The issuer of the visa card is US Bank, based in Minneapolis and is a corporate card. IDBI is the culprit bank in India. It has taken the old terminals and provided new ones, which force all transactions through DCC. Today I made a $150 transaction at a pharmacy. They had a small hand held terminal. The receipt came out with no DCC. The small shop keeper was puzzled I was not asked for a pin. I think in India DCC is mainly done by luxury hotels, not in smaller restaurants etc.

Yeah, I'd agree with this, when I visited the only place that tried to DCC me was a super-high end hotel's restaurant. They just brought out a USD slip and I had to be relatively forceful to get them to cancel DCC and rerun it.

I stayed at a Starwood property while over there and despite warnings of DCC, they didn't even bring it up. My card was charged in rupees and the merchant didn't appear to have to hit/do anything special for that to happen.

I hypothesised this occurred in China too, even though I have no direct proof:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/china...l#post15709296
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/china...l#post16248026

Were you using the SPG AmEx or another card?

I had it happen at a hotel in Dublin. No issues elsewhere on my Dublin/London travels.

A MasterCard (the Arrival+), and the time after that the BOA Travel Rewards Visa. I know Amex can't be DCCed.

:eek::eek::eek:

I wanted to make sure. In other contexts, Starwood hotels have been just as bad as other hotel brands with DCC. The Sheraton at FRA and percysmith's encounters at the St. Regis Shenzhen both come to mind.

I stayed several days at a Hilton hotel in Jaipur, India, no DCC. I think DCC in India is more common larger cities. Marriott seems to do it more using IDBI bank. Hilton Jaipur used an HDFC bank terminal. At Bombay Hilton, I took a photo of the signed DCC decline check box. I told him, if your bank sends the charge in USD you can expect a terse comment warning travelers on Trip Advisor. I saw no evidence of DCC at Bombay and Jaipur bank terminals. I did see DCC at ATM's in Delhi and Bangalore in the past. I will be traveling to Singapore/Bali in March. Will be interesting to see if there is DCC in Indonesia which is where I will be bulk of the time on vacation.

Singapore has DCC but is compliant. Indonesia will price in local currency by law, so little danger of DCC at merchants. I remember reading about hotels pricing in USD when booking online, but this isn't DCC.

Coincidentally, I was at Isetan Scotts at Shaw Centre basement last night, buying Japanese pastries, and the shop counter had a electronic signature pad provided by OCBC Bank. The pad had writing offering the convenience of paying in your home currency, with foreign currency signs (euros, yen, etc). This is within the Singapore tourist belt area, so there is ample tourist traffic to offer the DCC option I guess. I was using a local cc at the time, so I couldn't verify if the DCC option is honoured. Just a data point for FT-ers who are ever in Singapore - do look out for these!

* for those FT-ers not living in Singapore, Isetan is a Japanese-brand supermarket targeting the more affluent and Japanese community here. OCBC Bank is one of the few banks offering merchant acquirer services, although DBS, UOB and Citibank are the more common acquirers.

Let's see whether these SPG hotels can DCC me on my Amex SPG Business ;)

I won't say a word to the front desk

I believe Amex is not susceptible to DCC outside of PayPal.

I think that was why there was the ;) at the end. :) AmEx and Discover (for its limited overseas acceptance) are immune from DCC in the traditional sense. PayPal and some of the others are trying to make a quick buck off of customer ignorance by using their own inflated exchange rates. In this sense, I have to say that DCC is - at least in theory - more honest about it. :eek:

That's why I want them to try~ As Majuki pointed out, these hotels are quite terrible on this matter. Like to watch them fail.

Amex SPG should be the standard issue to for any world traveler sticking to SPG.

Get one before it is taken off the shelf by the merger.

I have the Chase Marriott card right now, but I was thinking about applying for the SPG AmEx as a hedge for after the merger. I have my doubts whether or not AmEx will be allowed to grandfather people into a Marriott card like Barclaycard did with the AAdvantage Aviator. My hunch is that they will discontinue the card completely or try to sell the portfolio to Chase. I primarily stay at Marriott properties, so it would be nice to have a Marriott AmEx that couldn't be DCCed.