7-eleven: provided there is no queue. If there is you may get dissed by the queue and the cashier will frown.

7-eleven acquirer is (as with other dairy farm HK and Macau operations) hang Seng bank, which although majority owned by HSBC it is operationally separate from HSBC and its arrangement to refer customers to global payments.

Other known merchants acquired by HSBC (global payments) http://www.hongkongcard.com/forum/fo...p?id=8062&p=6: citysuper, G2000, marks & Spencer, dcfever，Aeon (former Jusco dept stores), Bellini Restaurant, Cafe Eos, Apple Store, Jumbo-Computer Mong Kok.

M&S respects DCC choices (sneezyalex #1168) even tho from my last week's purchases M&S has a standalone card terminal like greyhound and coyote. I wonder whether M&S is big enough to make Global Payments disable DCC, but smaller merchants like coyote and greyhound are not?

So 7/11 is safe from DCC, and the only problem I'd have is the long queue of passengers. :)

It would be interesting to see what combination of buttons M&S presses to disable DCC or what kind of input they have after they run the card. I could try to go there and recreate the circumstances from Greyhound Cafe. I have a question for sneezyalex... When at M&S do you receive any final slip in HKD only, or you just get the initial carbon copy slip with the check boxes and nothing more?

Finally, the voided transactions from last night at Greyhound Cafe have already fallen off of the pending transactions on my Chase Sapphire Preferred. It's like it never even happened. :D

Majuki: m&s is thermal slip. So the terminal cannot be identical.

My wife and I went to Francfranc this afternoon to pick up a few things. Upon checkout my wife said, "Don't you want to ask for HKD?" I replied, "I don't think this place would be likely to do DCC." I was wrong. I clearly saw the thermal slip print out with the check boxes. Before I signed, I told the cashier, "I want HKD." She seemed surprised and confirmed my choice but knew the routine. I received this final receipt:

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

I've replaced the last four digits of the card with XXXX, removed my name, and removed the approval code. Otherwise, the receipt is unaltered from my customer copy. The curious thing about this is I believe the (M) indicates a manual entry of the card number. Since it wasn't an EMV transaction, the receipt wouldn't contain APP/AID/TC information, but otherwise the presentation is identical to my transaction from the AEL ticket counter at HKIA that I talked about in post 1158. So, while the acquirer isn't listed on this receipt, I would say Francfranc uses Citibank.

The HK$1691.50 transaction is pending as $229.00. Using the current Visa rate:

1691.50 HKD x 0.128948 USD/HKD = 218.12 USD

I didn't read the signature receipt closely with HKD, but the calculations show a DCC rate of 4.99% or a ripoff of 10.88 USD above the Visa rate. I'd be comfortable classifying this DCC rate as usurious. :td:

The font and the style of the slip suggests it's a Spectratech www.spectratech.com slip. Spectratech terminals are distributed by Hang Seng, Global Payments, Citi, BoC and Dah Sing to their merchants.

I have a slip with very similar to yours, I know my slip (my dermatologist's) is acquired by Dah Sing, but your MID is very different from mine.

Too hard to guess from a Spectratech slip alone. Also Spectratech combines acquirers that have problems (Global Payments and BoC) and those that appear to be able to opt out (Citi). Your Francfranc MID is also different to AEL (Citi).

You found me eating at Greyhound again, this time at IFC with another visitor - the MID for Greyhound IFC is very simliar to Greyhound Taikoo Shing (same first seven digits; I stopped my friend from trying to pay with his AUD Visa based on your card slip from last night). I also have two Hang Seng slips (one Thai Basil and the other Simplylife - both Dairy Farm restaurants) also have very similar MID (same first three digits).

I successfully opted out of DCC in this case, right? I know a few posts ago you said M&S is Global Payments but respects DCC choices. As I said, the cashier was taken aback by my request to be billed in HKD, but I'm reasonably assured - hopefully? - with this slip that DCC did not take place. If DCC did happen, I'll get my first chance at a chargeback.

Good call on not using the AUD denominated Visa. I assume it was the same carbon copy paper as the location in Taikoo Shing?

Any interesting stories over here recently?

That's the only bad thing about a dedicated citi section opening up. I tend to hang out there most often nowadays, and don't see/check out other threads (in this section) as much now

If China is notorious in DCC but cannot be tamed because it's in China, how come a global company (Global Payments) can violate Visa/MC rules in HK and no one is there to stop it?

Strange experience in HKG
 

About 3 weeks ago we had morning tea at Tao Heung where the cashiers told me they would take any credit card except cards issued by mainland China banks :confused:

At payment I told them to bill in HKD. The cashier retorted that it would always be HKD, that they could not do anything else even if the customer wanted non HKD.

