There's still the chargeback route, which is what I would still suggest the OP pursue. "I wasn't offered the ability to pay in local currency."

Would that work considering that OP got refunded in cash already? (Never mind the ethical considerations.)

I imagine the payment networks would prefer the route of using the reason codes rather than some backroom deal. The Reason Code 76 chargeback is simply using the sanctioned way to ensure that currency choice is enforced. The fact that the merchant acquiesced so quickly leads me to believe the restaurant knows exactly what's happening.

If a merchant performs a fraudulent transaction, there are at least three ways for the customer to correct the transaction amount.

1. Request a chargeback.
2. Sue the merchant in the merchant's jurisdiction. Pay attention to who's paying the legal costs as those could be substantial.
3. Settle for compensation out of court.

This customer chose method 3 and the merchant accepted. Since both parties agreed to some amount, I do not think that it is possible for the customer to seek additional compensation by using one of the other methods.

I was offered DCC at a tourist-heavy knife shop in Japan this week, but the offer was made on the payment screen and the clerk said "you want to be charged in yen, right?" as soon as the interface showed up. A quick nod and she touched the Japanese flag and the receipt generated in JPY and the charge posted in JPY.

It displayed a Japanese flag and a US flag and the prices in each. The DCC markup was about 3% over the Visa rate for the day.

I had rarely encountered DCC in Japan, and I guess still have, but had gone for several weeks without seeing it at all until this knife shop.

I've seen more shops have them now, but in every case I encountered my request to charge in JPY is always honoured.

Maltese Mama...i wasn't going to post it here, but the management's reply on Trip Advisor is b........ If the folks honestly made a mistake, and were apologetic, that would be one thing, but the 'new guy' claim with the clear change in demeanor, doesn't work for me.

I wonder how often that even happens though. In my recent case, Chase just credited me the difference pretty much immediately. I suspect they just wear it because going through the process would cost them more human effort than the amount being disputed.

That's why I asked if you would call out the restaurant. The restaurant (and other merchants) know what they're doing. Why do you think they were so quick to change their tune about offering a cash refund? I have no doubt that there are likely some merchants off of the beaten path who have no idea that DCC is turned on - there was a report here of a dry cleaner in Alabama a few weeks ago, but a restaurant in St. Julian's? Let's be honest.

For small amounts, US issuers are just as likely to eat the cost. It's similar to fraudulent charges where they're unlikely to pursue a merchant chargeback for small amounts. There have been a few reports of successful Reason Code 76 chargebacks with Chase, however. I don't know what the threshold would be.

Uh oh...back again. Had a change in travel plans and booked a ticket on MH (MH metal using MH website), paid with my Chase CSR. Given a choice - USD or MYR. I chose MYR. I now see my charge is $279 vs. $262 as quoted. I have a clear receipt stating $262 USD. Is this disputable?

If you chose to pay in MYR, how come you can have a receipt in USD?

Good question...for MH, however. It is a PDF that MH e-mailed to me upon issuance of the ticket.

To be clear, MH quoted $262, and then gave me the option of paying in MYR.

That looks like multi-currency billing instead of DCC. Was the original airfare quoted in USD? :confused:

If I understood correctly, original currency was USD (i.e. departure from US or Cambodia?), but for some reason you chose to pay MYR? And Chase converted MYR back to USD, which resulted in expectedly higher amount? If that's the case, I guess there is nothing to dispute.

I booked on MH for a domestic Malaysian flight, and I didn't remember seeing DCC when paying with a USD credit card.

Is this a pending transaction or the final posted amount?

Looks like eBay's still attempting DCC despite being in the process of transitioning away from PayPal:

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...805e450138.png

Fortunately, unlike in the past, it was relatively easy to opt out by pulling up the currency options box under payment options:

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...456d601d22.png
According to xe.com €42 converts to $47.41, so eBay's conversion is a bit more than the 3% they claim. But we'll see what rate Chase uses in any case.

Pay attention to the wording. Ebay specifies the spread, but most others specify the fee. You get the fee by dividing the spread by two.

If you specify a fee, then you can charge an additional fee by using a reference rate which already contains an unspecified fee, so the real fee can be a lot higher than the disclosed fee.

