Hi, i recently booked 2 rooms X 3 night for my family trip to Phuket with agoda.com. The total amount i was billed is USD512.49 around RM1773.20 (X3.45). But when I recieved the statement for my credit card, I was charged USD554.64 around RM1913.51. So there is an extra charges of RM140+ which is about 8% different. I understand the currency excharge going up and down everyday, but I think RM140+ is a bit too much, so I email them regarding this issue, and here is their reply:


Thank you for your email.

Regarding to your inquiry, we charged in local amount, Please be aware that many banks charge fees for processing exchange conversions. These charges are typical in the industry and are often built into the exchange rate. We only select partner banks who agree to maintain competitive levels for these fees. For charges that are converted to your local currency by us before being processed by your Credit Card Company or local bank we use the mid-rate applicable on the date of the transaction. As most of the world's major currencies are valued against the U.S. Dollar, the mid-rate is a true indication of the current exchange rate.

If you would like us to recharge in USD then we will process full refund for the previous local amount accordingly. Would you kindly advise your acceptance by return. Thank you.

Should you need further assistance, please feel free to contact us at credit@agoda.com

Best Regards,

Titima Panjach
Credit Specialist

So is this a comment practice? I am not sure, since this is the first time i book oversea hotel through online. And they are offering me a "recharge in USD" which i don't fully understand how different would that be. So i really need some opinion here. RM140 aren't really breaking the bank, i just don't like being "con", if thats the case here. Anyone?

Thanks.

BTW, even with the extra RM140, they are still a lot cheaper than any other website i can find. The same hotel from Air Asia GoHoliday would be RM2400, and if i booked directly from the hotel it would be slitly cheaper than GoHoliday.

This post has been edited by tong1774: Jan 2 2009, 11:57 AM

First there appears to be a diff between US amt charged .....USD554.64 vs USD512.49 .
Many hotel booking sites charge an adm fee which will be shown when u make the booking.

The explanation given by the mail seems to explain the rate used for the conversion. non Ringgit Charge made to credit/charge card denominated in MYR will be converted to MYR at exchange rate at date of billing...

My credit card statement din't show the USD, only in RM. I did the conversion myself by X3.45. So are you saying that it is actually quite reasonable?

Just check back their side, the same hotel now is even cheaper, which is weird seeing it is actually closer to the check in date.

Your quoted rate at USD3.45 is way outdated already..unless u charged mths ago?

Current rate is about Us$3.6 but CC company normally quoted higher than market rate by ~USD0.15 from my previous experiences!! So the actual charged rate at US$3.75 is about the rate using CC

The charge is last month. So if its 3.75, then the amount is about right. But 3.45 is the rate when i book the rooms.

Last mth US$ was at it's peak..I remembered RM fall sharply last mth & reaching almost US$3.65 Are u pretty sure US3.45?

Unless u mean u charged ~Sept?

http://www.gocurrency.com/v2/historic-exch...y=1&frYear=2008

Hmm weird, the online currency calculator give me 3.45+, guest its wrong then. My bad.

Check the date you got charged wth Bank negara mid- rate here:

http://www.bnm.gov.my/index.php?ch=12&pg=6...ype=Mid&unit=rm

If u got charged after 17/12, rate pretty close to 3.45

The transaction date listed on my statement is 13/12. Checked bank negara closest is RM3.5495.

This post has been edited by tong1774: Jan 1 2009, 10:42 PM

My experience with non MYR charges using CC is this.

Say i charge US 200 on 1/12/08. I see from internet or bank rate 1 US $ - MYR 3.53.

The CC statement states.....US $200 charged to my account dated 3/12/08. The exchange rate used will be diff from 3.53 - 1 as the date used will be that of 3/12/08 Plus the rate used will be one that is used by the card issuer viz some arrangement with some third party. (as explained in the email reply to u) Most of time, the rate used is higher than what we see quoted.

I have rates that worked in my favour sometimes, but most times, its slightly higher than if i were to use the hard currency.

Further, we will not be able to get the rates that are officially quoted ( like those quoted in the newspapers). There's always a margin both ways when we actually exchange at the money changer or when we buy TT from the banks.

OK-lah...not much diff from the CC normal inflated rate...Last mth I charged my CC at Zhuhai hotel & xchange rate at the point of time ~RMB47.5 to RM100..I'm expecting RM115 for the RMB230.nite room but once I received my CC bill the amt was RM130!! an xtra of RM15!!

and this was not the 1st time..most of the time CC charged higher than the xchange rate!!

Ok then. I guest this is a comment practice if CC was charged at foreign currency. Thanks guys!

Of course CC conversion rate was higher than actual exchange rate. The rates also higher than Bank rates.

