Originally Posted by
jamar
The one time I actually got taken was VAT refund after a summer trip/exchange program to Europe. I presented my ICBC card because it natively supported euros and pounds. Global Blue refunded me in US$ minus their spread. Don't know who to blame for that one, though.
You have a ICBC card whose native currency is US$??? Was it issued by ICBC USA? My 10-currency VISA ICBC is issued in China, and its native currency is CNY.
Anyway, we just proved that this ICBC 10-currency card is not effective in combating Global Blue's currency conversion system... It has the capability to find out your card's one and only native currency and sticks to it no matter what...
I do know that their currency conversion is done in-house, using horrible rates. It is very equivalent to DCC, but it's not Dynamic and you cannot override it...
If they refund in local currency and VISA/MC do the conversion, it would be much better. But of course, Global Blue is smarter than that...