From what I've been reading on the China thread, the POS terminals are locked down, and a code is required to disable DCC, and there is no check the box system that is prevalent in Taiwan.

What happens if you refuse to sign the charge slip? It seems as though most people have been successful getting the charges voided, but it doesn't help end this practice if you end up paying cash. Furthermore, if you're with a group of friends, they'll think you're creating a scene and being petty over something immaterial.

Contrary to jeffjaguar's response I would answer with a resounding no. I've EMV cards from HK (still have to be signed) and still get DCCed all over China. It's not too hard for Chinese bank engineers to engineer fxcked firmware that returns a default "yes" to any DCC opt-in query so long as Visa/MC don't have a compliance program in the PRC and can't kick the big 4 or even the secondary banks out altogether.

I have experience with DCC outside of China and whilst I've encountered aggressive DCC behaviour, no country is so badly policed as the PRC in terms of DCC. Taiwan had a period of non-opt out DCC for a while in 2011 but someone stepped in and they're all good now.

Potential antitrust:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/china...l#post16908166
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-0...cy-policy.html

I don't get it. Is the objective of antitrust law to give choice even if the alternatives are shown to be almost certainly worse?
Furthermore there's no real choice under a lot of circumstances - you get two, or one.

Interesting theory, maybe Visa/MC figured signing up more crooked banks and merchants and earning more 1% interchange is worth giving up the foreign currency translation fee.

As far as I understand MC has the 0.8% foreign transaction fee and Visa doesn't. Really adds insult upon injury for DCC transactions on MC.

I think the choice for Visa/MC is binary: all or nothing.
I've long held a theory that the Chinese Government creates very favourable conditions for DCC scamming:
- They own the local competing payment system - Unionpay - and majority stakes in most major Chinese banks too.
- They are really pushing to promote local brands - they're also doing this to the Big4 Global Accounting Firms (despite almost all the partners being HK/Mainland Chinese) http://app1.hkicpa.org.hk/APLUS/1006...20-24_Big4.pdf
- They hate Visa quite a lot, given Visa's intransigence over PRC-issued dual-coded Visa/Unionpay outside China (Visa ruled that all Visa merchants outside China must use the Visa function of the dual-coded cards). Dunno what's their attitude towards MC.

The CBRC won't bat an eyelid towards systematic DCC rort and won't police its banks to follow Visa's/MC's rules. Most banks will be allowed to tell Visa/MC - I'm gonna scam all your customers. You can pull my entire participation in Visanet if you wish but if you don't then you play by my rules.

In any case I also see this as generally China's increasing unfriendliness towards foreigners - another being the post-1 July 2013 visa restrictions. As FIEs we're finding it harder to increase investment into China too.

Chargeback - I rather not. I rather void the slip and present alternate payment (in my case in the PRC this will obviously be Unionpay).

OK, just a short explanation on my circumstances
- I live in HK and have permanent residency. This means I've access to RMB/HKD denominated Unionpay cards and RMB accounts to settle them with. I can draw cash out of RMB ATMs in HK and recently I can even put them back in again.
- I have family in Australia and in any case since I'm based in HK, my travel is mainly redemption travel with CX and its OW partners and my primary miles program is Asia Miles (though I recently added Avios for better short-haul redemptions inside Asia).

Most of my miles are from credit card spend. HK is a haven for earning miles with credit cards and I try to maximise earning from card spending for everything I have to pay.

This may result in me paying with Visa in China instead of taking the more convenient option of paying with Unionpay e.g. Unionpay cards earn RMB4/mile, but a Visa card on a promo may earn HK$1.11/mile. Of course the promos usually state the promo must be free of DCC i.e. the HK bank must earn its 1.95% foreign curerency translation fee.

But really using Visa in China is increasingly frustrating. I think for 2012 Christmas I've spent a full day in Shenzhen dining, wining and shopping without being able to pay Visa or alternatively being able to pay for it without DCC.

I tried studying and disarming card terminals, but I'm not convinced Chinese banks really have to let us opt out given the lack of policing and policy encouragement to DCC. Normally when I see DCC language my SOP is to:
- void the slip, even if it takes me 30 minutes to do so
- (really haven't done this yet) tick the merchant slip, photo the slip and dispute it

I've done a full chargeback before. But I'm finding there are fewer Visa promos applicable in China and the marchants to use them on for me to use Visa in the face of DCC.