For TS,

Amex charged me for Bali hotel reservation at 3.80 on early Dec. So for your amount, I think its normal.

This post has been edited by Putraskyline: Jan 1 2009, 11:03 PM

OK..Not going to use AMEX to charge in future...BTW, probably this tread can be used to compare the best CC exchange rate ho..what do u think? TS, wanna change title? Dun think bombarding Agoda is right now ho? As u agreed they are very reasonable compare to others which I can't deny on certain destinations...


BTW, I did get a very good exchange rate during my 2007 trip to Bali by charging via Ambank...suprising low & almost similar and if I'm not mistaken cheaper than the Money changer rate!! ...Too bad I dun used Ambank oledi


::

Actually my credit is MBF, well own by AmBank though... Ok i will change my title , but what should i change to? Any suggestion?

BTW they offer me a refund and recharge again. Not sure if the recharge will base on the room rate now or the new one which is 20% cheaper. If recharge at the old room rate than the different may be only RM30 to RM40 i think (Lazy to count), not worth the trouble of possible double charge. But if recharge at the new room rate, then the different can be RM200 to RM300 (again lazy to count).

Probably Using credit card for online reservation & 2nd column..diff CC diff rate??..or something

BTW, hv you try http://www.sawadee.com/

They offer cheaper rate than others especially booking Thailand hotels.. & their customer service is damn prompt in responding any email queries...within hours! ..It might be a good idea to recharge bcos USD dropped for the past weeks..

agoda is one of the cheapest sites
but for thailand there are cheapers ones like sawadee or thaiatm

You can get refund and recharge again. How many days it takes for them to refund you? Usually CC will take 30 days to refund and same goes to hotel reservation site TC.

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Added on January 2, 2009, 12:38 pmYeah Amex have possibility at the highest exchange but I like 10x turbo points Another things is I get 1 free night and pay only 5 night at Bali. So If I calculate all the way, I still on win side.

This post has been edited by Putraskyline: Jan 2 2009, 12:38 PM

I just worry they will be problem with the refund, that cause a double charge. Even though it may be solve at last, but the trouble i will go through is not worth for that RM30. Of course as i said, they recharge me with the new room rate. Email them this question, now wait for their reply. I last checked sawadee.com, its still slightly higher than agoda.com.

I found something very strange here. I booked my room at Sugar Palm Kata, and there is a new sister hotel in Karon about the same star rating. But the price is so much different between the 2 in agoda.com, compare to other side.


Sugar Palm Kata

http://www.agoda.com/asia/thailand/phuket/....html]agoda.com

http://www.sawadee.com/hotel/676319-booking.html]sawadee.com


agoda.com is 1,631 baht and sawadee.com is 2600 baht. So agoda is cheaper by 1031 baht.



Sugar palm Karon

http://www.agoda.com/asia/thailand/phuket/...ron_resort.html

http://www.sawadee.com/hotel/676374-booking.html

agoda.com is 4,998 baht and sawadee.com is 2350 baht. So agoda.com is more expensive by 2648 baht.


And this is directly from the hotel itself:

http://www.sugarpalmphuket.com/rate.html



So i think there is something wrong with the rate at agoda.com, the last time i checked with agoda.com the one in Karon is actually slightly cheaper then the one in Kata. And all the rate rate above is per day. Weird...

So the situation is like this:

1) If i ask them to recharge, every USD1.00 will be RM0.20+- cheaper. So USD500 will be RM100+- cheaper, but during the duration of 2 to 3 weeks, my card will be double charge.

2) If i cancel my booking, i need to pay USD15 as penalty, so 2 rooms is USD30, thats about RM100+-. But the new room rate will save me about RM300+-. So at the end i pay RM200+- less. But during this period of time i will be double charge also. So is RM200 worth all the trouble? It depends on each individual, for me i think i will just live with that. All i want is their clarification. Thants all. Hope this is a good guide line for those who want to book hotel online.

agoda.com is still one of the cheapest, but their respond can take 1 to 2 days. But so far they had been quite helpful in terms of my enquiries and requests, at least they always give me solutions. And my first vouchers from them bug me a bit as they only stated 3 adults in one of the room, but didn't state any extra bed and breakfast. I checked with the hotel and they said any extra bed will be charge, but problem is agoda.com already charge me for that. So i email them about this issue and they sent me a new vouncher, still no extra bed,, but this time they stated "The room is for 3 adults including breakfast". So i guest extra bed means no breakfast included. Blah...

This post has been edited by tong1774: Jan 2 2009, 02:16 PM

I have a doubt. Why don't you get the rates from hotel itself rather than those travel websites? From what I observe when I book Bali hotel, rates from those websites are expensive by 20%. I mean hotel online reservation.