Originally Posted by
Majuki
I witnessed her friend had gotten hit with DCC on an RMB-denominated MasterCard. The DCC happened too quickly for me to intervene
AFAIK there is no such thing as a "RMB-denominated Mastercard"
http://www.paymentlawadvisor.com/201...heir-struggle/
For example, assume that a cardholder uses a CUP/Visa co-branded card, issued by a Chinese bank, in Hong Kong to purchase an item priced in Hong Kong dollars. If the payment is processed through CUP’s network, the cardholder is charged in RMB using the exchange rate on the day of purchase. If the payment is processed through Visa’s network, the cardholder is charged in US dollars, but must settle with the issuing bank in RMB. Thus, the Visa option would entail two currency conversions, while the CUP option would involve one.
Your cardholder was going to pay 1.75% fee for selecting Mastercard for HKD
http://creditcard.bankcomm.com/conte...f/120331-1.pdf
If your cardholder further selected DCC the 1.75% fee will be replaced by 4.2-4.5% DCC processor profit.
The idiotic thing was that since the cards are co-branded the cardholder can pay nil fee by selecting Unionpay directly.
If everyone was posted/converted today:
Direct charge to Unionpay: 100 HKD = 80.12 CNY
http://www.unionpayintl.com/MainServ...exchangeRateEn
Charge to Mastercard: 100 HKD = 12.90 USD
https://www.mastercard.com/global/cu...ion/index.html
Add 1.75% fee: 13.125 USD
Converted to CNY: 81.47 CNY
http://www.boc.cn/sourcedb/whpj/enindex.html
DCC accepted: 100 HKD = 13.48 USD
Converted to CNY: 84.66 CNY
The Unionpay rate isn't exactly the best, but avoiding the 1.75% Foreign Currency Conversion Fee/4.5% DCC scalp and bank foreign exchange spread is definitely worth it.
I observe HK merchants generally offer PRC customers a choice of using the overseas card association or Unionpay without commenting on the merits of either. If I'm standing behind such a customer I will try to get him to say Unionpay as quickly as possible cos it's really the best for him and for me if he stops pondering the question.