Originally Posted by
Happy
Not sure if anyone posts about DCC at ATM but here is what I discovered on a recent visit to Turkey.
Both transactions were on the Schwab card.
You would need to
use the rates on Visa's website. Was the transaction date March 6th? If so, the math works out:
1 Turkish Lira = 0.390586 United States Dollar
100 TRY = 39.06 USD
About a week later I withdrew another 100 TY at ING bank's ATM at Bodrum. The ATM said there would be $4 transaction fee and asked if I wanted to continue. Since Schwab would reimburse ATM fee I continued the transaction. This time the screen showed me it would be $39.30. At the bottom of the screen there were options whether Continue with conversion or Continue without conversion. Needless to say, i continued without conversion. That withdrawal turned out to be $38.49. Schwab did not show the $4 being charged though.
You did the right thing here. You always want to continue without conversion. I don't know how to explain the fee if it's encapsulated in the total price, but it didn't seem to be charged in this case. I have a Fidelity card that also reimburses fees, and those have always been separated from the transaction amount.
Last year I made numerous withdrawals at the ATM located at the driveway of Conrad Bali, Indonesia and there was no DCC.
Next time I would try to only withdraw from ATMs attached to a bank though it does not mean there would not be any DCC but I suspect those standing alone ATMs may be more rigged.
Transactions in Indonesia by law must be in IDR, so you don't have to worry about DCC in Indonesia. In that part of the world, Malaysia has some problems with compliant DCC implementations. Singapore and Thailand are generally very compliant.
DCC at ATMs has been talked about on this thread in the past but usually it's not a problem since the user is in control of the transaction. You will never have a cashier pressing buttons/opting in for you without your consent. Always proceed without conversion - some setups might have you confirm twice with confusing language, "Are you absolutely sure?!!! If you do this we cannot guarantee the exchange rate! Press OK to accept rate or NO to cancel." You then press OK thinking it is just a confirmation screen when in reality you're opting back in to the conversion. It's sneaky and dishonest, but it happens. In the worst case, keep declining everything. If it ends up cancelling the transaction, start over and you haven't lost anything.
Travelex ATMs are usually guilty of trying to DCC, but there are other examples as well. Usually those away from airports or other areas with lots of foreigners are safe.
If you could provide the transaction and posting dates of your two ATM withdrawals, we could see what rate was applied and compared to Visa's exchange rate calculator.