Item — HN Reader

Point of sale terminals also do this when travelling - it wasn't especially surprising, just one straw too many.

Of course foreign exchange offices have been doing this scam since forever ("no fees!")...

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Edit - note that with a bureau d'exchange my objection is not that they charge for the exchange; clearly that is the exact business that they are in. It's the "no fees" etc. marketing that hides from the less astute punters exactly how (and how much) they are paying for the service. I'd like to see that outlawed and direct costs of the exchange up front (e.g. "Exchange £100 for $121.5 at a cost of £10 compared to the base rate")

1 comments

> direct costs of the exchange up front

Isn't that fairly easy to estimate? If they're showing you a buy rate and a sell rate, you know the interbank rate is going to be pretty much halfway between the two. I don't think anyone's changing money and thinking the bureau isn't profiting.

I beg to differ. All their verbiage about not charging fees is absolutely intended to create that impression in less educated customers.

Honestly, to me the problem seems more like people don’t know they don’t have to use those things. Just pulling money out of an ATM (and yes, declining the currency conversion scam there as well) is a much more efficient and cheap way to acquire the local currency.

People use these desks because they think that’s just “what it costs.”