I'd say it's probably not automatic, but that's just a guess. Filing a best rate guarantee claim would be like pulling teeth. They also know few people will bother to go through with it.

I'm wondering will they deny a claim saying the rate is best but the 4.x% fee is not included in the guarantee?

I doubt it, I bet they'll honour it. For the whole two people who bother to go through the process.

I'm not sure if this counts as DCC per se but I used a HSBC ATM in Puerto Vallarta that showed a screen letting me choose between "local currency" and I think USD. I forget whether it spit out multiple currencies or if it only contained pesos, which is why I'm not sure.

It depends. There are some multi-currency ATMs that use Visa or MC exchange rates. If it is trying to fix a USD/MXP exchange rate, it was DCC. If it dispensed both MXP and USD but applied the exchange rate from the payment networks then it wasn't DCC. I encountered such an ATM in the Turkish part of Nicosia that dispensed Euros, Pound Sterling, and Turkish Lira but used Visa's exchange rate. Another case was a Barclay's ATM in Gibraltar that dispensed both GBP and EUR. I haven't been to Puerto Vallarta, but don't many of the tourist places accept (our perhaps even prefer) USD?

On another note, we finally struck DCC twice in the US! While the terminals were not compliant with Visa regulations, DCC was easily avoidable. I'll post details Monday evening after I've had a chance to scan the receipts and the transactions post on my sister-in-law's account.

My wife spent hours shopping at Lotte Duty Free, paying USD.

Then she got shopping disorientation and at the Lotte Supermarket downstairs, she chose USD when given the choices without hesitation...

First DCC in 2015!

Just to clarify again, Lotte Duty Free's 'native' currency is USD even though it's in Korea?

That is why you should hold your wife's/significant other's hands when in a shopping mall;)

Lotte Duty Free's 'native' currency is USD, and items in the store are displayed in USD. Paying in USD means you avoided DCC. In this case, a Korean cardholder using a card denominated in KRW could get hit with DCC even though the purchase is happening on Korean soil! It's one of those counterintuitive cases like the resorts in the Maldives that process in USD natively, but this reminds us that we always have to be vigilant and know what the local or 'native' currencies are for each situation.

I think they do, but at a worse exchange rate (10-12 MXP for every $1) vs the current rate of ~15 to 1.

Also FYI to everyone, the ATMs in Mexico are really big into stuff like being able to donate to charities and "theft protection", which I got bit with at the airport. The HSBC ATMs were of the charity donation type and I was able to easily opt out, but the Scotiabank one at the airport was misleading.

It is a similar situation in Gibraltar. Restaurants generally accept euros as well as GIP/GBP, but the euro price is a good 3-5% over spot, similar to the DCC markup. It is, however, convenient for small purchases where one doesn't want too much pocket change in local currency. The issue with Gibraltar Pounds is that they're almost impossible to liquidate outside of Gibraltar, only slightly better than holding Macanese pataca banknotes. Fellow thread contributor percysmith was kind enough to exchange roughly US$40 of MOP for HKD at parity (at a 3% loss for him) back in October to help me out of a similar situation after a friend had given me some MOP in anticipation for a trip to Macau that never occurred.

Oh I get the confusion. Yes Mrs. zyxlsy avoided DCC in Lotte Duty Free by selecting USD. But it's KRW at the supermarket downstairs.

It's a USD denominated world on the 9F, 10F, 11F of the Lotte Department Store Building, collectively called Lotte Duty Free.

And yes, ironically, Koreans can be DCCed on their home turf on those three floors~ Paying KRW cash there also means accepting DCC or not D, but just CC...

The rest of the Lotte Department Store uses silver signing pads with DCC functionality. The signing screen shows KRW and USD when American cards are swiped.

Be aware! There is no signs on the escalators from 9F to 8F saying "you are leaving USD world, choose KRW" :D

Just came across another instance of DCC in Mexico City. Had to go to the ER tonight, and upon leaving the hospital I was settling up and the cashier asked me if I wanted to be billed in dollars after I handed over my CAD MasterCard. I declined, and asked to be billed in pesos, and she processed the transaction as requested without hassle. I did notice, once again, the POS Terminal culprit is Santander.

