credit card & russian tour

I have booked tour of SPB and it is priced in $ however I am tempted to pay by credit card that is registered in £.

Are there thoughts or any known issues in paying with such a cc?

Np, we paid with with a hkd cc. We paid them just before boarding the bus

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The only problem is that, depending on the card you use, it could cost a bit more, due to foreign transaction fees.

When we were in SPB we paid for our tour on CC , but ours don't have any foreign transaction fees. When you put the card into the reader it will ask if you want to pay in £s or Roubles. For the best exchange rate you should always choose the currency of the country you are in. So, in this case Roubles.

Plastic is the way to go these days and when we go abroad we take minimum cash. We always have Euros at home, but we are often in France. On our Baltic cruise we didn't change any foreign currency, we paid for everything by CC.

Why don't you get yourself a Halifax Clarity card. The best means of spending abroad.

I'm in St Petersburg next week and have booked a 3 day tour with TJ Tours. They've given us a price of $346 each in US dollars. I also have a CC that doesn't charge for foreign transactions. Do you know if paying by by CC in rubles works out better value than paying cash in US dollars? We got our dollars just before the Brexit vote so got a good exchange rate. We're going to the US and Caribbean next year so could always keep hold of them for that trip.

Mim Lloyd

Just do a calculation. Work out how much it will be in dollars and how much in roubles. Personally, I would save the dollars. If you pay with CC choose roubles as currency when it asks in which currency you wish to pay.

I was trying to avoid straining my brain by working it out myself! I think I might keep hold of the dollars. I've got the new Supercard to use free of charge when abroad. It's linked to my Tesco credit card so the actual debit of funds in £ will go out of that, meaning I'll get Reward points. I used it a lot when abroad last year and the conversion rate was always good.

But then again I'm one of the people affected by the collapse of Lowcostholidays. I used them to book a hotel in Rhodes in October. My travel insurance doesn't want to know and although I've filed a claim with my credit card company I may not be covered as the booking for the hotel was made via a 3rd party. Apparently that's not covered by Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. So £700 may go down the swannee. I might have to pay TJ Tours in the dollars as I need to rebook and pay for the hotel again. If i don't I'll also be giving up flights, car hire and airport parking which is already paid for. :(

We had the same question on our payment recently, cash vs cc. Here is what I experienced in the PAST with currency translations, so I opted to pay in Dollars.

There are 2 currency translations + a possible fee that will occur if you pay in CC to a tour company that quoted you the tour in dollars.

1) the tour company is going to exchange the Dollars that you were quoted into Rubles in order to run the CC charge. that exchange rate might be WORSE that the current rate. example. the current exchange rate is 63 rubles for every $. but it is possible that the travel company will use a lower # and not the 63.

2) your CC company will have their own exchange rate when you make the charge.

3) some CC companies will charge a foreign exchange fee of about 3%.

for me, I payed the travel company in dollars to avoid any exchange discrepancies.

my recommendation, if you want to use a CC...e-mail the tour company ahead of time to get price in Rubles...and make sure you use a CC with no foreign exchange fee.

all other purchases, when i was quoted a price in Rubles..i used a CC that had no foreign exchange fee. it worked out very well.

hope this made sense!!

Great idea - I'll email TJ Tours now and ask them the price in rubles. I'll then have time to work out the best way to pay. Thanks!

We had the same question on our payment recently, cash vs cc. Here is what I experienced in the PAST with currency translations, so I opted to pay in Dollars.

 

There are 2 currency translations + a possible fee that will occur if you pay in CC to a tour company that quoted you the tour in dollars.

 

1) the tour company is going to exchange the Dollars that you were quoted into Rubles in order to run the CC charge. that exchange rate might be WORSE that the current rate. example. the current exchange rate is 63 rubles for every $. but it is possible that the travel company will use a lower # and not the 63.

 

2) your CC company will have their own exchange rate when you make the charge.

