Just last week I got caught on a hotel bill that was over 1100 euros. Just one time I didn't look at the receipt closely enough and when I got home I noticed that they converted it at a rate of 3% without asking.

Called the manager to complain and they refunded the overcharge.

Funnily enough, I got offered DCC at a restaurant in Buenos Aires back in March, I jumped all over it since the rate was 1 higher (15 vs 16). At least I assume it was DCC. She asked if I wanted the charge in ARS at the day's rate or in dollars at 16. Knowing the day's rate was around 14.8, I took the 16, and I confirmed that's what I got when I looked up the transaction later. Maybe it was some other ploy to get dollars, though.

That's amazing. Eleven months ago I was there, the Dolar Blue rate was 15.8. The MC rate was like 9.1 (I carded the grand total of 1 ARS, being the amount my Iguazu hotel charged to my card to test it was valid - I figured they did that cos they can't take a preauth, and had to figure out some way to check my card was genuine in case I did a runner on them. I checked out with cash)

There are these isolated cases showing where DCC can be favorable to the cardholder.

Others that come to mind were non-CHF denominated cards used in Switzerland before the Franc appreciated and GBP denominated cards after the Brexit vote. Neither of these two situations could have been reliably predicted, of course. It's still best, as a general principle, to decline DCC when offered.

I've seen some very favourable DCC on airline credit card terminals before. CX comes to mind

Is that true DCC though or a situation where printed exchange rates in a duty free catalog allow you to arbitrage against the current exchange rate?

Reminds me of Deutsche Bahn taking in Euros at 1.5 rate within their Swiss Destinations when the rate was fixed to 1.2 for about a full year..

Got a new card and have been inputting it into my profile for various travel providers. I noticed that one of the car rental agencies (Avis, I recall) asked whether I wanted to billed in the currency of my credit card address or the currency of the country from where I was renting...

True DCC. Asks you to tick the box on the receipt.

Do any of you guys have opt out advice on current versions of HSBC or 交行 POS machines in mainland China? My SOP is to control the machines myself when using a foreign card, but both of these baffle me (i.e. I assume that the "cancel" button is part of the equation, but it is not clear when to press it).

Coming back to this:

1. Have you noticed that Visa's website now tells you to contact your issuer if you have a merchant complaint? I wasn't really keen on the idea of doing that with Citi. They're not exactly up there with AmEx when it comes to customer service.

2. I lost my AmEx when the Costco cards were transferred to Citi. I'll have one again soon, though.

3. They said if it was a mistake keying in the sale amount they had some way on the cash register of pushing a "refund", but that it would take 30 days to show up. I was having none of that.

It still is DCC. Read the Visa guidelines carefully. As soon a merchant converts a currency it is DCC.

AirBnB flouting visa agreement
 

I know this is an old thread, but it's still happening and AirBnB seems to be getting away with it.

The Visa agreement that merchants have to comply with in order to accept Visa payment has clear guidelines on DCC. Most particularly (for this case):

* Use of DCC must be optional, not mandatory
* Use of DCC must not be the default
* They cannot disallow the use of the local currency

AirBnB flouts every one of those. I'm not sure why Visa doesn't call them on it.

I'm suggesting that people contact both AirBnB and Visa to get pressure going on both sides.

If you want to read the Visa agreement, check out
https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/downlo...les-Public.pdf
on page 370 and following (it's only about a page and a half and pretty clear).

Here's a fairly detailed entry on it:

http://p-n-m.blogspot.al/2016/09/air...-currency.html

The Visa agreement is very specific about what DCC is as well (it's in another document at https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/downlo...-Ecommerce.pdf) and what AirBnB does is CLEARLY DCC.

Welcome to FT!

I booked on AirBnB recently in Japan and they charged me in my home currency (just told me what the conversion was, there was no option). It wasn't a great rate (something like 97 Yen when the real rate was ~100). Is that what you mean?

That's it exactly. It's one of many ways AirBNB openly ignores regulations.