I'm finally visiting a DCC-exposed jurisdiction after a long absence (largely due to too many visits to Japan last year and a big one to Argentina): Bangkok.

Due to different card promos I'm only using Visa for small spends (<$500). Big spends go to Unionpay (I know. Defeatist...)

When I use the Visa on small spends (as far as I can tell) all card terminals spit out quote slips. As a lot of it is dining (eating lunch in Bangkok is cheap...) and I proactively say "charge Thai baht" I don't get to see the quote slip a lot.

On one occasion where the waitress brought me the merchant slip (DCC declined) with the quote slip I asked to keep it. The acquirer was Siam Commercial Bank, the markup was not disclosed but I later calculated it to be 5.1%.

While the terminals a compliant there's a lot to be said about the operators. The other occasion I managed to obtain a quote slip was at a supermarket checkout (Gourmet, Terminal 21). Acquirer was Bangkok Bank. A 3.00% markup was disclosed but in reality the markup was 5.7%.

But I wouldn't have obtained it if I wasn't looking. The operator simply pressed no to DCC without asking me. When a quote slip came out she was just about to throw it away until I asked for it back.

That was one extreme. My wife got an operator doing the opposite. At a Boots outlet at BKK she didn't proactively ask for THB but the operator didn't ask and simply opted her in. Even though the terminal was under the cashier's desk the acquirer was Siam Commercial Bank again sink had no reason to doubt a quote slip was generated but the slip simply disposed of for the sake of efficiency.

The slip didn't have a lot of verbage - the only indication something was wrong was:

"THB 230.00

HKD 53.49"

But as she walked into the CX lounge an SMS was received from our bank stating what exactly was charged (53.49), and which currency (HKD). She walked back and got a voided slip.