As I had posted earlier in the thread, my sister-in-law has been visiting for a week, and we have had the opportunity to test out DCC at some establishments. Many of us have speculated that DCC is rare in the US and can easily be avoided in cases where it does exist. I have always suspected that the choice, if offered, would appear on the electronic signature pad, and the customer would be in full control of pushing the proper currency selection. We had tried the Cheesecake Factory and West Elm a week ago, and we saw no DCC at either location. My sister-in-law then proceeded to spend down her available USD in cash since she didn't much like the way the AUD:USD exchange rate has gone in the last two years. :D

We finally struck gold at Forever 21 in San Francisco. The cashier was patient while I was scrambling to get out my phone to take the following photo (and attached receipt):

http://i.imgur.com/mNjg7Mmt.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/06XgzeDt.jpg

The screen stayed at the DCC selection until the NO button was pressed. Since the DCC offer was 3% and the card used has a 2.5% currency exchange fee, not much was saved by opting out of DCC. As more issuers convert to foreign transaction fees, this calculus will undoubtedly change.

These transaction posted using the Visa exchange rate of 1.294202 AUD/USD from 2/14:

DCC Offer: A$33.20
DCC Markup: 3.00%
Posted Amount: A$32.23
Currency Exchange Fee: A$0.81
Amount Saved: A$0.16

We then went across the street to Kate Spade, where we also encountered DCC with a similar setup. When my sister-in-law specified to the cashier to pay in USD, we got a blank stare. While I wasn't able to see the cashier's point of view, I don't think the cashier had any way to force the currency selection. Here is what we saw:

http://i.imgur.com/QhDD6Eit.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/V7bC33Yt.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/ZJR6XIqt.jpg

I was in a better position to help her decline DCC and get a subsequent photo showing the standard electronic signature pad with amount in USD. Like the receipt from Forever 21, there was no mention of DCC.

DCC Offer: A$210.25
DCC Markup: 3.333%
Posted Amount: A$204.08
Currency Exchange Fee: A$5.10
Amount Saved: A$1.07

Macy's at Union Square in San Francisco didn't present any DCC, and showed the standard screens I've seen everywhere in the US about e-mailing or printing a receipt:

http://i.imgur.com/CjOhFvpt.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/BrOHGr7t.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/sfd1u3jt.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/I6GcJrKt.jpg

Posted Amount: A$33.47
Currency Exchange Fee: A$0.84

A purchase the next evening at Panera Bread did not yield any DCC:

http://i.imgur.com/sm8WQ8Vt.jpg

One potential caveat here is that the above transaction didn't ask for a signature at all, likely owing to the < $25 amount. I should have added a pastry for $0.99 to meet the threshold required for a signature. :D

Finally, we made a purchase at a Napa winery on Monday without any hint of DCC either. There was no electronic signature pad, but the magstripe reader was integrated with the register. I was watching the touchscreen on the register like a hawk, and I saw no indication of DCC or a currency choice pop up.

In summary, we have only seen DCC in retail establishments, and it's been easy to circumvent in the two cases where it was present. Since the vast majority of big box retailers, department store, supermarkets, etc. have electronic signature pads, I assume that DCC isn't a big problem even when one encounters it in the US. More data points are needed, specifically for sit down restaurants and hotels. I think in the case of restaurants, DCC could be avoided by having the waitstaff void and rerun the transaction. Tipping culture is a good motivator here. :D

A more problematic case might be at hotels. Most hotels will swipe your card for an authorization hold and then discreetly slip the room bill under the door overnight on the day of departure. In contrast, at most hotels outside of North America there is the physical act of checking out where the reception will run your card for the full amount rather than in the background. This is good when overseas since I've been burned by DCC when using easy checkout procedures. Again, I think the customer service culture would prevail and allow for a DCC-free bill if the case arose. However, even in the case of a chargeback, you would win since Visa regulations require that you opt-in by marking accept on the written agreement.

While I recognize that I only have a sample size of two DCC cases, the markup was only 3% in both cases. Lately I've been seeing markups of at least 4% overseas and in some cases as much as 5%. If you have a card with a 2.5-3% currency exchange fee, a 3% DCC markup will more or less be a wash assuming you don't have rewards bonuses tied to foreign currency spending.