Originally Posted by
VegasGambler
I haven't travelled internationally in a while so this is the first that I'm hearing of this.
I understand that a lot of time the lender would rather just refund the difference and eat it than bother with a chargeback, especially if it's a relatively small amount. I also understand that this is not particularly satisfying -- obviously no one wants to go through a lot of phone calls to get 50c back.
When there is a problem, in addition to the disputing the charge, is it possible to report the merchant directly to Visa? After all, it's Visa's rules that they are breaking, not the lender's.
Yes, it is petty to have to call up and ask for a refund or chargeback when the discrepancy is $0.25-$5.00, especially when the issuer isn't the one responsible for forcing DCC upon the customer. Those of us who care about the matter try to stop DCC at the time of the transaction to avoid having to make the call to the issuer. However, the issuer has the ability to file a incorrect currency code chargeback. If the issuer refunds a credit in lieu of a chargeback, it is the issuer's decision. This of course is a suboptimal resolution since the merchant doesn't have to deal with the paperwork of a chargeback, and the issuer is taking the loss of the DCC amount by issuing a courtesy credit.
Taking the issue up with the payment networks won't get your issue resolved if you've been hit with DCC. While the networks provide feedback forms for US merchants, there isn't a systematic way to report merchants worldwide. Even if you do report the merchant, what action will the networks take? This is no different than some merchants refusing a transaction due to not having ID (where local law doesn't supersede network policy) or merchants overseas refusing swipe-and-sign or non-PIN transactions. (This omits all of the unmanned terminals that only support offline chip-and-PIN transactions.) All of these things are in violation of published Visa/MC policy, but the payment networks do little to punish the merchants.
Some on here have even speculated that the networks approve of DCC as a way to increase merchant acceptance of credit card transactions. If the merchant and acquirer are taking a cut of some of the 4-5% markup.