A former Oxford professor has criticised a car rental firm for charging him a 'Brexit tax' when he returned his vehicle, even though Britain has not left the European Union yet.

Lord John Krebs, a zoologist, questioned the addition of £2.19 to his bill when he dropped his rental car back to Avis in Marseilles airport.

He said he was told the charge was a 'Brexit tax', because Britain voted to leave the EU.

Lord Krebs, now President of the British Science Association, refused to pay the 'tax'.

simple kick Avis out of this country for starters - let them pay for ignorance of French division

this uk is getting a joke I wonder who else will join with avis

Total non-story. It is an exchange rate adjustment, not a Brexit tax.

The pound has fallen quite substantially as a result of the Brexit vote. Of course if you want to buy things using pounds in other countries (such as France), or if you want to buy things which are imported, those are going to be more expensive as a result of the exchange rate.

What next, boycott the USA because they charge in dollars which are now more expensive?

What a load of ****. their system, like any other system built since the dawn of time, will only do what it's told to do.

I think we'll see a lot more of this soon.

exchange rate adjustment - BxxxxxxX I send monies on a a two way exchange i.e. Dollar/Peso and the rate of difference is 5/6 pence per pound if that, they are fleecing their customers, avoid that company if people had any sense/guts.

A Computer can only out put what has manually been in put to it. common sense, the days of old valves long gone in computers.

exchange rate adjustment - BxxxxxxX I send monies on a a two way exchange i.e. Dollar/Peso and the rate of difference is 5/6 pence per pound if that, they are fleecing their customers, avoid that company if people had any sense/guts.

 

A Computer can only out put what has manually been in put to it. common sense, the days of old valves long gone in computers.

So if you want to purchase goods and services in a country which uses Euros, and you want to pay in pounds, that is now going to be more expensive.

That's not fleecing ... that's just the fact of the exchange rate! After all, this geezer was trying to hire a car with Avis in France - Avis France will of course have most of its expenses in Euros so it is going to be more expensive if you want to pay in pounds.

As you referred to Mexican pesos, I also looked at the MXN:GBP exchange rate here: http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=GBP&to=MXN&view=1Y. As you will see it dropped from 27 immediately before the referendum down to 23, before stabilising at 25. So if you want to buy anything in Mexico with Pounds that is going to be more expensive now too.

If and when the pound strengthens these companies will reduce their price to reflect this? I dont think so, its an excuse to squeeze money

not Mexican and sorry being a sender for 3 decades believe I know what I am on about including what I get for my GBP exchange and receivers monies expectation as I said I get two way exchange rate so I am talking pennies per pound

not Mexican and sorry being a sender for 3 decades believe I know what I am on about including what I get for my GBP exchange and receivers monies expectation as I said I get two way exchange rate so I am talking pennies per pound

Only way I would loose out basically is if I exchanged myself if visiting and exchange large amounts say in the Hundreds, but a bit of a cushion seems to be the USD element of the exchange rate - I could loose up to 7/8 pounds per couple hundred.

Mind you back in the 80s the exchange rate was fluctuating between 30 - 36 within weeks peso per pound, theses days far better than those sour days.

Old Cogger

With all due respect you are saying it is only a few pennies per pound , earlier you said 5 or 6 pence, that is still a 5 or 6 percentage point difference

That means that imports will have to increase by 5 or 6 % in order to maintain profit margins, of course not all suppliers will alter daily but if you are importing millions of £ worth of components into this country and the price increases by 5% you have to pass that on.