When you’re a tourist in a strange land, it is easy to be OVERCHARGED or SHORTCHANGED when you’re shopping, eating out or paying for a service. This is especially so if you are using a currency that you are unfamiliar with. It’s an unfortunate fact of holiday life. Take a look at these two situations.

You feel like an ice-cream and decide to buy one from a kiosk nearby. You choose your favourite flavours and ask how much. The seller, noticing that you are a foreigner, tells you €3. You pay but don’t know that it really costs only €2. You have just been OVERCHARGED.

Same kiosk, same ice-cream but this time the seller charges you the correct price – €2.  You give a €10 note and receive €7 in return. Because you are in a hurry to enjoy the ice-cream, you don’t check the money you were given and walk away. So sorry! You have just been SHORTCHANGED.

Have you ever been either OVERCHARGED or SHORTCHANGED? Where was it? What did you buy? Did you realize immediately or much later? Did you do anything about it? Write in with your experiences.