I was in this category a few years ago. One of the reasons that brought me to FlyerTalk in the first place - the primary was checked luggage fees - was I was sick of being hit with 3% FTFs and $5 + 3% ATM transactions while traveling overseas. I got smart and ended up changing my card portfolio drastically. As a result I haven't paid many FTF or ATM fee in over 5 years. ^ (The only FTF fees I paid were on my AmEx Plat and Chase Marriott card for hotels, but both of these cards went 0% FTF in early 2011. I used a CapitalOne cash back card for small purchases, but now I use the Chase Sapphire Preferred for general everyday spend.) DCC has been more sneaky, and I got hit with it at the Venetian Macau (July 2011) and Frankfurt Marriott (March 2013).

I started this thread to help gain some traction around the issue. I had seen the China DCC thread, but I knew the issue was more widespread than in China, even if merchants in China are particularly egregious offenders in the DCC scam. As we both have mentioned, the biggest problem is customer ignorance of the interbank rate. A quick search online on your phone or that morning at the hotel can allow you to avoid ripoffs. I think far fewer people would accept DCC if the receipt had language noting the "surcharge" DCC often imposes. Consider the following example for a €75 purchase: "I accept the offered exchange rate of 1 EUR = 1.42528 USD for the convenience of being charged in USD. This exchange rate is 4% higher than the card issuer's rate of 1 EUR = 1.37046 USD which is a surcharge of 4.11 USD." In the rare cases where the DCC rate is lower than the Visa/MC rate, the customer could choose to accept DCC. I assume any online terminal that accepts Visa/MC has access to the Visa/MC exchange rate.