Originally Posted by
STS-134
I stayed at a hotel in Beijing last month (I won't name which because I've been in discussion with the hotel manager about the incident and he's been very receptive to my comments). Got hit with DCC when the person who was checking me out hit the USD button without asking me. Fortunately I was vigilant, and when I saw the charge come up in USD on the receipt, I made the person behind the counter reverse the charge and do it properly in RMB.
I emailed the hotel manager with several complaints about the hotel (one of which was using DCC) and he said that the hotel doesn't control the exchange rates; the Bank of China does. I suggested that they simply stop offering DCC, since the 4.1% rate they were going to charge me was much greater than the FTF charged by the worst offending banks (which charge 3%). My card happens to charge 0%.
Why would a merchant do this by default? Do they get some sort of kickback from the bank if they let the bank rip off the customer?
If you read the brochures credit card processors send to merchants enticing them to sign up, the answer to your last question is a resounding YES. Also note that when a bank has a foreign transaction fee, one gets hit with the 3% even if the charge is DCC'd so it would really be 7%.
Now sometimes, remember, there is a 16 year old kid (not so much in a hotel of course) working behind the counter and their training is such that since the vast majority of people think it's wonderful they are being billed in a currency they are familiar with or buy into it's a good exchange rate (one of the lies is that it's a good exchange rate but what they do is compare the rate not with the interbank rate but the rate posted in the bank windows for cash exchange which is usually about 10% above the interbank rate anyway). Yada yada yada. That is why I never take out my frustration on the clerk but after the clerk gives one of the lies, politely ask to see the manager. Now I don't know the situation say in China but when I ran int my problem in Ireland, the manager was the same age as the clerk but given the title manager and refused to change it saying there was noo rule in Ireland that I had to consent to be scammed. So I carried out the procedure of writing dcc declined, crossing out the USD amount and circling the euro amount. The manager asked me why I was doing that. I said because I'm going to dispute the charge when I get home as you're breaking your contract with in this case visa. As it turned out, doggone it, my bank simply refunded the 54¢ difference instead of charging it back to teach those clowns a lesson.
The reality is most people you deal with on the retail level have no idea about what's going on with this. That is the reason people in the know must continue to fight this scam because it is spreading like wildfire throughout the travelling world!