 

3) some CC companies will charge a foreign exchange fee of about 3%.

 

for me, I payed the travel company in dollars to avoid any exchange discrepancies.

 

my recommendation, if you want to use a CC...e-mail the tour company ahead of time to get price in Rubles...and make sure you use a CC with no foreign exchange fee.

 

all other purchases, when i was quoted a price in Rubles..i used a CC that had no foreign exchange fee. it worked out very well.

 

hope this made sense!!

This is great advice! Thanks so much.

The info I have from TJ Travel is that they will convert your tour cost from dollars to rubles according to the central bank's exchange rate on the day of payment. I guess you just have to trust them, or use your phone/internet connection to double-check the rate on the day. Anyway, they won't be able to tell you exactly how much your tour will cost in rubles next week. At the moment USD 356 converts to RUB 22,721, which your bank would convert to about GBP 269. As Bababooey Land said, the rates could be worse for you next week. But they could also be better, no one knows.

We are planning to pay by credit card, because TJ Travel say they require "clean and crispy bank notes". I've encountered that sort of condition in other countries, and it's a pain in the neck (I brought brand new notes to Taiwan and the bank still rejected about 10% of them :mad:). It seems easier (and safer) not to carry that much cash, which they might not even accept.

Tips have to be in cash, so I'll try to bring the cleanest and crispiest notes I can find for that.

MimLloyed

Have you contacted your hotel re LCB? They may at least honour your booking and not load the room rate.

MimLloyed

 

Have you contacted your hotel re LCB? They may at least honour your booking and not load the room rate.

Yes, did that yesterday. They were quite sympathetic and have offered to rebook me in at a rate quite a bit lower than the current one. It is however, still about £110 more than I paid Lowcostholidays. But I think a lot of that is down to the fact that I have to pay them in euros and the rate against the £ is considerably worse now than when I originally made my reservation last December. The cheapest rate I could find via an internet trawl is now £400 more than my original rate so what the hotel is offering is pretty good and I'm taking them up on it.

The info I have from TJ Travel is that they will convert your tour cost from dollars to rubles according to the central bank's exchange rate on the day of payment. I guess you just have to trust them, or use your phone/internet connection to double-check the rate on the day. Anyway, they won't be able to tell you exactly how much your tour will cost in rubles next week. At the moment USD 356 converts to RUB 22,721, which your bank would convert to about GBP 269. As Bababooey Land said, the rates could be worse for you next week. But they could also be better, no one knows.

 

We are planning to pay by credit card, because TJ Travel say they require "clean and crispy bank notes". I've encountered that sort of condition in other countries, and it's a pain in the neck (I brought brand new notes to Taiwan and the bank still rejected about 10% of them :mad:). It seems easier (and safer) not to carry that much cash, which they might not even accept.

 

Tips have to be in cash, so I'll try to bring the cleanest and crispiest notes I can find for that.

I paid TJ Travel in dollars..it was quick and she didnt check the bills one by one. as long as they arent ripped or all crumbled up, you are probably good to go. i paid some vendors on the street in dollars as well...they accepted no problem. I was able to visit russia for both days without getting any rubles. They accept euros as well.

But CC is the easiest and safest way to go..no doubt.

As the last poster said, MOST companies don't look that close at what we refer to as 'clean and crisp' bills. They just do not want some of those old and crumpled dollars that are still in circulation. No bills that are torn etc would be exceptabe.

When we paid, we had 6 $100 bills (and to be perfectly honest, $100 bills are rarely ever in bad condition).

We toured with SPB Tours and we never converted any money to rubles. We did shop at a street vendor and we paid in dollars and got dollars back as change. we also bought a couple of magnets at a different vendor and paid in euro's. All are acceptable. In fact, at that time, the vendor had the price listed in rubles, dollars and euro's.

If I were buying something from a regular store I would have used a CC. We just had no opportunity to change any money into rubles and no need for it.

Cheers

Len