Originally Posted by Kremmen

In Australia, it's hard to say for sure. How can that be? Some banks put FTF into their T&C years before actually implementing it and even then implement it with exceptions!

I doubt DCC is even the biggest reason for those banks. For years, the amount of online international shopping has been skyrocketing, but now quite a lot of international merchants are capable of charging in AUD. If your widget costs $10 on ebay from China and $50 in a local shop, the 3% FTF on the $10 transaction isn't going to affect your purchase choice, so there's a captive market for the banks to tap by charging a foreign transaction fee regardless of currency.

It really becomes a mess because there are also local companies (esp. online ones, such as ebay itself) that do their card processing in another country. This leaves customers paying an Australian company with an Australian card and getting hit with a FTF that they had no way to know about. ANZ Bank has a small list of merchants which their overseas transaction fee doesn't apply to, such as cruise lines and Tiger Airways (which processes all its payments in Singapore, even for its Australian subsidiary), but hits customers of many other businesses with the fee.