TL;DR: Hertz charged me a very poor exchange rate (5% over market rate) instead of charging me in my local currency. By email they are telling me my bank set the rate; my bank says they made the conversion before submitting the charge. Now Hertz doesn't write back. What do I do?
Details:
I live in the USA and have an American credit card with no forex fees (CSR). I rented a car in Berlin and returned it after hours (dropped the key in the box) without incident.
A few days later (on September 5th) I received a charge on my CC for approximately the correct amount and I looked up my bill on hertz.com. It shows that Hertz converted the Euros charge to USD:
GESAMTBETRAG 107.47 EUR
WECHSELKURS (Inkl.Umrechnungstarif) 1.244877
KARTENTRANSAKTIONSBETRAG 133.79 USD
Mir wurde angeboten, die Rechnung in verschiedenen
Waehrungen zu zahlen, und ich habe mich fuer die
Waehrung meiner Karte entschieden.
1.244 is a really, really poor rate (the market rate on that day was about 1.19, so this is like a 5% markup on the currency conversion). I was quoted Euros when I made my reservation through kayak.com, I was quoted Euros at the counter, and I'd like to pay Euros.
I wrote to Hertz to complain, and asked that either they charge me a market conversion rate, or better yet just charge me in Euros and let my bank do the conversion. I got a letter back stating:
Exchange rates on charges incurred outside the United States are determined by your credit card company, not by Hertz. They convert the rental charges in the foreign currency to U.S. dollars when the item is processed for billing. Any questions concerning the exchange rate used should be directed to the credit card company used for this rental.
I wrote back and said that in this case that was not true, that it looked like in this case Hertz had charged me in USD. It even states the exchange rate and USD amount on my bill. The rep who had written the email called me and explained over the phone that that 1.244 charge was set by my bank.
I wrote Chase and got this back:
The transaction
receipt copy submitted by this German merchant's bank to
Chase was in U.S. Dollars (not Euros). In other words, no
foreign currency conversion took place for your $133.79
transaction dated September 5. Let me clarify that Visa
will process currency conversion only if the transaction
receipt copy submitted by the merchant's bank to Chase is
in foreign currency (not U.S. Dollars).
I sent this to Hertz but they do not reply. I'm 99.9% certain that Hertz converted the transaction without asking me at a highly inflated rate, and is too incompetent to understand their own procedures.
(1) What's my next move? Try to escalate to a different office? (How?). Call the Hertz location counter? Dispute the charge through Chase?
(2) How do I avoid this in the future? Was I supposed to specify something to the counter rep before renting the car? I just assumed since we were in Europe and the contract I was handed was in Euros, I would be charged in Euros, never though to ask about an exchange rate.