Do you tax refunded on something paid in euros

[jamiesj]

I paid for a hotel stay which cost 1954 euros which translated to £1731 coming out of my bank. I then noticed a separate payment for £51 which I assume is the tax. Stupidly, I realised I didn't change the currency on the website as this is the first time I've booked accommodation separately and didn't see the option to change the currency at the time. Less than 24 hours after booking, the price of the accommodation went down by 150 euros. If I tried to cancel and get my money back to then re-book with the price decrease would I also get the tax refunded or not, which came out as a separate payment? I would guess not but as I've never done this before I'm clueless.

Is it not the charge from your bank for paying in Euros? The tax (VAT) will just be included and you can’t get it back.

I have no idea? This is what is shows up as on my online banking. So annoyed at myself for being stupid!

It’ll be the bank charge I expect.

I had the same, was really annoyed when I was charged about £25 for a £500 stay because I used the wrong credit card so got charged!

Yep that's defo your bank charging you to pay in euros

Looks like your bank's other currency fee. Your bank won't refund on the basis of the merchant refund.

I would advise getting something like a Revolut account to avoid these bank charges. You can then convert your money into Euro and have a Euro account there and avoid all currency conversion charges (there's a limit to no-charge conversions per month).

For general reference in terms of your holiday spending, you've done it in the way that's almost always better. The general advice is to pay in the local currency (even if you have bank fees) than to accept DCC conversion (i.e. where the card terminal in say France offers to let you pay in GBP) as that almost always comes out more expensive.

Thanks all, really frustrating! But lesson learnt for next time. It's so small in the corner of the website that it's easy to miss. When you click English it changes all the prices to GBP.