Reply To: Hilton Debit card FX rates

[JDB]

TGLoyalty wrote:

“It depends precisely where you use it, the bank used by the merchant, the country in which you use it, the time of day and timezone etc.”

Not true for the big 3 card rates. They’re set for the day and everyone pays them for all transactions that day but the day itself will be defined by a single global timezone which is Eastern Time for Mastercard and the rate is published at about 3pm ET every day.

@TGLoyalty – these rates aren’t only published or applied once a day and on your analysis are only published in arrears. Any of these rates also refer, as above, to the time the FX transaction is processed which isn’t the same as the time you make the transaction with the merchant and it is affected by the credit card channel used by that merchant etc. etc.

Assuming one of the big three you reference is Amex, they use a constantly changing rate. I did two transactions last week in China to use an Amex offer, exactly same RMB sum, executed consecutively within 2-3 minutes and the £ sums were 64p different. There is absolutely no way of pre-determining the £ sum you will be charged on your statement; it’s a complete myth.