I am going to London and Dublin in a little over 3 weeks and I am already getting antzy and freaking out, man! :eek: Only previous international trip was Mexico City and the hotel charged me in pesos, and I paid cash for everything else on the streets so no issues at all. One thing on my mind is DCC for sure. I want to use my Barclay card arrival as much as I can so I can hit the spend for the signup bonus.

What worries me is I fear I may be forced to pay DCC. If I eat out at a restaurant or pub where you pay the bill after you have consumed the product what if I am forced into DCC by the merchant and they lie and say it is for my convenience, the machine can only do dollars for American credit cards, etc not like I can make a stink and refuse to pay since I have already consumed food and drink.

My first plan is to just straight up say I know what DCC is, most other american tourists may think you are doing them a favor, charge me in local currency, whats the problem mate? For every one person like me who makes a stink, you probably get 100 who think you are doing them a favor. Scam them instead and leave me be!

If that fails I will then say I will make a complaint with my bank, the rules state I must be given the option. Write on the recept DCC refused, then dispute when I get home.

Sounds like a good plan?

When I ask for the check/pay at the cashier I always specify that I want to pay in (insert local currency). Sometimes they know exactly why, sometimes they act confused and wonder why I wouldn't pay in euros or whatever.

You have the benefit of being able to converse in English at least. Often a clerk will feign ignorance or genuinely not be able to understand what you're talking about.

With Chip cards overseas you usually have the terminal directly in front of you with the ability to select menu options on the keypad. (i.e. currency selection.)

I would say be wary, but specify upfront that you want to be charged in pound sterling. My most recent trip to the UK was three years ago, and the only place I got hit with DCC was at the Heathrow Marriott. Hotels, department stores, and airport duty free shops are notorious for DCC, so I'd be especially vigilant both when checking in to a hotel and when making purchases. I've read reports that Marriott is bad about DCC in the UK, but I can't speak for the other hotel chains. I made plenty of purchases in the UK on my credit card, and I didn't remember DCC being too prevalent there.

I can't speak for Ireland as I've never been there, but I do know it was the birthplace of DCC. Even fast food restaurants like Burger King pull the scam there. The worst part is that for transactions like that the dollar value is below the threshold requiring cardholder verification, so you just get handed the receipt and it's a done deal. Fortunately in those cases US card issuers have been quick to issue courtesy credits. While the cardholder doesn't lose out in this case, I still am unsatisfied with the resolution because the merchant doesn't get hit with a chargeback.

Aside from transactions where there won't be cardholder verification - like American fast food joints in Ireland - I would say that you'll have no problems opting out of DCC in most places as long as you specify pound sterling upfront in the UK or euros in Ireland. In fact, some waiters and cashiers will give you a confused look that says, "What else would I charge you in?" but it's better to specify upfront than to find out the cashier can't void the transaction after the fact. (Fellow member percysmith found this out at Harrods.)

If faced with a forced DCC situation, kindly ask the cashier to void the first transaction and walk you through the steps. If the cashier refuses to void the transaction, deface the receipt by circling the local currency amount, writing "merchant refused local option/DCC forced", and crossing out the exchange rate. I highly doubt it will come to this last case, but if it does please come back and we can help out.

I would say restaurants aren't likely to be a problem because at many places the waiter brings the payment terminal to the customer after the meal. You get to handle the terminal during the transaction, and any compliant terminal would offer an opt-out from DCC - assuming it's compliant that is. If you're presented with a question like "DCC Accept?" or "USD/EUR 1.333" or "USD/GBP 1.539 OK?" or anything that looks like DCC or an exchange rate, press the red cancel button immediately. It's a counter-intuitive process, and this is part of the reason why DCC is so sneaky.

Hotels are much less likely to be a problem. Just make sure you don't use express or quick checkout. Always go down to the desk and make sure they run the card on file and you get the final receipt from the POS terminal or their payment system that shows billing in local currency. If there is any mention of an exchange rate on the folio, demand that they void that transaction and rerun it. Check everything twice before you sign. (But also check to make sure the room rate is correct. Don't be like me in Hong Kong last week where I was so fixated on making sure I didn't get DCC that I didn't notice they had overcharged me by mistake! :D)

Please report back on your experiences and enjoy your trip!

But weren't you faced with forced DCC in Poland even if the terminal was in front of you? How have you gotten out of it in cases where the cashier knows what's going on and immediately presses OK/Green or Accept?

Not forced like the Chinese locked terminals at least. But it was unfortunately unavoidable sometimes whether it was the wording, language barrier, the clerk's reflexes, or willful.

Poland's MO seemed to be more deceptive language than anything else. The terminal switched to English with a large "Approve Transaction?" Way down at the bottom in small text it would have USD above Green, Red for (local currency).

