Just back. Was using BEA Flyer World for 9X. In all cases, asked for MOP billing. Got three slips:

1. Altira (acquirer: BNU). The Mark[x] Transaction Currency type. The waitress already advised in advance for me to mark MOP if I wanted that. I frowned, marked X against MOP, signed it ***but asked for a reprint slip***. She satisfactorily produced a no-verbage MOP-only ***** REPRINT! ***** slip. Very good

BEA sent me a SMS, stating a HKD amount @0.996 of my MOP bill was held, but I'm getting a bit more relaxed about held amounts now as discussions here indicate terminals will hold the DCC amount even if the local currency amount is eventually posted.

2. Grand Lisboa (acquirer: BoC): asked for MOP, got MOP without having to tick anything. The BEA SMS came out as MOP. Maybe Dr Ho made sure no DCC occurs in his premises.

3. City of Dreams (acquirer unknown): asked for MOP, got MOP without having to tick anything. The BEA SMS came out as HKD @0.996 though

This contrasts with my experience in Beijing with Chase. After getting DCCd by the Conrad, I called Chase to dispute the extra charge (around $60). Chase quickly put a hold on the entire $1300 or so hotel bill (can't recall exact number), and because Conrad Beijing never responded to the dispute, I not only got my $60 back, but the rest of the hotel bill too!

Sometime the little guy makes out ;)

I recently used a Travelex ATM at LHR. I didn't get a DCC option for my US-based ATM card, and wasn't even charged a small fixed fee as I would be accustomed to from a network ATM.

My colleague then used the same machine, and he got hit with the DCC option. So, why didn't my ATM card offer DCC? I think it was because I have an ATM-only card, not a "check card" or "debit card" - that is, my card has the Plus logo on the back meaning it will work on the Visa ATM network, but not a Visa or MasterCard logo, so it can't be used as a credit card. What may happen is that for DCC cash withdrawals, Travelex submits the transactions as purchases, paying the discount rate for purchases out of their 8% conversion rate, and keeps the rest. By having a card that didn't allow for credit card transactions, they couldn't even ask for DCC. Yet another reason I'm happy to have an ATM-only card for all of my accounts.

I also suspect that their model involves paying a premium lease fee for the space to the landlord, perhaps even a small percentage cut of the 8%, in return for an exclusive. There's no other explanation for a facility like LHR to have *only* Travelex ATMs and not any (that I could find) from the many prominent local banks.

Spain
 

Anyone has recent experiences in Spain?

Just read TripAdvisor reviews on the 2 AC hotels we will use in Madrid. One poster complained about being DCCed $40. The hotel replied about the transaction was automatic and they had no option, that it was up to the financial institution the poster banked with on how the charge was processed.

Of course this is a total lie. I wonder what is in the Wili about Spain on the complaint form still holds true.

I had some of the worst DCC experiences in Spain a few years ago. The hotel in Madrid DCC'd me after I specifically told them I wanted to be charged in Euros. Didn't realize it until I got back home and saw the charge (the DCC did not show on the receipt they gave me). They finally agreed to refund the difference after I complained to the manager.

Ran into it again at the cathedral in Seville when paying the entrance fee. The cashier said her boss told her she was required to select DCC if it was an option and refused to budge. Ended up paying cash as I didn't want to hold up the line. Also got hit with it at a small restaurant in Toledo, not given any option and was met with a blank face when I told them to charge me in Euros.

I was in Spain in June.

After two instances when I was asked to sign a receipt for charges processed in US$, and the merchants refusing to reprocess the transactions in Euros - I successfully disputed the conversion charges with Citi, my credit card issuer - I started telling merchants that if they were presented a choice, I preferred paying in Euros. With the exception of Avis, which gave me a final receipt in Euros and processed the charge in US$, that was the end of that scam.

At a couple of places, I was shown the terminal screen. It asked if to proceed in US Dollars. There were two buttons below the question, a green Proceed and a red No. The natural tendency is to press the green button to continue. A reasonable but incorrect inference is that pressing the red button would void the transaction.

I strongly suspect that the interface of those terminals is deliberately confusing in order to maximize DCC transaction charges and generate more profits for the banks.

My experience from Spain: DCC is very widely in use. It's possible, albeit not very easy, to opt-out in most cases. Easier if you speak Spanish I would assume.

I've experienced DCC "everywhere" in Spain, hotels, restaurants, shops.

Can't comment about ATMs, since I'm using an Euro card for Euro countries - but would expect them to be fully on DCC, too.

All in all: Heavily DCC infected country. First case I was actually hit with DCC was in Spain. 2010 or 2011.

Yeah, Spain is bad for DCC. Fellow traveler klashn got hit at a tourist shop near Parc Güell in Barcelona. What's odd is that I wasn't presented with DCC at Hotel Arts, la Pedrera/Casa Milà, or a few other touristy places I went. For smaller purchases, I just pay cash since it's easier than the DCC fight and not worth the miles and points for the sum total of perhaps $100 of miscellaneous spend. I was hit back in 2006 for my first trip there at El Corte Inglés without even realizing what it was at the time. Fortunately the DCC rates weren't as egregious back then and most USD cards still charged currency conversion fees rather than foreign transaction fees. What's ironic is that I still wasn't DCC aware in 2008, used my card extensively for a month long trip down the peninsula, and never encountered DCC. I did get hit in 2011 on a 0% FTF Capital One, however.

