I was perusing my credit card bill yesterday for our accounting for this fall's tour of Paradores in Spain the reservations of which I put on my credit card and I noticed that my credit card issuer charged me the Interbank rate for the currency conversion while in Spain and Andorra in February. I really cannot complain for the US dollar has been so strong for so many years, that it is probably fair to pay back some of the advantage we have had. Still the prices we encountered were so fair, that even a 28% premium was not a problem. In London, however, even with the expectation of higher prices I was still mildly shocked. That is an expensive city and with the USD going down it becomes more expensive. I guess we are going to stick to the countryside until the tide turns.

Meanwhile, I do not review my credit card statements month to month as close as I should. This time, however, I did and found that one restaurant billed me twice for the same meal. It ran my card twice and it showed up as two different transactions. I immediately called a friend who has also charged at the same establishment and he found the same thing. Both card issuers reversed the second charges without question. We love the restaurant and will return for at a single price it is a good deal, but I will be alert to the credit card statement next time.

Tom in Carlisle whose evil twin brother Skippy probably has a copy of his credit card.