i did a 3 day rental with Avis at San Jose airport. upon returning the car I got the receipt and everything was fine, until later on I realised that at the bottom was the message "I understand that I have the option to pay in USD or my home currency and I have elected to pay in my home currency".

I was never asked about this at any point in time. And of course, the rate used was ridiculous.

Upon emailing customer service, I received this

"We also apologize for the confusion regarding currency conversions. If
you use a credit or charge that is issued by a financial institution outside of the United States, the full amount of your charges will be converted to the card account's billing currency by us unless you submit a written request in advance (prior to the pickup date and time) to have the currency conversion performed by your card issuer, or, specify at the time of pickup (prior to the contract being printed).

Unfortunately, it can not be done after the contract has been printed or at time of returning the vehicle. Our conversion will be based on a conversion rate published by Reuters and will incorporate a processing charge no higher than 4% applied to all amounts relating to this transaction. This charge will replace the currency conversion processing charge applied by your card issuer."



What is most striking to me is the fact that this is automatically done. I'm quite sure the "rules" (if any) governing DCC say that the customer needs to be asked before hand.

I know there are those who say I should have checked the receipt immediately upon returning the car. Fair enough. But the above suggests that even if I objected at the point when I returned the car, it would have been too late!

I am guessing this has probably been vetted by Avis corporate lawyers and is lurking somewhere in the T&C, but still, this is really low by Avis.