At the moment, DCC over contactless is not allowed.

I always insist on a charge slip. If I get pushback (I never have) I insist it's required for reimbursement purposes. The same goes for some fast food restaurants in the US. The credit card terminal is sometimes separate from the cash register, so the cashier can enter the incorrect amount on the terminal. This has happened to me twice. I got burned the first time, but the second time the cashier tried to pass off the thermal receipt from the register, and I found out it was because he had ended up charging me $10 extra due to a typo. This has always occurred at a drive thru where I can't get a good view of the credit card terminal.

In this hotel case, I am not sure I can give the hotel the benefit of the doubt.

Wish I'd read this thread before.

Booked an apartment in France for €103.00. No mention of conversion or DCC on the booking screen. First I saw any conversion was the email confirmation which was in GBP. I even have screenshots of all the forms filled in, right up to the last screen which shows the amount in EUR. It appears if you use a coupon code, the currency conversion section doesn't appear on the website.

About 3% worse than MasterCard's rate. I'm not going to dispute this with my card issuer until after the stay has completed as I don't want the booking to be cancelled.

AirBnb offered a £10 voucher. But this can't be used with their referral scheme, so is unlikely I'll actually use it. And it seems unlikely I will need to book an apartment anytime soon.

Currently in Germany. I get a chuckle every time an Euronet ATM offers me a USD converted amount. Today, they offer an effective rate of 1.235 USD per EUR. Declined it and Capital One 360 charged me a rate of $1.087175 USD per EUR. Wow! Euronet is effectively charging a 13% transaction fee if you accept their offer.

Yup that's more or less today's interbank rate...the amount on the ATM is a month out of date (just shows how far the euro has fallen or the USD has strengthened). But here's the bigger question (out of topic to a degree). Can parity between the euro and USD be far away?

Well, analysts say that by the end of current year it's probably around 1 USD = 2 EUR, thus the 1=1 should happen very soon and then slipping even furhter.
Quite depending on the ECB actions and what Germans&French decide.

It might happen that next Christmas shopping would be cheaper to be made in Europe than in the US.

Quotes please? Which analysts?

It is already cheaper in Europe. Last time I was in the US 1 euro was 1.3 USD and prices were more or less similar. Of course I am comparing Paris to New York City prices and small town Slovakia to small town Alabama prices.

Transaction posted:

http://i.imgur.com/x4nw0DD.png

Looks like PayPal used the correct currency after all, but according to MC's currency tool:

March 5th: 1 GBP = 1.526601 USD
March 6th: 1 GBP = 1.523299 USD
March 9th: 1 GBP = 1.511999 USD
DC's currency rate = 1.523571 USD

I'm guessing they used the 6th's rate + a markup. Not sure if an extra $0.000572 is worth complaining about since PayPal wanted to charge me $1.562548 per GBP.

The exchange rate that MasterCard uses varies during the day, going up and down at various points. The website only shows a rate from one point in the day. It is entirely possible to make transactions within minutes of each other, which post on the same date but have different rates.

Back in January, I made three ATM withdrawals in Morocco on my GBP card within three hours using the same ATM. They all posted on the same date with rates of 0.0712, 0.0704 and 0.0701 respectively.

I've turned off the DCC function in paypal, took a while to find it hehe.

My authorized user got DCCed at She & He Hotel in Guangzhou, China (he didn't notice as it was his first time). The DCC rip off rate was 1 USD : 6.02 CNY when the mastercard published rate was 1 USD : 6.2585 CNY on that day. Thanks for this thread-- I lectured him on what to do if it happens again in the future.

This may be a little OT, but I have a question about how much card associations collect Foreign Transaction Fee.

Up to this point, my understanding has been that of a Washington Post's article in July 2005:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2900927_2.html

Hong Kong banks have started to add FTFs for HKD transactions. Previously I reported how Citi HK charged 0.4% FTF claiming AE charged it but AE HK denied this.

Recently we got the following claims for Visa:

Bank of East Asia http://www.hongkongcard.com/webedito...2002_25906.jpg

"Effective from 30th June, 2015
0.8% per transaction for Hong Kong dollar transactions made outside of Hong Kong or with any merchant not registered in Hong Kong (e.g. internet transaction). This fee is charged by Visa/Mastercard"

Bank of China (Hong Kong) http://www.boci.com.hk/pdf/eng/spec/...201501_eng.pdf

"All VISA card transaction in Hong Kong Dollars incurred outside Hong Kong will be imposed a reimbursement charge of 0.8% on the transaction amount (the charge is levied by VISA) which will be debited to the card account."

Fubon Bank (Hong Kong) http://www.fubonbank.com.hk/web/doc/...ce150305_e.pdf

"Surcharge on Cross Border Transactions in Hong Kong Dollars - including transactions made outside Hong Kong or with any merchant not registered in Hong Kong (e.g. internet transaction)

A 1% mark-up on the converted transaction amount in Hong Kong Dollars (inclusive of the 0.8%/1% surcharge charged by VISA/MasterCard respectively"



I'm curious - does Visa really charge 0.8%? Or is Bank of East Asia/Bank of China/Fubon making this up just because they can pass Mastercard's fee for Visa's.

Also in Fubon's case has Mastercard increased its fee to 1%?

I have a UNFCU chip and pin credit card. It is a Visa card. The card benefits claim it does not add any additional FTF over what Visa charges. It thus charges 1% FTF for foreign non USD transactions and 0.8% FTF for foreign USD transactions - e.g., a USD charge in Panama, where USD is used alongside Balboa currency.

A variation that I've not seen reported before:

My online statement (for a Visa card issued in the US) shows an entry for a UK transaction from last weekend. Alarm bells went off as soon as I saw the merchant name showing as "BLAH BLAH HOTEL DCC", but when I checked the amounts it became clear that the exchange rate applied was in fact the standard Visa rate for the day the transaction was processed. So I wasn't ripped off on this occasion.

I've no idea how widespread this is -- it's the first time I've encountered it (or heard of it).

Where in PayPal can you turn off DCC?