Vincent from Chassieu, France is concerned about the bank charges he received while on holiday, he asked:
“Last year I spent my holidays in Scotland. When I got home to France I saw that my bank had collected significant fees for each withdrawal and payment I’d made there. They said this is because Scotland is not in the eurozone. This year I’m going to Slovenia and Italy, and I’d like to know if using my card will again cost me so much?“
Replying to this was Jimena Gómez, Senior Comminication Officer with Europe Direct, she said:
“Good morning Vincent. You won’t have this problem when you’ll travel to Italy or to Slovenia because there are EU rules that oblige banks to charge exactly the same amount when you do a transaction in euro when you’re in your home country or abroad.
“This applies to the 27 EU countries, and also to Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway but only for transactions in euros. The transactions you were doing in Scotland were in pounds and that’s why the bank charged you more, but this won’t happen when you’ll travel to Italy or to Slovenia or to any country which uses the euro. “This legislation applies to any transactions under 50,000 euros, so this will also apply to money transfers, to withdrawals, to payments with credit or debit cards, etc.
“If you ever have any problem you can contact Fin-Net, this is a financial dispute resolution network that can help you with these kind of issues. You can also contact a customer centre, or you can call us at Europe Direct.”
For more information about the EU, call 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11 or check out the website: europa.eu/youreurope
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