Originally Posted by
itsme
How should it work when one expects to pay a sum in USD (the reservation confirmation stated the amount in USD and that sum appeared on the front of the contract itself)?
If the merchant (rental location) is located outside of the US, then that is not, generally, possible.
Originally Posted by
itsme
Does the merchant have an option of whether to enter the sum in the local currency
Yes, absolutely (though some merchants will claim that they can't or don't know how to do that).
Originally Posted by
itsme
or in USD as originally quoted?
In most cases, no -- see above.
Originally Posted by
itsme
And if the charge is to be entered in the local currently though originally quoted in USD, they are free to set the exchange rate themselves?!
Yes, if you have agreed to them doing the conversion, and it sounds like that's exactly what you did:
Originally Posted by
itsme
because of the more than dozen places you have initialed to indicate accept/decline various options, one shows a fixed exchange rate printed there.