Hi percysmith, thank you for your detailed insights. Could you go into a little more detail about Taiwan? You said there were some issues in 2011, but our trip there in June 2011 didn't yield any DCC transactions. The only place where I've ever had an issue was the Taoyuan Novotel. They insisted on placing the room deposit in USD, but the final charge slip was in TWD. I acquiesced only because it was a room deposit, not an actual charge.

All other places are either TWD exclusively or process the transaction correctly up front when I hand them my card. Usually when shopping in department stores I just tell my wife to have them charge in TWD.

Perhaps I'll do a quick summary of DCC behaviour outside China:

Taiwan and Thailand: a quote slip is generated, the terminal pauses, you tell the cashier whether to press yes or no into the terminal. If yes a DCC slip with confirmation box gets generated. If not, a DCC-free slip gets generated.

Japan: DCC virtually unheard of, but recently started with full choice given.

UK and France: appears electronically on the POS system. Cashier makes input yes or no. Sometimes they forget to ask but the POS cannot void/refund in your currency (thus locking in the profits).

Korea: akin to UK/France. Except the slip's in Korean so sometimes difficult to figure out whether you've been DCCed (or whether you even got back the card slip!).

Italy/Spain - on signature pad if signature is captured there.

Vietnam: not seen...(?)

Indonesia: illegal due to central bank restrictions (card charges must be in IDR).

Cambodia: used my USD card (see below)

Sorry no info on Australia or the US cos I've AUD and USD-denominated cards and some savings in those currencies.

Thanks for the above post. I have yet to be DCC'd in Australia in my 6 trips there over the last 3 years, but I imagine it does happen. I don't much like the credit card surcharge that some places tack on, but at least that's disclosed.

I'll be headed back to Spain in February, and so I'm wondering what the best practice is for there? Should I specify that I want to be charged in euros or refuse to sign if I've been DCC'd? I half expect places that don't do DCC will think I'm crazy for asking them to charge me in euros. "What else would we use? Pesetas?"

Just the Strathfield Eatery DCC story then.

I really didn't see much of DCC in Spain, despite what I read and even though we were carding every meal and every purchase >EUR2 (we had a 6% foreign currency spending rebate promo). It might have something with us saying "charge Euros please" before every purchase.

The only time I saw DCC was in El Engles Cortes in Gran Via Madrid, where I saw a 4% DCC rate for a split second before the cashier selected it away on the POS (cos I already said "charge Euros please").

I was there last June and December.

When I was checking into my hotel last December I noticed there was a card-not-present Global Payments deposit slip in HKD in my folio already. I asked and was assured it would not post if I presented alternate payment on check-out, which was the case.

My experience outside hotel was identical to yours - even in Everrich Duty Free. The difference in the cross-strait experience made me think Visa can enforce its rules in Taiwan but not in the PRC.

Besides applying DCC on signed card terminal slips on checkouts, I or my friends have encountered the following:

- DCC on prepaid rate (Amsterdam)

- DCC on express checkout (Shenzhen)

I'll keep a lookout for it. I don't expect to do much, if any, shopping at department stores, but I'll make sure to specify euros if shopping at El Corte Inglés.

I think I've been protected from DCC based on the properties where I've stayed. I normally stay at Marriott properties, but there are none in Taiwan. When I stay at the Sheraton Taipei I have used my AmEx Platinum, not subject to DCC. When I've stayed elsewhere on the island, my wife has booked prepaid rates through ezTravel. Since the website caters to Taiwanese - most places have asked her for her ID card - they don't participate in DCC. That leaves the Novotel as the only hotel that's caused me any worry, but I've specified and received DCC-free bills in TWD upon checkout.

Outside of hotels places either don't use DCC or have always honored the currency of my choosing (TWD). We will likely be going back sometime in April, so I can report my experiences at the Novotel since we always stay there the night before flying out.

Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) - Master Thread
 

My latest ATM in Poland prompted me if I would like a guaranteed exchange rate or an unknown exchange rate. No other information. Quite deceiving.

Boy have we got a deal for you!

To be fair, there have been reports of FX rates moving in such a manner between transaction and settlement in which the DCC rates are actually the better deal. (Of course, this is quite rare and doesn't detract from the overall business case for DCC from the institution's point of view.)