Originally Posted by
upnorth
I think DCC is aggressively pushed in Asia because of more profits. It has now spread to ATM's too. Last year when I was withdrawing cash at Delhi airport I got a message we are giving you the best conversion rate using DCC, with a button to continue or "cancel". It makes one think, cancel means cancel the transaction. When I hit cancel, it continued the transaction without DCC. I am pretty sure 95% of travelers at 1.30 AM, after 17 hours of flight time and more just want to get to their hotel and hit the sack. I expect that until regulators clamp down on this, this will proliferate.
I think DCC is aggressively pushed in a lot of places because it can lead to more profits. We already talked about on here that we think it's largely the acquirer that pushes DCC to the merchant because it's the merchant who absorbs the headaches of a chargeback should the customer feel cheated. Most of the time the customer falls into the DCC trap and doesn't even realize it. However, for the cases where the customer files a chargeback for DCC, the merchant is the one resolving it. With this current arrangement, the acquirer can peddle DCC without any advertised downside to the merchant. The acquirer always wins, and the merchant comes out ahead enough of the time such that DCC continues to be offered.
Issuers lose out if they have a currency exchange fee, which is why many have responded by switching to foreign transaction fees. Some believe that Visa and MasterCard look the other way even with flagrant violations of published rules about how a DCC transaction must occur since offering DCC might compel merchants to accept Visa and MC.