The slip presented to me to sign was in HKD. Nothing remotely showed any DCC possibility.

After signing, she handed me a completely different looking receipt - on it, it was clearly DCCed with that annoying statement about being informed the option and such...

The authorization on my Barclays Arrival Plus was DCCed with about 4% padding.

YET, the charge posted without DCC padding.

I am utterly confused on what happened but of course no complain.

Several other Chinese restaurants used Hang Seng's POS with the receipts in a form, rather than the thermal slip. All of them did not have DCC.

The following part of trip was in France. Not a single time even encounter DCC attempt. Granted, we did not shop at Lafayette. ;) I wonder the Chinese crowds that formed long lines in front of any LV stores would be DCCed? :p

On the front portion of the trip we were in China - virtually not a single place we went - from attractions to restaurants, would take credit card so we had to use cash - extremely annoying because 1) lose earning on CC. 2) need to keep track of bills etc. All hotel stays were on points and only had to pay small taxes at Sheraton Guilin - the ONLY time I used CC which I opted for AMEX Plat and said card was also used for "deposit" as the Chinese called it, at each check in. STRANGELY, I could not see ANY such authorization as pending on AMEX online account but chat rep confirmed the authorizations were there. At check out, all hotels did a reversal of the authorization but AMEX claimed they did not see it - so the authorizations fell off by themselves after 8 business days. Odd. Why would authorizations made in China not showed up on AMEX online as Pending?

On a trip in May that included Seoul, Taipei and Hong Kong, as well as Milan and Veneto region - never encountered DCC in any of the cities where I used a few Visa cards exclusively.

[POLITICAL]Cos we are becoming Just Another Chinese City[/POLITICAL]

[PRACTICAL]1. Cos acquirers in HK don't have to identify themselves in on transaction slips (or at least by Merchant ID akin to PRC) - it takes a dedicated bunch of freaks (i.e. FTers) (hongkongcard.comers also do a good job but we don't get DCCed at home) to bug merchants who they bank with

2. Banks are severely regulated. But Global Payments is a non-bank acquirer[/PRACTICAL]

Post #407 zyxlsy "My experience of DCC is that they hold the DCC amount, and then show the correct amount."

Further evidence Hang Seng appears to be quite compliant (see HK 7-eleven experiences above)

Chanel or Pierre Herme didn't try to DCC my missus
Citypharma offered DCC but my missus had full control of DCC choice via PIN pad

Actually Gallaries Lafayette (which we didn't buy anything from in this year's trip) also gives a choice, but cashier controls it. Even in my dotted-line boss's case, the cashier probably did ask, but she chose HKD and then couldn't change it.

Same too for our 2012 Shenzhen hot pot trip.

We didn't have a V/M spend promo for our 2013 trip (the only place we used a MasterCard was Westin Nanshan for the missus' SPG renewal, and we opted out of DCC there without issue).

We will not go to Shenzhen for Christmas for 2014 or 2015 because the Christmases are long weekends and we'll go ski/hot springs in Japan.


Seoul - only encountered DCC once http://www.hongkongcard.com/forum/fo...hp?id=4303&p=3 23
Taipei - quite a bit, but very compliant now with quote slip, pause to take in your choice and clean cardholder slips since 2012.
Milan/Venice/Florence - DCC not encountered even in Venice Chinese tourist traps.

We've now got cases of forced DCC in HK and are attempting to push through a Reason Code 76 chargeback for one of the merchants.

As for the reason why this is happening in HK, percysmith posted what I was thinking while I was writing this reply. :D

I know it's harder to prove a negative, but can we reasonably say that Italy is (mostly) DCC free?

I'm surprised that Happy didn't see DCC in Taipei. DCC is thoroughly rampant in Taiwan, but fortunately the merchants are 100% compliant.

Did the receipt just contain the DCC verbiage or was it denominated in USD? I think this is similar to my experience at Chung Yo Department Store in Taichung. You can clearly see the DCC wording, but the charge is in NTD and there is no mention of USD on the receipt. While the DCC amount is held in this case, as others have pointed out, the transaction will post without DCC.

You have to worry when you get final receipts with: [ ]HKD [ ]USD and nothing checked (such as carbon copy slips), [X]USD checked, or DCC verbiage with a USD amount/exchange rate included on the receipt. For instance, percysmith and I ate at Greyhound Cafe on Saturday night, and we were presented with the carbon copy charge slip. If you tick [X]HKD AMOUNT, nothing will happen. There is no cashier interaction with the terminal regarding currency selection after running the transaction.

Not directly DCC
But i wrote a Vietnamese merchant who advertise a Halong Bay cruise in USD
I asked them to confirm whether they are billing in USD or VND
Had to write them twice
They confirmed VND <-- this is important for me to know because I will USD card on USD merchants