Another Indian case - HK$182.40 was charged. Probably like my Maldives transaction - unless you've got a good supervisor, there's no way to avoid DCC.

http://www.hongkongcard.com/forum/fo...p?id=12272&p=6 #53

http://www.hongkongcard.com/webedito...2547_56638.png

Well, I guess that's a really easy one to dispute?

I just got back from a trip to India. DCC has gone out of control. Marriott hotel insisted only DCC. Only when I threatened this s my last stay there and I would complain to Marriott USA, then the guy brought out an old terminal for processing non DCC. He told me that IDBI bank has INSISTED all transactions MUST be DCC by default. I also stayed at two Hilton hotels. Their defaultLt is DCC. but if you request no DCC prior to paying, they happily do a non DCC transaction. I recommend including India in the high risk countries because banks are now actively giving instructions for no choice to customer and there is sharing of the spoils between bank and merchants.

Not at all. Notice there is no signature field for this slip. These merchants just throw the checked box receipt and print another receipt with no check box. The fraud is done in a very clever way.


I stayed at ITC Maurya in New Delhi. They have separate signature slip and separate slip for DCC that allows them to file signature slip and a freshly printed non check box DCC after you leave. Again culprit is IDBI.

Don't think so - don't Indian merchants have to have a signed copy of the slip? Otherwise the chargeback can be more easily pursued - not properly authorised.

The cardholder of the slip in #1996 should've taken a photo of the merchant slip not the cardholder slip.

I can't understand why they act stupidly like that..

If they would (against the rules already!) use DCC as default option, but easily to opt-out, they would scam 90% of the customers without getting into trouble.

But by forcing / making it super-difficult to opt-out (while it should be opt-in!) they'll have those few % that know exactly what is happening going all-out and report their illegal practice..

That's assuming you have regulators who care.

I think someone clamped down in Taiwan around 2011/2012, so they started off non-compliant in 2011 but turned to compliant in 2012 and thereafter.

In the PRC you have the regulators probably favouring Visa getting screwed.

I don't have direct knowledge about DCC and India but it's not hard for me to believe the banks to be in cahoots with RBI and other regulators.

I agree. There needs to be something that shows cardholder intent. The cardholder has to be given a choice of payment currency. MasterCard's rules are even more in the cardholder's favor than Visa's, for instance. All you have to do is say you wanted local currency, and that's enough for a chargeback.

DCC and Marriott continues to be an increasing problem: UK, China, India, and Germany.

FWIW, I'm currently at a Starwood property in India and the front desk clerk explained that they only perform DCC if people ask (and she did know exactly what it was), and she estimated about 50% of people ask to be charged in their home currencies :confused:

They use IDBI bank and have 2 separate terminals, so I'm curious if their firmware is compliant given that when they don't want to DCC you they use a different terminal altogether.

Some folks would find it easier (more "convenient") to deal with their home currency; moreover, especially if they're traveling on business, an extra couple of bucks really isn't a concern for them - local charge (eventually) works out to $147.86 vs. a check-out USD of $150, say.

Only igorant folks want to be charged in their home currencies.

We're okay with that. Mandatory dcc is the topic at hand.

Maybe we discussed this before but would using a PIN make it harder to dispute forced DCC later? It definitely makes DCC easier to avoid if the terminal is somewhere in the vicinity of compliant.

I frequently stay at the Beijing Marriott Hotel Northeast. While they default to DCC unless you say something which I find annoying, I've not had any issues with them billing in RMB.

The poster had a confused-face icon that seemed to indicate he couldn't understand how half the clients would opt to be charged (more) in home currency. My response addressed that I thought.

Ah, got it.