The original charge - the lack of USD refund (void charge) sounds like my experiences at Gallaries Lafayette (Montparnesse too) and Harrods Knightsbridge.

Surprised the clerk can key in your card but probably cos its a hotel she took your payment as if it's a phone booking - many other merchants won't be able to do that.

I won't bother complaining to Accor - just like writing to /dev/null or Zhongnanhai.
I'd chargeback them to get even - both the original rort charge and the improperly-handled refund. i will make it very clear to the bank that I'm not seeking a handout from them, but paperwork grief from Accor.

We went to coyote in wanchai again last night. Their staff is every bit as clueless about dcc as they were last year.

Yeah, I called Capital One & they did a "courtesy" refund of the difference, so I should now be square as far as the DCC refund goes, but I would have rather had the hotel take the hit instead. I agree that trying to bring this issue up to Accor will only bring up a deer-in-the-headlights response or a staged language barrier issue. At least now I know to preemptively tell Accor/Novotel-branded hotel clerks to charge in Euros only, as I have heard this is an ongoing problem with this hotel brand.

P.S. I have purchased from Harrods' Gatwick & Heathrow airport stores & they always gave me a choice to pay in USD or GBP (I always paid in GBP). I don't think I've ever bought anything from their Knightsbridge store though.

Actually you can key the card number in on an emv terminal like you can on any us terminal. You just type it in when it says insert, swipe or tap card. It's just some merchants will refuse to key the card. I've had to do it once or twice when a card wouldn't swipe and then do a manual imprint (apart from Amex where the 4 digit code is good enough to prevent chargeback).

Purely and simply, she is a liar. Period. At some point in the transaction, she was asked whether you wished to pay in euro or in US dollars and to press the appropriate button. Also, every charge has to have provision to be voided....not credited. I don't care what they say. They are liars almost crooks when they say that (although perhaps they are simply students trying to pick up an extra euro or two). Every terminal has to have provision to void a transaction as honest mistakes do sometimes occur (you know entering 532 euro instead of 5.32 euro, the finger accidentally (note no quotation marks) off the decimal point as the amount was entered. Of course, many pos terminals print the amount off the cash register and the clerk does not enter the amount yada yada yada. There is no way in the world the clerk couldn't have voided the transaction.

Surprisingly this was the only place in France I got DCC'd. All the restaurants and tourist/souvenir shops charged me in EUR without any prompting. Spain is another matter, though. The merchants & hotels are very sketchy with the DCC & pretend it's automatic, while playing dumb when you try to get if fixed.

I watched very closely last June when checking out of my hotel in Barcelona before a cruise. I got the bill. I handed over my credit card. It was inserted in the pos (it was a c&s B of A rewards card with no ftf). The first thing that happened is a slip came out of the terminal. I am 100% sure that slip had the amount in USD. But I had said right from the start I want to be billed in euro and indeed I was. About 2 years ago, in a story I related, I ran into a problem at a Burger King in Ireland and finally had to submit when the manager, some student from some Eastern European country gave me the bs answer that she doesn't need permission to convert the currency in Ireland. No sense carrying on. I did the circling the euro amount and wrote local currency not offered and had to fight it through the bank (no they didn't charge it back as I wished they would have, they credited me for the 48¢ difference, too bad). In any event, while I didn't realize it at the time, a slip came out of the pos just after the card was swiped (no emv at that time). That first slip seems to be one way the processor initiates a transaction they hope will be a decc ripping off the consumer.

But as I said, the one thing I will not do is pay cash to avoid dcc. If they don't want to do the right thing, I will fight these crooks through my bank.

But then again I will probably take any handouts from the issuer bank, even though I will prefer they played out the full chargeback more. At least if they have to do enough handouts they may do something about the DCC processors.

Ireland seems to be one of the countries with the most horror stories regarding American credit cards, DCC, etc. Presumably, this is because of their proximity to the UK along with large numbers of American tourists making DCC from £/$ extremely lucrative.

Errr alexmt Ireland is in the Eurozone but UK still has the pound sterling?

I thought it was more to do with investment-friendly policies and lax regulations.

Indeed Ireland was the birthplace of this scam. However, I have found that for the most part in Ireland these days, they ask before doing it. But at least in Ireland, there is not all that much of a language probleml It's when it happens in Spain or in Italy where suddenly one of the lies thrown out when merchants are questioned is, "No speak English."

then people from UK would be having the most problems, right? it's like a ferry away, using CC means paying 3% more.

Probably worse for people who live in Northern Ireland, who will often cross the border.

No, Ireland hasn't used the pound Sterling since independence, or close to it at least, the Irish pound ("punt") before the euro wasn't the same thing, at all.

Thus why I said, its proximity to the UK and its large number of American travellers must make converting from £/$ at extremely poor rates a very lucrative scam. Given the number of people with £/$-denominated cards shopping in Ireland.

Actually, that is not really quite true. The first time I visited the Repblic of Ireland was around 1972 or thereabout just after decimalization. The Irish currency, still called the pound was pegged at par with the British pound (and yes I know what I'm talking about, I'm not talking about Northern Ireland, I[m talking about Ireland like in Dublin). British coins and Irish coins were interchangeable. Sometime in the middle 70's I believe although don't hold me to that, the Irish untied their currency from the British currency and so was born the punt. That remained the currency of the Republic till the euro came along.

As far as DCC, at first it wasn't electronic. Irish merchants maintained credit card accounts with banks denominated in US dollars. They had to sets of imprinters with difference account numbers and different credit card slips. For the most part they asked and ran the charge with the appropriate slip. I'm not sure if they pulled DCC on British tourists in the Republic.

Credit card processors caught the drift but it wasn't until sometime in the 90's that today electronic system began to appear allowing merchants to perform DCC in whatever currency their processor allowed. The processor was able to have the charge enter the appropriate currency credit card system after the conversion point while paying the merchant in punts and doing the conversions. That is the norm today as I understand it.