Originally Posted by
alexmt
No, Ireland hasn't used the pound Sterling since independence, or close to it at least, the Irish pound ("punt") before the euro wasn't the same thing, at all.
Thus why I said, its proximity to the UK and its large number of American travellers must make converting from £/$ at extremely poor rates a very lucrative scam. Given the number of people with £/$-denominated cards shopping in Ireland.
Actually, that is not really quite true. The first time I visited the Repblic of Ireland was around 1972 or thereabout just after decimalization. The Irish currency, still called the pound was pegged at par with the British pound (and yes I know what I'm talking about, I'm not talking about Northern Ireland, I[m talking about Ireland like in Dublin). British coins and Irish coins were interchangeable. Sometime in the middle 70's I believe although don't hold me to that, the Irish untied their currency from the British currency and so was born the punt. That remained the currency of the Republic till the euro came along.
As far as DCC, at first it wasn't electronic. Irish merchants maintained credit card accounts with banks denominated in US dollars. They had to sets of imprinters with difference account numbers and different credit card slips. For the most part they asked and ran the charge with the appropriate slip. I'm not sure if they pulled DCC on British tourists in the Republic.
Credit card processors caught the drift but it wasn't until sometime in the 90's that today electronic system began to appear allowing merchants to perform DCC in whatever currency their processor allowed. The processor was able to have the charge enter the appropriate currency credit card system after the conversion point while paying the merchant in punts and doing the conversions. That is the norm today as I understand it.