How I spent an hour fighting €18 extra fee . . . on a €42 bar bill
RYAN Davies battled an unfair currency conversion in a Polish pub that would have seen him lose £16.
The 27-year-old, from Leytonstone in East London, was on a weekend away with friends in Gdansk a fortnight ago.
The local currency of Poland is the zloty, though euros are widely accepted.
In one pub the bill came to the equivalent of €42, but the group only had €20 notes on them so handed over €60.
After a long wait Ryan asked for his change. To his surprise he was told he could not have it because the additional €18 (equivalent to £16) only just covered the exchange rate to zloty.
Ryan, who works in digital marketing for a clothing retailer, says: ‘I was not about to pay an €18 tip so I demanded to pay on my card instead.
‘They said they could not do this because I had already paid in euros, but I insisted.’
He then opted to pay in sterling on his bank card – which also meant a dynamic currency conversion charge.
Ryan says: ‘I spent more than an hour trying to settle the bill because I wanted to be sure exactly how much I was paying.’
Throughout the trip the group were given change in zloty after paying in euros and found pubs were charging different exchange rates.
Ryan says this was a ‘frustrating experience’.
He adds: ‘We were paying in one currency and then getting a different one back. It was a nightmare.’