How do I pay in euros when booking with Ryanair?

Q On trips to Spain I often book flights with one airline going out and a different one coming home. I have a Halifax Clarity Mastercard which means that I don’t pay any transaction charges on foreign payments. Therefore I always want to pay in euros, not sterling. The problem I have is that when booking with Ryanair, I put in the card details and the fare immediately switches to sterling at what appears to be a poor rate, and I can’t find any button to put it back to euros. Can you guide me through the process?

James G

A Ryanair practices a version of “dynamic currency conversion” (DCC) used by merchants to cream off an extra margin on transactions.

DCC is portrayed as a service to customers, offering certainty about the cost in one’s home currency. But it offers a far worse exchange rate than your card company would provide.

The airline warns: “If you do not choose Ryanair's currency exchange rate you may be exposed to negative currency fluctuations between the time you make your booking and when your card issuing bank converts the transaction.”

Sterling would need to plummet very significantly before Ryanair’s deal becomes a good deal. On a recent transaction I was offered a rate of €1.07 to £1, while the bank rate was €1.13. So I always go for euros. But it is, as you discovered, tricky to pay for the transaction in euros once Ryanair has recognised you have a UK card. You have to look for the small print saying: “Your debit/credit card will now be charged £62.82 (€67.30). Click here for more information on our guaranteed exchange rate.”

Click on that link, scroll down and untick the box. At this point the price should revert to euros.

If you happen to have more than one card stored on your online account (for example a UK debit card for outbound flights) then once you have unticked the box the system may revert to your first stored card and you will need to go around the online block again. But you will get there eventually.

Every day our travel correspondent Simon Calder tackles a reader’s question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder