Originally Posted by
Majuki
It's rare, but it is possible. For instance, when the Swiss Franc appreciated rapidly recently, choosing DCC to lock in the exchange rate would have saved money had the customer selected DCC right before the appreciation. One of the "advantages" of DCC is that the customer can lock in the exchange rate. Even if the DCC rate is 3-5%, if the local currency appreciates more than this between the transaction date and the posting date, then the customer will have come out ahead by choosing DCC. In practice, this is unlikely to happen between two currencies in developed countries with stable currencies.
I have yet to see a case with my transactions where DCC was offered where I would have come out ahead by selecting DCC.
I am afraid the point I am trying to make across is totally lost due to the very strange situation.
The fact remains, the rate was quoted in Euro (or any currency the customer chose on the Vehicle Selection screen), the final confirmation once customer selected the vehicle, defaults to the currency of customer's residence. In this case, the USD. It seems to be a conversion based on the market rate at the time you submit the Select. Because I immediately went to XC site to check the exchange rate and found only 0.01% difference using the mean rate.
The even more puzzling thing is, there is NO chance for me to select anything, other than make sure the box of DCC in the Avis Preferred is UNCHECKED (Avis defaulted it to checked, but gave very clear disclosure about adding 3%). At return, the usual clause of conversion to USD that normally would be there as a disclosure, was not on the invoice which was in Euro.
And then it showed up on my CC in USD. Not only that, it is the IDENTICAL amount as the reservation confirmation.
So if there is any DCC ever done, it was at the time of reservation, AND more importantly, NO additional % added. Card used is 0% FOREX anyway.
People often gripe about Avis being the worst among all rental car companies in that they automatically DCC you on foreign rental. In this particular incidence, the DCC if it is ever done, is NOT the traditional way as we know it, NOR it has the rip-off 3% added.
I do believe the billing practice varies by country - as in both South Africa and Turkey, they were billed in local currency. But then the card used was an AMEX Plat, so by nature, there would not be any DCC.
The reservation of the South Africa rental was in USD on confirmation, the Quote in ZAR never matches what the rental agreement showed but closed enough that I did not bother to ask for itemized breakdown.
The reservation of the Turkey rental was also in USD on confirmation but that was tossed out because at pick up the system jacked up the final cost A LOT. Luckily we had a very honest agent who said, "You have a reservation with a confirmed price, we need to honor that." Then he proceeded to search the system to eventually find us a rate that was slightly less than the original booking, using Turkish airlines special. For that we were very grateful especially comparing the rogue agent of the same station the night before.
Both the above were billed in local currencies at the time. I haven't bothered to check what exchange rates AMEX used - which I am sure is not the best rates but trivial enough that do not warrant more work.
Just a strange situation that I thought might be worthwhile to inform the community as I am sure some of you might use an Avis when you travel internationally.