • Genghis says:

      13 Jul13 July 10:45

      Happened to me over the weekend for use (purchase and cash withdrawal) in Sweden. I paid off the pending amount shown but now my account is 5p in credit.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      13 Jul13 July 23:26

      But that is correct as the final FX is on the settlement date not the transaction date, depending on the situation i.e. brevet, PM Changes, Cabinet changes this is usually not very much.

      Issue for me is i assumed supercard worked like Curve where the rate at the time is used to calculate the GBP amount and then thats charged to your card. Instead Supercard seem to be taking the opportunity to sting you for more £ if the rate is in their favour when the GBP charge is settled.

• mark2 says:

  13 Jul13 July 06:58

  I was always dubious about this card (and Curve), but have acquired one so that I can transfer my expenditure in Italy onto my Hilton card without paying 3%. It may well be, however, that it would be cheaper to buy the points next time that they are half price. If I get the Amex Platinum tomorrow when I apply I can use the MR points to convert to HH.
  Sounds like it’s back to Lloyds Avios Reward.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.