AirAsia DCC(?) Charges Posted
 

Aaaand...it's finally posted.http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...0600241bb4.png

Showing a Singapore-based merchant but absolutely no currency conversion information at all. And at the same USD rate as listed in my previous messages.

To reiterate, I *did* agree to pay this amount in USD; only, however, after my card in Indonesia rupiah had been denied twice.

I did NOT, however, book through a different country-specific site or with a different merchant; on the final page I just changed the currency from IDR to USD after the IDR charges were denied.

Citibank claims that they were *not* the ones blocking the charge; they didn't even see the authorization request come in on their side.

And yet AirAsia shows that I was charged in IDR, and my receipt is in IDR, at an amount close to USD 20 higher, when converted back to IDR.

Since they're claiming to have been paid in IDR, does this mean it was a case of DCC and should I fight it?

I think it's akin to global blue forcing us to take refunds in our card currencies at 5% surcharge - either take it or leave it.

The worst Citibank can do is deny your chargeback claim. Tell them the receipt denominated in IDR and claim you weren't informed that the conversion would be happening and at what rate. You can mention you would like to file a reason code 4846 chargeback. You can read about it here. I think the key phrase is:

A valid chargeback in MasterCard's opinion is simply you stating in writing that you were not given the opportunity to choose the desired currency in which the transaction was completed or did not agree to the currency of transaction. It's clear from what happened here that you made a good faith effort to try to get the transaction to process in IDR but the website wasn't allowing you to complete the transaction. This is similar to where a merchant chooses for you and you get handed a receipt in your card's, not local, currency.

So I checked out today from a Hilton hotel in New Delhi. I told the checkout person, I only wanted to pay in India Rupee. I used my Sams chip and pin card. The card never asked for my pin. I signed it.
The point here however is about DCC. He said if I use this terminal when it shows the cash amount, a green will allow the USD transaction. The yellow leads to USD transaction. He also showed me a smaller POS, which he said only spits out USD, no choice. sorry, I did not take down the name of the device.

India seems to be almost as bad as mainland China with respect to DCC.

I've seen the POS integrated with the hotel's systems, and sometimes the currency selection has to be made on that. If the terminal was completely standalone where the cashier entered the amount then I'd be surprised if there wasn't a selection possible unless it's like the locked down Chinese terminals. After you entered the PIN it didn't come up as "USD blahblahblah OK?" There wasn't any indication that the transaction would be in USD?

There is only one reason why I don't mind chip-and-signature, and this is it. In the worst case you can completely deface the receipt to assist with a chargeback.

Interestingly I've just discovered one of my UK cards doesn't support Dynamic currency conversion on chip transactions because they've not put the cards home currency/country on the chip, so a terminal doesn't know where the card was issued. I've seen one or two transactions in Asia, where it says "checking DCC amt and then nothing happens and the transaction continues in the countries currency. (Obviously on swipe transactions it would be done by the BIN, so DCC would still work).

I wonder if this could be a way issuers could prevent DCC from happening overseas. :D

It seems that to do that would be in violation of antitrust regulations. Remember, DCC doesn't exist because Visa and Mastercard want it. DCC exists because "consumer" (i.e. merchant) advocacy groups demand it.

Wow, this is some news (I think so at least) - could it be a way to run around DCC, if some European/North American bank would agree to the fact that DCC is a scam, and put their cards into such mode? I guess if enough people are pissed off by DCC, offering such service could get them a lot of business?

Haha. To be honest, I doubt its intentional, Lloyds don't put the currency code or even the language on their Amex cards as well as their MasterCards. I know this because when I go abroad, the terminal often asks me the language, whereas with other Amex cards the transaction just shows up in English.

I don't know if it would legally questionable for banks for consumers to be able to opt out of DCC though.

I feel like this is getting worse and worse. Usually HK and Taiwan is not too bad about DCC but I've noticed almost every credit card slip I used had DCC. Even if the cashier specifically said they are charging in local currency, I still see the DCC amount on my online activity. I've been putting in several disputes a month for small amounts for DCC, and I'm sure the CC companies are getting annoyed as well as I think they still have to review each case manually.

Has this occurred in Taiwan? Taiwan has at least in my experience for the last 4 years or so been almost completely compliant in respecting cardholder choice. Hong Kong is largely compliant, but there are examples where DCC slips past even with explicitly signing and checking the box on a carbon copy piece of paper. However, yes, I do feel as though I see DCC in more places now, but perhaps I've simply become more aware of the scam. I got hit multiple times in Spain in 2006, which was my first time abroad on my own. I didn't even know it had happened. However, two things were different back then. First, the issuer would charge a foreign exchange fee of 3% (before I had 0% FTF cards) only if the charge was in local currency; DCC presented in USD and prevented the 3% charge. Second, the DCC markup was about 3% (perhaps even .05-.2% less) at the time, so it wasn't egregious like the 5% markups we see today.

The pending amount will typically show in DCC for the transaction regardless of the selection, but the posted amount will reflect if DCC has actually been charged. Who is your card issuer and what type is it (Visa or MC)? Has the issuer been good about getting cases of DCC charged in local currency?

Just experienced a case of forced DCC in the Cayman Islands; a rum cake shop outside of the cruise port where swiping a USD card immediately makes the terminal display:

"Account 4123...
U$ Amt?"

There is no way to charge the card in Cayman dollars; pressing 1 to start the sale says "Swipe or Insert" and as soon as a USD card is swiped it goes to U$; same if a USD card is inserted. The staff seemed to know about the scam and, to their credit, were willing to try several different things to avoid DCC but the terminal automatically selected USD anytime it figured out the card was USD. One of the clerks swiped their Cayman issued card, which shows up as "CI$ Amt?".

I didn't actually make a purchase since they couldn't figure out how to do it without DCC, so I don't have a photo of the receipt. I ended up getting rum cakes elsewhere instead.

Did you try saying "no" at that point? I've seen that prompting in Ireland. No is the correct answer.

The cancel button appeared to just end the transaction. It was expecting an amount to be typed in and the soft buttons didn't do anything.