Just to report back on some attempts to find DCC in the US, my sister-in-law used an AUD-denominated debit MasterCard from Commonwealth Bank for two transactions on Sunday. It's not a rewards earning card, and Commonwealth Bank passes on the 1% currency conversion fee applied by Visa and MC and charges a 2% FTF as a base rate. So, the best you're likely to see is a 3% fee for using the card. In the case of DCC you'd get hit by the 2% FTF + DCC markup. My sister-in-law already knew that the DCC spread wasn't worth it, but she was taken for a ride the first time she used her card in Hong Kong.

The first was at the Cheesecake Factory at Union Square in San Francisco. I thought the Cheesecake Factory would be a good candidate considering the number of tourists that like it and the fact that they might see some international card use. When we presented the form of payment, I didn't want to bias the situation, so we handed the card to the waitress without saying anything. The bill was $56.27, and the printed receipt didn't make any mention of DCC. We checked online and the pending transaction is A$72.33, which is close enough to the MC rate of 1.285182 AUD/USD from February 6th. (They haven't yet posted the February 8th rate.)

The second transaction was at West Elm in Palo Alto. We did not see DCC here either. They have non-EMV terminals with touchscreens/electronic signature pads. When she swiped her card it automatically processed as a MasterCard debit transaction with a PIN. The item amount was $38.06, and the transaction immediately posted to her account online for A$48.93. She also had a separate foreign transaction fee of A$1.47, which is 3% of the settled transaction amount.

I really want to test out Macy's, Bloomingdale's, and Nordstrom, but I hate to see her losing out on 3% every time just in the interest of continuing my DCC hunt in the US beyond airport duty free.