Just reminded my +1 to leave some promo spending quota on her Unionpay for trip to Macau (short notice rebooked from BKK)

Sure, there may be counterexamples, but they're few and far between. Has a fixed exchange on an ATM ever been in the customers favor though?

Aer Lingus also pulls this scam when buying tickets through their website and using a foreign card. Took me a minute to figure out what was going on when I saw the "guaranteed exchange rate" language being touted.

Is there a way to bypass DCC with Aer Lingus and force the charge in euros?

Yes - they give you a choice - they just make it sound unappealing. The default option is the DCC price but you can check a box to state that you want to pay an amount that is not a guaranteed amount. The language makes it sound like you could possibly get hit with some unknown charge but in reality it's what you should go with.

Here's another thread on the Aer Lingus Forum discussing it further:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/aer-l...ou-pay-ei.html

Word of advice to threadmaster/wikimaster:

Pictures, diagrams, or internet memes are effective tools in getting your point across without long words or paragraphs.
A scan of a DCC'ed receipt or a photo of it would help as well.

They are a lot more effective in gaining attention. :D

They're coming, but I don't have any to share that aren't already out there. I don't want to simply borrow the ones from Wikipedia or other people's posts without permission. I can put some up eventually, but the wiki was just a quick first pass when I wrote it. I will refine it over time.

If you ask Percy Smith, I'm guessing he will gladly hook you up with his collection.

I just Google Imaged myself "percysmith dcc site:flyertalk.com"

let me find some good exemplars:

DCC thermal slip: (overseas) http://loyaltylobby.com/wp-content/g...conversion.jpg
(Mainland China) http://www.hongkongcard.com/webedito...1254_76249.jpg
(Taiwan) http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t...5fd9492569.jpg
(Korea) http://www.hongkongcard.com/webedito...1152_31743.jpg (the one on the right)
DCC carbon slip: (Hong Kong) http://www.hongkongcard.com/webedito...1125_22974.jpg

DCC on express checkout: http://www.hongkongcard.com/webedito...1242_29386.jpg
DCC on prepaid rate: http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t...namsterdam.jpg

Oh can I offer this one as a relatively clear specimen?

http://www.hongkongcard.com/webedito...0135_36690.jpg

http://www.hongkongcard.com/webedito...0135_36690.jpg

But frankly, it's only one variety of many.

You might see slips like this in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thailand.
In UK, France, Italy and Korea, the choice is likely to be displayed and made in the POS or signing pad.

And in the prepaid/express checkout/car rental case, probably none at all.

I'd share mine if I hadn't shredded mine from my past trips abroad, but unfortunately my recent trip abroad was to Japan in which they don't pull the DCC scam. ^

Though probably somewhere down the line, I'll probably make a purchase on Amazon Japan which gives me a choice whether I'd like to pay in JPY or USD, so when I get around to buying something from Amazon Japan again, I'll send you a screenshot of it as well as the final dollar transaction amount from my credit card to show folks that choosing USD on Amazon Japan ain't worth it. :D

Sounds good. I might take one for the team too if I see DCC during my travels in the future just to compare rates.

Tried it in Sep 2010 http://www.hongkongcard.com/forum/fo...ow.php?id=4303 #2

Amazon's rate for USD/HKD for instance is > 8.0

"Applicable Exchange Rate is.
1 USD = 8.0572637507 HKD.
(includes all fees and charges)."


(HKD is pegged to USD, the normal exchange rate is 7.76 before fee and 7.91 after. So 8.057 represents about 3.8% fee collected by Amazon or it's payment processor)

Thanks for the examples! I've included them in the wiki.

Ah, HKG. OT, but for cash, I usually end up heading to the money exchangers at the Chung King Mansions. I know a guy there who pretty much does it at the 7.76-7.80 rate :D