Originally Posted by
kebosabi
Now consider this the other way around.
You are a Starbucks employee in Manhattan. A Japanese tourist asks for a latte and whips out his/her Mizuho Financial/ANA VISA card issued in Japan. You get the card and swipe it like any other card. The swipe process realizes it's a Japan issued card and for "convenience" the bank has defaulted non-US issued cards to be charged in their home currency. So the receipt defaults to JPY and spills out a receipt for her to sign. He/she then asks for it to be re-processed again in USD instead of the default JPY DCC option.
What's the likely outcome?
Blank stares from the clerk who is just following the screen prompts and have no idea what to do because all he did is swipe the card just like any other credit card and long lines of agitated customers thinking "oh for crying out loud, nobody f--ing cares about your problems about few dollars and cents more, DCC or whatever brainy-a$$ technical mumbo jumbo, would you hurry up and get going and stop bothering the others in the line, or if you have problem just pay cash! Sheesh!"
To the best of my knowledge what will happen after the card is swiped is the terminal will ask the clerk if the customer in this case wishes to pay in JPY and lists the amount. The clerk is then given two buttom to press (yes customer accepts no customer declines). It doesn't automatically default to dcc.....it is the clerk who presses one button or the other to complete the transaction. Now many merchants tell their clerks not to ask; to simply press the button accepts and in 99% of the cases, the customers either don't notice they have been ripped off or actually think the merchant is performing a service for them.
I ran into this situation a year and a half ago in Dublin. Only in retrospect did I realize what happened. I was in a Burger King in Dublin . The cashier swiped my card and a slip came out immediately. She didn't glance at it. I am sure this slip indcated the USD amount. Instead she completed the transaction. I noted it was a dcc slip and immediately told her I didn't give permission to convert the currency and that she should void it and re-do it properly in euro. She looked at me (I think she was Roumainian or something a common problem I have both in the UK and Ireland) and the manager, also not somebody completely conversant in English, came by and said that in Ireland the visa regulations don't apply regarding customer choice. I followed my usual procedure. I crossed out the USD amount, circled the euro amount and wrote choice not offered and initialed. She asked why I had done that. I said because I intend to have this charged back to you unless you do it properly. After making a face.....she finally consented to void the original transaction and do it properly in euro. The difference on a charge of 7 or 8 euro was about 36 cents US. Of course most people will say what's the big deal. To me, it's the principle of the matter.
DCC is evil and unfortunately it is like a cancer and has been metastasizing through much of the rraveling world. It is something to be aware of and not accept.
In addition, there is a new variation on this scam followed by many hotels, even of supposedly reputable chains such as Marriot. On the check in card, within all the fine print, there is something to the effect that you accept that you will be charged in your currency. On check out, when the receipt comes up with a dcc transaction and you complain, they pull out the check in slip and say you already agreed and it is too late to change it. The same seems to be true with Avis.
Watch out for stuff like this and always read whatever you sign and if you see them trying to pull dcc, cross out the acceptance.