Originally Posted by
JEFFJAGUAR
The credit card processors argue, naturally, that it is the banks who are ripping off their customers with foreign transaction fees and that if these didn't exist, the profits involved in foreign currency transactions could be more fairly shared by the banks, the credit card processors and the merchants. In other words, they say, don't blame us. We're entitled to a piece of this action. It's the banks that are the rip off agents.
This is a valid argument, except that the exchange rates provided by the merchants are INVARIABLY worse than what the banks provide.
If a merchant provided DCC with competitive exchange rates that were disclosed up front, it would be a different story. Of course, they won't, because for every one customer who will compare exchange rates and choose a button to press, there will be ten that fall for the "convenience of being billed in your own currency" argument, and merchants will do what yields the most profit.