Originally Posted by
RTW1
You are right.... the intend was to show that the law/guidelines allow merchants to apply a credit card surcharge, and a lot do.
But I wouldn't consider this to mean you are being scammed, you pay the charge anyway directly or indirectly. It's companies like Amex that charge rate that most consider excessive.... but hey, those points/miles have to come from somewhere.
It is the DCC I consider a scam, not the pass along of the credit card fee. However it isn't really a pass along. Some hotels charge 1.5% for visa/mc (hilton sydney for instance). There is NO way they incur a 1.5% fee from Visa/MC so this means they are gouging consumers and profiting from this (which I consider a scam).
As for DCC - the scam is not the offer - but the reps who inevitably say there is a benefit to it. I ask them to name such and they say why not know what you are being charged right now in your own currency? And for this "knowledge" I pay 4.5%? That is a scam... there is no benefit and yet, they claim there is.