Mystery currency conversion on card transaction

Hello,

I used my Revolut card for the first (and only) time earlier this month. The transaction was conducted in HKD according to my card receipt, however an amount was deducted from my GBP balance instead of my HKD balance. Revolut say that they received the transaction in GBP, yet the merchant says that the transaction they sent was in HKD.

Details:

  • The charge was 60 HKD. My Revolut HKD balance was 110 HKD.
  • When paying, I elected to pay in HKD instead of GBP.
  • My card receipt confirms that I declined DCC (“I HAVE CHOSEN NOT TO USE THE MASTERCARD CURRENCY CONVERSION PROCESS…”)
  • I checked Revolut, and it showed a pending transaction of -6.07 GBP.
  • I initially wondered whether the merchant had applied DCC anyway, which seems to happen fairly often here. (Incidentally, this is the reason I got a Revolut card, but the default currency is unfortunately still GBP.) I did not think that this was possible after PIN authorisation though.
  • I contacted Revolut Support to ask them what happened. They requested that I wait until the transaction was no longer pending.
  • A few days later, the transaction changed to -5.55 GBP, although the “Spent” amount below it was still ÂŁ6.07.
    Revolut_M%26S_Screenshot
  • I contacted Revolut Support again, and they said that “the merchants terminal accepted the transaction in GBP”. I also asked about the amount changing from 6.07 to 5.55, and they explained that the merchant authorised 6.07 to begin with, but “the merchant must have changed that before the payment was completed”.
  • I contacted the merchant to check what they had charged, and they confirmed that they sent a transaction for 60 HKD. They sent me a scan of the Merchant Copy of the card receipt, which shows 60 HKD.

It seems that Revolut and the merchant aren’t able to agree on what the transaction was. This is quite worrying.

I suppose the next step is to contact MasterCard and see what their records say. I’ll update when I’ve got a response.

2 Likes

Valid points.

  • The first thing to clarify is why GBP were charged instead of the chosen (and apparently charged by the merchant) HKD. Where was that switched?

  • Secondly, why are there two different amounts displayed? 5.55 should be the correct one, why is there (on the same screen) another charge of about 10% more?

@anon33247966 @anon71086934?

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Hi there. Can you provide us with a screenshot of the receipt?

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Hello. I’ll post a photo here with some of the details fuzzed out, and then send you a private message with the complete one.

A correction: I can’t quite remember whether this was PIN or contactless. It was my first usage of the card, so if a transaction with PIN is needed to activate contactless then I suppose it must have been PIN.

Thanks.

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After upgrading Revolut from 4.14.1 to 4.15.2 yesterday, the “Spent” amount has changed to “H$60”. That is quite interesting.

A simillar thing happened to me. I guess that the blocked ammount is with DCC option, and after you choose not to use it then it changes (after few days) to the correct ammount.