Originally Posted by
Happy
USD went down A Lot by the time rental happened. We were billed the EXACT amount of USD shown on reservation, resulted to $30+ cheaper bill than if it was billed in Euro then converted to USD on market rate by the bank.
These are corner cases which are generally not predictable or repeatable. In the typical case, one is worse off with DCC than without, barring a material decline in the home currency price between the time of the transaction and the time the charge posts.
Originally Posted by
Happy
Merchants could not care less. It is only making you feel good by doing the Code 76 dispute, or wishfully thinking that enough people pursuit such route would make merchants change their behaviors. Dream on. In all reality it just creates more work to the banks which absorb the difference almost all the times. I dont think Chase ever charges back to the restaurant in Dubai, but simply paid me $40 for a $2.70 difference had the charge being rebilled. It costs Chase, not the merchant who just contested the dispute and Chase gave up because it is totally NOT cost-effective for the bank to pursuit.
There have been examples cited here of merchants (mostly restaurants) changing their behavior based on DCC complaints, formal chargebacks or otherwise. Chargebacks do cost the merchant time and money, and merchants have an incentive to avoid them. In your case, Chase most certainly did pursue a chargeback (unclear from the information they provided you if it was Reason Code 76) with the restaurant since they contested the chargeback. For small amounts, Chase might issue a goodwill credit. That's their choice. However, the card acceptance guidelines are there for a reason, and the merchants and issuers have to follow the payment network rules, which includes a Reason Code 76 chargeback in the case of Visa.
I'll be the first to admit that it's a dispute on principle most of the time, and that was the reason I started this thread over four years ago. However, I would argue that it's also the FlyerTalk way. People howl when they are shortchanged 500 miles. Why not $5? To think about DCC another way, if you paid €100 cash on a restaurant bill that was €95 and you received no change, what would you do? Would you demand your change or accept the loss? The only reason why DCC is so pervasive is largely out of customer ignorance that they're effectively getting shortchanged.