How Euronet uses dark patterns to try to deceive you

Two weeks ago I was in Budapest and Prague, and one of the needs we had was to get cash in the respective currencies. I was hoping they were using the Euro too, but they don’t do yet.

We decided not to change money in Spain as it’s usually more favorable to do so in the destination. Doing so in the airport of Budapest was a scam (10% less), so we ended up getting cash from a bank using my n26 card. The average change of that day was 305,416. I got 304,816. That’s a 0,2% fee, so it’s basically the same.

On Prague we tried to find a bank too, but we couldn’t. However there were many Euronet ATMs. I knew they were going to be a scam too, but I tried to see if I could be charged in Czech Korunas. As I was going through the process I laughed hard when I discovered the trick they do if you aren’t careful.

Nice, I can choose English.

Ok, let’s get some cash.

First trick, the smallest amount they offer is 10.000 CZKs, which is like 370€. You absolutely don’t need so much money in Prague. So, let’s go with the Other Amount and let’s choose 1.000 CZKs.

Oh nice. They let me choose if I wanted to be charged in CZKs or in Euros with their change. The official exchange rate of that day was 27.0234, they were using 24.2189. That’s a 11.58% fee. No thank you, let’s go with the left option.

On the left side, everything is doubts and the Accept is en Red. I don’t want to click on a red button. The right side seems like the safest option, and it has the green button! Mmm are you trying to deceive me here Euronet?

After reading it again and again, I decided to go with the left option. Using n26 I also got just a 0.2% fee.

Shame on you Euronet, and long live n26!