percysmith

My home currency (Hong Kong Dollar) is also linked to the US Dollar but I will beat any cashier over the head until they are dead with my iPhone if I got DCCed for USD.

Competition among credit cards here is very strong here; we've a Mastercard that earns 1 mile per HK$2.67 (roughly 2.92 miles per US$) for foreign currency transactions for example. But the transactions must not be subject to DCC. Even with a 1.5-2% rate, foreign currency spending on HK$ is a very good deal. HK FTers who get DCCed go homicidal (I'm sure it's not just me).



Amex is DCC free in the way Visa and Mastercards are DCC vulnerable http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...072900927.html

Maybe Avis can arrange for foreign currency billing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic...ncy_conversion but they have to prepare an agreement in the foreign currency involved.

percysmith

Just noted Visa has issued new Visa International Operating Regulations on 15 April 2012.

The Dynamic Currency Conversion receipt requirements appears to be identical to the previous 2011 manual. A lot of transitional regulations that have been spent are now removed from the VIOR, so it's a lot easier to read.

http://usa.visa.com/download/merchan...n.pdf#page=614

Still reiterates the requirement to mark an explicit "accept" box "on the written agreement" - so some term hidden in verbage as para 10 Avis Europe agreement/para 22C Avis US agreement is still not compliant.

Also noted (page 579 of the VIOR):

"An Acquirer that participates in Dynamic Currency Conversion must pay an annual program fee, as specified in the applicable regional fee guide. This fee will not be pro-rated."

So Visa is incentivised to push out DCC as much as it can - and perhaps to turn a blind eye when acquirers abuse it.

Clipper801

I am Avis Preferred. It appears that the only way to avoid a DCC to your credit card currency is to tell the agent when returning the car. The agent will give you a slip to take to the counter. Hopefully, there is not a long queue. The agent at the counter can manually process the check-out without the dynamic currency conversion and charges you the local currency to let your credit card company to do the conversion. It's a pain and there is no way around it. You just have to allow an extra 15~20 minutes. I have called the Preferred tel. no. to see if they can change my profile and the answer is no. It apparently is the standing policy of Avis.

tourist

Really? Five out of five times, the agent at the counter has told me that there is nothing that he/she can do...

Clipper801

Yes, definitely, based on a Avis rental at MCO about 2 weeks ago.

It was a pain though. The agent at the car return gave me a slip to take to the main counter in the terminal. Queue up. Then the agent did it for me without any problem. Need allow an extra 15~20 minutes to be on the safe side.

The Preferred profile cannot be changed to reflect this "preference". Must be done manually when you return the car.

percysmith

Any chance you can use Amex? I'm using Amex for my rentals:

http://www.avis.co.uk/blog/2012/07/

Clipper801

I used a Canadian Visa Infinite.

I think Avis accepts Amex.

percysmith

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B206 Safari/7534.48.3)

Amex will definitely stop DCC, even if u've given Avis explicit authority to apply DCC. Dunno whether you like its rewards or exchange rates tho.

Clipper801

I used the Visa Infinite because it came with an Auto Rental Collision/Loss Damage Insurance if I paid with the card, and I would not have to buy the insurance from Avis.

I also have an Amex card and shall check what coverages it has.

So far, I have no problem asking the Avis clerk to not do the DCC. Just an inconvenience.

Cyan

AVIS Dynamic Currency Conversion... LOL:



In fairness to Avis, my credit card was charged the correct amount and not the erroneous one in the receipt above. But seriously Avis, what the heck?

percysmith

Visa gets sued by Australian regulator *for not allowing more* DCC http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-0...cy-policy.html

khkchan

Hi, sorry if it has been asked earlier. How do I remove DCC from my Avis profile? Recently I rented at Germany and they are tagging a whopping 4% for DCC.

thanks in advance.

IAHtraveler

I'm going to merge this with the other DCC thread. I can't offer any help with this, but hopefully someone can!

sdsearch

In my case I called them, and it took a couple calls back and forth before it was clearly resolved. (But I rented with them overseas rarely enough that it was taken care of before the next time I had an overseas rental.) I called their general number, and then a specialist at some other number called me back some time later, which is what I mean by the "calls back and forth".

My case was several years ago.

SouthOxon

I have complained about DCC to the President's Club office and they state;