I used one in India. The DCC experience is actually one of the most transparent I've seen, offering you "CONTINUE WITHOUT CONVERSION" and "CONTINUE WITH CONVERSION" options. There's another screen trying to talk you into DCC if you hit to continue without, but it's also easily bypassable.

Don't use those machines.

Or just withdraw a bit to pay the cab. Do the big withdrawals downtown.

That being said, I have used Travelex ATMs a few times and I've found it easy to opt-out. Just keep selecting without conversion. As said before, you'll get a second screen asking if you want to confirm without conversion "BECAUSE zOMG U WON'T BE ABLE TO CONTROL THE EXCHANGE RATE!!!!!!" but ignore their emotional plea and continue without conversion anyway. :o

Discovered DCC in the UAE (Abu Dhabi) for the first time now.

It was at a restaurant, luckily I was there to enter the PIN. It was compliant (asking to pay in Dirham or my own currency) and it seems all is fine after I pressed Dirham, but it's yet another country which seems to be on the list where one has to be careful. At least no DCC spotted at ATMs there yet, but I guess it's just for the time being :(

The UAE has already been documented. I imagine it's route for DCC like HK and Macau due to the large foreign card presence from expat workers, tourists, and transit visitors.

I thought expat workers would have cards denominated in AED, as they can work and live there?

Not always easy to get a local cc. Differs by country but they don't want u charging it up and leaving the country. No guarantee u will pay them back.

I was also thinking about those who prefer the rewards on their home country cards. If your card doesn't have a foreign transaction fee, it wouldn't make any different about which card you used for the transaction assuming DCC wasn't a concern.

True but I've found it a lot easier to pay CCs in the currency I'm paid in.

Even if there is no foreign transaction fee, the CC companies make a good deal on the exchange rate applied. If you get paid (and mostly spend) in currency A, but your credit card runs in currency B, you're losing out twice.

In Canada and Singapore, I could get a credit card easily (on the same terms as the locals) as soon as I got my permanent residence (not entirely sure about the UAE, as I have not lived permanently there.)
(and for Singapore, even with only a FIN, I could get a credit card with local banks, though there was a higher income threshold than for citizens/permanent residents.)
(and even for Singapore, I have seen posts on hardwarezone about people doing exactly that.)

I've been working on ways to consolidate and share basic DCC info for all countries and am ready for some feedback what I've come up with. One solution I have is a map: https://goo.gl/U4cTWb The map is powered by a Google Sheet, which is helpful in and of itself: https://goo.gl/SevCMk

Couple of questions to prompt feedback: 1) Are these tools worthwhile? Early in this thread someone commented that it's heard to generalize DCC experiences and I agree, but I still think it's worthwhile to have a summary of DCC prevalence as a reference.
Maybe I'm wrong.

2) What about the terminology/criteria I'm using? I like some but not all of it. You should be able to comment directly on the sheet.

Finally, right now the data on the sheet and map were culled from this thread (which I haven't read 100% of) or my personal experience. Going forward I created a Google Form to streamline data collection.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Hello. Thanks for providing these tools. Yes, they're definitely worthwhile, but as you've pointed out it's difficult to generalize DCC transactions as no two countries or even terminals within a country are the same. I would say any DCC situation must be approached with caution, and I would disagree with a few of the posts on the sheet. For instance, I only saw DCC in Germany at hotels in Frankfurt. In Spain I would say DCC is difficult to avoid/reverse. In Hong Kong it is omnipresent and sometimes difficult to opt-out successfully.

So, I think you're on the right track in terms of categories. I think it largely boils down to: 1) Prevalence of DCC, 2) Compliance of Visa/MC DCC policies (I don't think any country is truly this way), 3) Ability to opt-out, 4) Ability to reverse transactions/cashiers trying to 'force' DCC.

1) Extreme examples on the scale would be China vs. Japan
2) China/Hong Kong/Poland (no option given) vs. Singapore/Thailand (quote slip given)
3) China/India (some terminals are locked down) vs. Taiwan/Singapore/US/Thailand (easy to opt-out if you're in the know)
4) India/Poland/China (to the point where it feels like cashiers are on the take) vs. most other places

I have another example of forced DCC:

Went to get my tax-free refund at CPH at the Global Blue desk, which does refunds only by credit card. My refund was 17 EUR, they took my card and handed me a receipt saying I would be credited 17 EUR to my credit card.

Today, the refund shows up, but in CAD and not in EUR. (It is a 0% conversion Visa card), and the rate is a solid 7% worse than the rate I would have gotten with my card. At no point was I ever asked if I wanted my refund in EUR or CAD, Global Blue just did the conversion at their craptastic rates.

As if Global Blue wasn't making enough on their 50%+ cut of my tax refund, they also skimmed more off of my refund by using forced DCC. :mad: