Originally Posted by Majuki (Post 24364473)

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.

Originally Posted by tmiw (Post 24366311)

Would you say that DCC's gotten more common or less common compared to a year ago? (Of course, "more common" when there was barely any DCC before is relative.)

Originally Posted by tmiw (Post 24370465)

So I received Mexican pesos via PayPal and they're giving me the following choices:

1. Accept and convert to USD (at what appears to be $0.06542 per peso vs. $0.067 according to Google)
2. Accept and have as a separate currency balance alongside my USD balance
3. Reject the money and return it to sender

I think I should choose option 2 but is that going to affect my ability to withdraw into my US bank account at all?

Originally Posted by percysmith (Post 24370566)

tmiw: There's no use for the Pesos remaining as Pesos unless you plan to pay someone via Paypal in Pesos later.

But if you might have and there's no urgency, don't do the conversion now, you can always do it later.

I have a similar balance in USD (my primary balance in HKD) - a separate Paypal account in fact - but there's plenty of payments I can make in USD.

Originally Posted by Majuki (Post 24372026)

I wonder if this is what happens when the person paying refuses DCC so that PayPal gets its cut either way?

Originally Posted by HGHUA (Post 24384535)

DCC is driving me nuts in the UAE. Didn't realize it was so pervasive here...

Originally Posted by Majuki (Post 24385242)

It's not avoidable? I thought while it was pervasive that it was more like Taiwan or Singapore. Were there any forced DCC situations?

Originally Posted by HGHUA (Post 24385369)

Well out of the three transactions I ran today with my CSP the first was forced, the second selection on paper (which we all know is a YMMV situation as to whether they punch in my choice) and the third had no DCC.

The forced one said they couldn't void a transaction so I had them give me the difference in cash. I just realized I may be able to use my Discover here at some places so I'll use that one first...