If you specify a spread, then you can't use this trick as you are referencing your own buying and selling rates rather than a reference rate.

In this case, the total fee was 3.3%, and the spread was 6.6%. If Ebay claimed to be using a spread of 3%, but used a spread of 6.6%, this sounds like false marketing.

I recently traveled to Amman, Jordan. There is a 40 JOD Visa fee that you can pay by card when arriving. Apparently they automatically use DCC, which in this case was 5.99%. That is the highest I have ever seen! And they didn't have me sign the receipt despite using a chip & signature card.

Anyway, I disputed the transaction with Navy Federal Credit Union. I have disputed with JP Morgan Chase plenty of times and they typically refund the markup within a few days. However, NFCU took about 2 weeks and refunded the entire purchase. Definitely did not expect that.

Perhaps NFCU went the route of the full Reason Code 76 chargeback. When you say that you have contested charges in the past have those been specifically for entry visas into Jordan or in general?

I meant in general. Most frequently food purchases in Ireland.

Just done with my stay in Sao Paulo and all I can say is that Amex had a 100% acceptance rate and just a general recommendation: if you want a piece of mind and no DCC troubles, give up your Visa/MC, at least here.

Makes sense for Brazil. But it seems like much of the world doesn't take AmEx. I know in Ireland it was basically limited to vendors at the airport, hotels, and steak houses.

I agree. Irish merchants even DCC Euro denominated accounts based in other EU countries. In my case, it was a UK debit card linked to a Euro account.

Really? I never saw that happen. Most of the DCC'ing in Ireland was British accounts given how close they are and they share an island with Northern Ireland.

I think that terminals only can identify the country of issue but not the currency of the card. This probably means that all UK cards are identified as GBP cards by the terminals, despite a small percentage of them being denominated in other currencies.

IIRC the currency is on the chip too. It could be that the Euro denominated British cards are set up so that GBP is given to the terminal despite how they behave otherwise.

It's impossible to DCC a Euro denominated card if the native currency is Euros.

Of course, but if the terminal thinks the card's actually in GBP (since the currency code on the chip isn't set to Euro), it'll attempt DCC. Accepting DCC then results in a double conversion (merchant conversion to GBP followed by issuer conversion back to Euro). :(

Interesting. Who is the issuer of your card?

I believe a card can only have one currency field, so if it's one of these multiple currency cards, such as Revolut, it might still be subject to DCC. If you have a EUR native card (no other currency option), you wouldn't see the DCC prompts.

I have a Revolut card which I haven't really used in the States. Anyone know of any bigger chains that might have DCC? I could go and use the Revolut there to see if the prompt occurs - just to experiment. I have a USD account there as well as EUR and PLN. Would be curious to test it out and report back.

Someone mentioned Best Buy above. I'm not sure about any others as I only have USD cards.

Some Best Buy stores (but not all) have it. I've seen it at Kate Spade and Forever 21 as well. We only have a single card that's not USD denominated in house, which has a fee and no rewards, so we're not too inclined to try it to test for DCC in the US.

I will be on the lookout whenever I use it and see how it is. My friend from Poland is also visiting with a "USD" only card, issued by a Polish bank, so I wonder if there is a possibility of DCC there at all. We'll be on the lookout for both. :)

To update, the charge posted as $47.51 (€0.88402 to $1), so eBay/PayPal's rate was 3.1% higher than what Chase used. Though wouldn't their fee be more like 1.55% (3.1/2) given what you said before? Or did you mean multiply by two instead of divide by two?

If the spread is 3%, then the fee is 1.5%.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bid%E2...Percent_spread

Argh, last week I was DCCed at Europcar in Munich. The agent stuck my CSR Visa in a new terminal they have now to capture the credit card information and rapidly pressed buttons to get things done... I briefly saw the USD question but she was to fast. The rental contract mentioned something about the card currency and I asked her to fix it. Since I was in a rush I didn't have the patience and she insisted I would be charged in Euro. Sure enough the invoice says:

So instead of the interbank rate of 1.128 and a 44.70US$ charge they hit me with 1.163 and 46.10$ :mad: Disputed it today with Chase, who will refund me the 1.40 as usual, but its still annoying.

Your profile states "Location: MUC" but you still got DCC in Munich? Weird. Usually it only pops up when you are abroad.