Originally Posted by
nacho
A bit OP but DCC is not as easy to avoid as you wrote. I was DCCed in an outlet shop in the US - I was given NO choice in picking currency at any stage and I got this "I accepted that I'm DCCed" receipt and discovered I was robbed!
2 weeks ago in Oslo - I was shopping at COOP and used my Swedish credit card, this time I was able to pick, and I picked NOK as it's the local currency, but then the receipt said "I accepted that I picked SEK......". Fortunately it was only for some small snacks, otherwise I'll be even more annoyed. I know that there's absolutely nothing I can do as the cashier wouldn't understand what on earth DCC is.
Both purchases were made with the same master card, fortunately I didn't use my Citi Visa issued in Asia because Citi charges me 1.65% extra if I got DCCed even without the intention of doing it.
CC issuers here don't understand what DCC means and they honestly don't care.
Fortunately Marriott hasn't imposed DCC on their own GCs.
Did you tell the cashier you wanted to be billed in USD, local currency? And make sure the cashier understood your intent?
If you are waiting for the cashier handed you some device to select an option to pay, like you may have had such exp in other countries, you would be unfortunately NOT to have such chance - because most US merchants POS dont seem to have such accommodation.
Many registers have NO option to select by the customers, from what I experienced in Canada and Europe, as well as Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The selection is made by the cashier. Need to be very specific to tell the cashier that it must be billed in local currency. In Poland the cashiers do not have good English but they all understand when I tell them, in Zloty, even give them a written chit to show. Not being DCCed anywhere EXCEPT at a train station with a grumpy old lady who at first did not even want to take our CC payment, but we did not have enough Polish money with us.
I actually have never done a self-selection at the register, for as how long as DCC exists. Always stressed to the cashier to use local currency. A couple years ago in Dubai the waiter took the card and the girl at the register did DCC me. In US we can call our banks to complain. In this case I actually took the trouble to ask a rebilling from the merchant, doing it "for the team" of the DCC thread in Credit Card forum. The outcome? Far more involved and lots of time on my part, with multiple failures of Chase rep who handled this (it is handled by dispute instead of the front line). The final outcome, the overbilled amount was less than $3, and the merchant was willing to refund that when being inquired by Chase - but the Chase rep was extremely imcompetent, resulting a $40 CREDIT to resolve the issue, on a <$50 bill.
Last Spring despite we specified to be billed in Euro for our Budget rental car at Catania, Sicily - the final invoice had that dreaded DCC clause on it. I asked the counter agent to correct it - she said it was system default but she could take care of this. The reprinted final invoice no longer had the DCC clause and we saw that being billed as Euro on our Chase Sapphire Reserve.
Here in US, when anyone is being DCCed aboard, just call the bank and ask to speak to a supervisor - they all understand what have been going on - and refund the overcharge on the spot while you are on the phone. Banks eat the overcharge - cheaper for them than going back to the merchant to get it rectified. A friend was DCCed by a rental car company but I forgot it was Avis or Hertz - for about $10ish. He called Chase and the overbilled amount was refunded on the call.