Hrumph. DCC overcharge, but no dispute.
 

I had two businesses in Jordan hit me with DCC, they told me there was no way to pay in the local currency. I let them know I would dispute the fee and they told me to go ahead, they couldn't change it. It didn't look like they selected "Pay in USD" on their card reader at any time, so I am wondering if they sometimes they don't have a choice. My bank did a "courtesy adjustment" and refunded the fees (about $21 total) but didn't file any dispute. Hard to imagine that I am sending a message to Visa if my bank isn't willing to dispute it, it's easier for them to just pay me off. :mad:

Wikipedia says the following about the Jordanian Dinar:

Since October 23, 1995, the dinar has been officially pegged to the IMF's special drawing rights (SDRs). In practice, it is fixed at 1 U.S. dollar = 0.709 dinar most of the time, which translates to approximately 1 dinar = 1.41044 dollars.

What rate did they run you? Much worse than 0.709? Any chance that they've a system similar to Lebanon, where you're getting charged in USD at most places anyway (ie, USD is their local currency for CC transactions, _NOT_ getting DCCed that way, but actually getting better rates when paying with USD cards than with any else, as everyone but USD denominated have Forex..)

Thanks everyone for info of the situation in Spain.

DCC benefits BOTH the banks and the merchants. I actually suspect the merchants benefit MORE than the banks when pulling DCC scams.

We would be in Madrid for just a few days.
3 pay hotels - 2 nights, 1 each at an AC hotel within 2 blocks to each other that we hotel hop for the Marriott current promotion, and plan to pay with the Marriott card which earns 5x, but can also pay with Citi Premier which earn 3x TYP. Essentially the pts earned are more or less equal value but prefer to put some charges on the Marriott card before the anniversary date.
Then one night at the Crowne Plaza at MAD that has to pay with a Chase IHG card to fulfill one of the promotion requirements so to unlock 45K Q1 bonus.

Will try my best to make the hotels bill in Euro. All 3 hotels front desks reportedly are fluent in English. Though I guess it does not hurt to present a note in Spanish (using Google Translator) to inform the front desk be billed in Euro.

About Avis - we had an experience in Frankfurt last year - despite the invoice was in Euro, WITHOUT the language of "customer agree to be billed in USD, blah blah blah" that one normally sees on an Avis contract that we always made the return counter to reverse it, the charge went on the CC in USD - BUT not at the current rate + padding at the return time, instead it was at the EXACT USD on the quote when the reservation was made a few months ago, at the time when USD was stronger. I also checked the conversation at the reservation and it did not have padding.

So I am not too sure about how the Avis billing works - we automatically assume Avis DCCed us because it was in USD. But in all reality, it might not be. It is just very confusing, unless you compare a lot of information to find out exactly what amount is being charged when in terms of local currency. In our case, had they stuck with Euro, we would have paid almost 5% more than they billed us the USD exactly as quoted on the reservation.

It looks like if you do not use the card in your Avis profile where you could opt out DCC for Visa/MC, then you would be billed in USD should you use Visa/MC regardless what the invoice said. Strange thing is, the DCC may not be the current rate + padding at the tine of return as we thought it would be.

Nowadays whenever we rent from Avis, I always make a screen shot of the last page in local currency, before it turns into USD on the finalization of the reservation - so I would know how much in local currency it would be. Will see how it turns out in Croatia when we would be there for 2 weeks in May.

A little research leads me to believe that this varies greatly. Some payment processors keep everything (and get merchants to sign up by persuading them that it's great for their customers and "there is no cost to you"), others appear to pass most of the additional FX margin on to the merchant (see the section "how we make you money" near the bottom of this page for an example) -- although we can assume that this is not an act of generosity: the payment processor will benefit from the higher amounts being charged and may well be charging more for terminals/software etc. in the first place.

I have not yet seen any reports of businesses paying a bonus or commission to staff who 'sell' DCC to customers, so for the time being will continue to assume that individual employees are not knowingly trying to scam me.

Very interesting, thanks for posting that ^

Bolding mine.

Sure, happy to pay extra :td:

Yep http://www.dcctoday.com/dcc_foreign.htm

BoC China is less generous with 50% reduced swipe fees on DCC transactions http://wenku.baidu.com/view/5c97658a...87732132e.html

They assume the victim is using a 3% FCC card and trying to justify their theft by a Robbing Peter To Pay Paul argument. Shame that there are i. those banks charging 3% FCC are really applying FTF and ii. existance of FTF-free cards in US (and to a lesser extent HK)

It's possible. I've had very little experience in Jordan other than 3 Marriott hotels and Hertz (all 4 transactions billed in JOD). This was also 6 years ago, so things may have changed. It's possible that they are billing in USD natively like in the Maldives, but I suspect that it is DCC. I always thought DCC was even more of a ripoff in places with a fixed exchange rate to one's own currency, and this is no exception.