I have a Fairfx Mastercard pre-paid debit. I signed up because it the offer was Mastercard currency interchange rate, then they leived a seperate 1.5% fee on all transactions, this beats the 2.5-2.75% UK banks charge (plus additional cash withdrawl charges), now using an Aeon machine to draw once a week I calculated this to be the best method for me.

However the conversion is well below that of the Mastercard interchange rate, I have contacted Fairfx who admit this should not happen, they subsequently forwarded it on to Banctec and NSB and updating me every other day. I tried again yesterday a different ATM and a POS within the same few minutes and conversion differ a lot - expotentially more than any volatility in such period, again lower than the expected rate.

Any idea whats going on? Fairfx said initially it looks like the acquirer was enforcing their own conversion rates, however these transactions did not involve any dynamic currency conversion. In the absences of DCC I cant understand how an acquirer to enforce any other rate than the interchange (pre comission)

Edited July 31, 201015 yr by mattcodes

And before anyone suggests Nationwide - read the news - they are now 2% plus £1 charge in Thailand (or will be soon)..