All was well in the end. ^

NTD 3,462 (Posted charge: $114.59)
NTD 4,852 (Posted charge: $160.59)

The DCC amount would have been a $7.71 markup over the posted rate.

Disputed the full amount with Reason Code 76. I have a feeling my issuer will just credit me the loose change :(

As long as you're not out the money personally then there is no problem from the customer's point of view. I do wish banks pursued Reason Code 76 chargebacks in these cases, but I understand it's not worth the effort to do so.

The threshold seems to be about $10 before it's a large enough discrepancy to warrant a chargeback, meaning DCC would have to have occurred on a transaction amount more than about $250-300. Less than that amount and the issuers are prone to giving the customer a courtesy credit. It's possible the issuers will have had enough at some point and universally start sending Reason Code 76 chargebacks to merchants for unwarranted DCC.

My wife and I will be visiting HK next month, and I'm happily anticipating the opportunities to fight DCC. I still have not filed a Reason Code 76 chargeback with Chase, but seeing as though I want to lead the education campaign against DCC I should at least have the experience of navigating a successful Reason Code 76 chargeback.

Well, at least you know where to go to get hit by DCC :)

I'm thinking about it. Are any of the regulars on this thread up for a HK DCC mini-DO? :D A Lorcha in Macau was another candidate with carbon copy receipts and could include our Hong Kong based posters as well.

I could be mistaken, but nobody from Macau has chimed in yet. However, I think it would be rare to see a POS terminal to convert to MOP. Usually only the larger currencies are supported, but perhaps in China and HK MOP-denominated cards might be as much of an oddity.

I'd append this activity as an unofficial supplement to the HK DO, but I don't think my spouse will sanction a second HK trip this year. If there's interest, I can start the planning.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

How do you know you've already been DCCed without a final receipt with the USD ticked?

I checked my account online and it had already processed as a sale at the USD amount.

posted or pending?

It's sad to see HK is getting worse on this... All I remember is they always ask...

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong but I seem to remember that as part of the foreign currency class actron suit (on non disclosure of fees not on whether the whole thing is legal or not) MC and visa now are required to show the foreign currency amount on the billing statement. All my statements now show, if not dcc'd, at the very least the amount in the foreign currency if not also the exchange rate being used (but you can always figure that out with a calculator). If it's a dcc charge, it enters the network system already converted and you don't see the amount in foreign currency. I think think that's an easy way to tell!

Yes, you are exactly right.

The only problem is you have to wait until the statement is out...

There is no way to tell other than calculating by yourself.

To give an example, this is a partial list of transactions from my March 2013 statement. (Ignore the $35.00 E-ZPass recharge.) The Frankfurt Marriott slapped me with DCC unknowingly, so there was no exchange rate listed for the transaction on my statement:

http://i.imgur.com/Ni83gPpm.jpg

Compare to the most recent transactions (all made in TWD) on my Chase Sapphire Preferred:

http://i.imgur.com/AcwHVI6m.jpg

Clicking the + simply reveals the merchant contact information and points earned on the transaction but doesn't provide any information on the exchange rate that was used.

Yeh man that's what I was talking about. Chase's system is no good at this, not as good as Discover's and American Express's. They can show all the exchange information once the transaction is pending.

But then again, Amex prohibits the use of DCC so it wouldn't be a factor although I'm not sure about Discover.

Incidentally, I've read on other threads that Avis, for example, always tries to use DCC on charges and is very hard to get it wiped out (inserting in a foreign language for example your agreement to it). Does that carry over to Amex cards which prohibit the use of DCC? And does Amex realy enforce this poloicy?

In short, there is no policy for AmEx or Discover to enforce because neither network supports DCC. It's a matter of the network's capability. If you use an AmEx or Discover card, at least right now, you don't have to worry about DCC.

Both Visa and MC networks support DCC, and that's why you see rampant issues with non-compliant terminals. It's just like the networks supposedly have an accept-all-cards policy but good luck getting a French autoroute kiosk to accept your magstripe card.

In China, many merchants will say, "Just use UnionPay." to avoid the DCC hassle. For Americans, we can use Discover where UnionPay is accepted and also avoid DCC. However, many of us want to use our Visa or MC cards due to specific promotions or better rewards. Furthermore, outside of some interoperability agreements, acceptance of Discover is limited overseas. AmEx is more widely accepted, but few of its cards have a 0% FTF.

For Avis, I've just read about the Saudi man whose card was charged in Riyals rather than USD for a US rental car. I haven't had too much experience with Avis personally - I usually use Hertz overseas but again my data points are extremely limited - but I've used Avis twice overseas in the last three years, both times in Australia, and neither time incurred DCC.

I really don't know how rampant DCC is in the US since I don't have any non-USD denominated cards. However, companies that are sneaky with DCC are opening themselves up to lawsuits in a place like the US. The bad part is that it seems like by and large the worst offenders are most of the payment processors in Mainland China. Other cases of forced DCC include some European countries like Ireland, Poland, Spain, etc. and larger hotel chains like Marriott, Starwood, and Accor Hotels. In fact, the three times I've been nicked with DCC have all occurred at hotels.

Fortunately in the case of hotels, rental cars, etc. it's usually required to sign an agreement, so there are opportunities to deface that document that you sign. Furthermore, Visa places the burden of proof on the merchant to demonstrate that the customer chose DCC.

Anyway, I hope Chase's website can be as good as AMEX's. AMEX's gives much more details and is IMO much more user friendly.

Chase's is like Office 2003 where you have to know where everything is in those ALT tabs...