Nearly all the convenience and grocery stores had a customer facing terminal, but the cafes, restaurants, lodging, and some tourist attractions did not. Since the cashier sometimes didn't read enough English to decode it or didn't care to since it was busy, they just hit the green button probably only seeing the approve transaction part. (Giving them the benefit of the doubt in that event.) At sit-down restaurants they wouldn't hand me the terminal since they wanted to avoid the tip being placed on the card and not made in cash. (Per the locals.) Even though you just round up the amount so it's not much to begin with.

It tended to happen more in high volume locations like cafes during a lunch rush where I'll believe it wasn't willful. After I started pre-specifying that I wanted to pay in Polish złoty it happened less frequently, but still sometimes. I only had one place that I'm sure did it out of spite since they really wanted me to pay in cash. Plus a few touristy places (museums, one bar on a crawl.)

I'd always ask to have the transaction re-run if there was available time (not a quick line at a busy cafe.) If that didn't work I'd cross out the DCC language and USD amount on the receipt, and circle back with Chase who issued courtesy credits. Followed by a negative yelp or tripadvisor review if it seemed intentional and/or they refused.

ATMs complied but made it seem like you would unleash world war three if you declined their offer. Several required multiple opt-outs of their amazing opportunity.

I head back in six months so I'll be able to conduct further observations and experiments.

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I'm still cautious about giving merchants the benefit of the doubt under these circumstances. In the place that did it out of spite I would have flat out refused to sign for the purchase and asked them to void the transaction. I have zero tolerance for merchant games.

I feel like from these observations that some of it is a language barrier, but it other cases it's definitely willful disregard of your DCC opt-out choice. It also seems like in Poland DCC is everywhere.

I've had my fair deal of "automatic clearance" myself, and it never happened that DCC was put upon me in such case. Isn't DCC automatically switched off when there is an automatic function? As the default option in the automatic system - even if the Banks don't like it - will be the local currency, and not the DCC scam.

But maybe they've even changed that little bit in some countries?

Well the rules state that the customer must be given a choice for DCC, for small transactions that dont need authorization naturally the default should be local currency since you can't choose anything.

Thanks for the heads up all on deceptive choices on the terminal. I will be sure to decline anything that looks like an exchange rate or US dollars anywhere. I know some airlines are also deceptive for online transactions. Like you will be given a choice to choose between a set exchange rate (DCC) or an unknown rate. Naturally most people don't want to risk the unknown even though the interbank rate even at its worst is still less than DCC.

I can't speak for it since I've only encountered DCC with transactions that have required a signature. However, most of the time at small cafes and fast food places in Europe I use cash, so I can't say for certain how it works at Burger King in Ireland.

There are the rules and Visa/MC policy as stated, but then there are other things in practice. It's just like how percysmith and I couldn't opt-out of DCC at Greyhound Cafe in Hong Kong the other week. The terminal simply didn't provide the option. There are locations that are highly compliant with DCC: Singapore, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, and a few others. However, a few more merchants need to be smacked so a clear and conscious choice will be offered.

Definitely. It was more rare to find a terminal that didn't offer it.

Most of my Central/Eastern European journeys were the opposite.

I can't say I made many credit card purchases during my trip last year, but I didn't get hit with DCC at:

Germany: Deustche Bahn, Rhine-Main S-Bahn, Vapiano, Drogerie Markt, Air Berlin, local restaurant in Koblenz, McDonald's at FRA
Austria: Renaissance Vienna
Slovakia: No data points
Czech Republic: Shell Kalna and two local restaurants in Prague

The only place that hit me was the Frankfurt Marriott. I used AmEx at the Frankfurt Airport Sheraton, so I don't know what the policy is there.

The Intercontinental Vienna definitely does DCC, in fact you get DCC'ed when you don't opt-out (Which is possible, but if you don't ask to be billed in €, they'll happily scam)

Germany was rare for me too, Finland, Estonia, Northern Italy, the Balkans, Greece, and Turkey as well.

Although some of those places are mostly cash based to begin with and therefore I don't have many datapoints. My worst DCC offender was in Berlin though.

Yeah, that sounds like Marriott properties in Europe. I'm pretty sure hotels are big offenders here worldwide. In fact, the only times I've been hit with DCC have been at hotels.

My first and only DCC experience was at the FRA Sheraton. That was in 2008, well before I heard of DCC, so that was their policy at least at that time.

Full disclosure: on that trip (first out of the country in decades), I used a VISA that had a 3% FTF and before the trip we loaded up with $500 worth of Euros at our local Travelex office, and my wife brought along some traveler's checks too. No wonder the banks and hotels were all smiling when they saw us!