What about an Avis rental without a preferred account? I am renting from them in Canada in July.

Update on my Hertz DCC in Ireland in post 636. 2 days later I've received a response in my email:

"Thank you for contacting Hertz.
I have requested that the end of rental charges be reversed and billed in Euro as requested. This process may take up to 10 working days to be visible on your account."

Easier than I thought! I don't know if being a President's Circle member helped or not, but at least they're doing the right thing.

I do remember that in my Avis account - I've just gone through and checked my Hertz profile and there isn't a spot to check for local / card currency billing.

I did scan somewhat thoroughly (I don't even know what "somewhat thoroughly" means to be honest) the screens that I was initialing, but I was specifically looking for currency choice actually. I was a bit peeved that, although my CSR actually DID cover the CDW in Ireland (few cards do), they forced me to accept their €7/day supplemental insurance charge for declining CDW. (My choice was to accept the charge, pay the CDW, or not get the car.) I expressed my displeasure in the email about this as well, but that wasn't addressed. My annoyance at that could have caused me to miss the DCC in the screens to initial to be honest, even though I was looking for it.

If I were you, I'd dispute that supplemental insurance charge with Chase.

Czech Republic
 

Server entered amount

I tapped a U. S. Mastercard via Samsung Pay

DCC choice between Krona or Dollars, selected local currency

Czech amount approved as CDCVM over the limit

Sounds like contactless in and of itself won't be enough to avoid being asked about DCC if the terminal is particularly non-compliant. :td: However, the good news is that you were allowed to opt out; I imagine use of a phone/watch precluded the server from, say, tapping your contactless card for you and going through the prompts without your input.

I would still say contactless is a lot more effective than chip-and-signature transactions. I have a post I'm preparing for Australia with ANZ terminals. DCC was only presented with chip-and-signature transactions. Mobile payments and contactless on the card bypassed DCC completely.

Doesn't that make it pretty much USA-only DCC? Does anywhere other than the USA use chip-and-signature?

I imagine chip and PIN causes DCC too, just that most Americans won't have PIN preferring cards and thus won't necessarily be able to conclude such.

Also, the US isn't the only chip and signature country. Mexico used it (until recently, IIRC), as well as a fair bit of Asia and South America.

Just came back from a trip to Italy and Greece. Have not encountered any DCC in Italy. In Greece every ATM threw a DCC prompt in my face but it was possible to deselect it. The rate was actually pretty good (1.120 vs, Visa's 1.118). Credit cards at a couple of restaurants and shops also offered DCC post-PIN entry, with USD being the default choice. In every case I was asked whether I wanted $ or € and in every case my choice of € was granted without further discussion. At one restaurant the waiter actually suggested that I choose € before I had a chance to respond.

Perhaps a minor point, but Krona is actually Swedish currency.

Koruna, also like Swedish Krona meaning crown, is the Czech currency.

Correct. We only had USD cards, all signature only except my Barclays Aviator, which would be signature preferring even in Australia. The only PIN entries I've seen in Australia have been with 1) the CityRail Opal vending machines - but I now have both my and Mrs. Majuki's Opal cards linked to my CSR online - and 2) pay at the pump transactions. During the trip last week, none of the gas stations offered pay at the pump, so I was able to do contactless with my CSR inside at all stations.

Outside of hotels, the only bank whose terminal I've seen have DCC in Australia is ANZ's. Last week, klashn, terrversay, gpen1827, and I spent three days at Yulara (Ayers Rock Resorts), and only some of the restaurants in the town square featured DCC. Both Kulata Academy Café and Ayers Wok Noodle Bar had DCC. The user controls the terminal throughout the transaction, so pressing the yellow (bottom middle) button at the DCC prompt results in AUD. With a number of cards, we tried contactless with the physical card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay, and none of the transactions ever showed the DCC prompts. We did not have a chip-and-PIN preferring card to test, but I imagine a non-AUD card would have resulted in DCC.

The hotel in Yulara was prepaid, so no DCC there, and I used AmEx for both of my Hilton stays. The Hilton properties use Currency Select, which is the same as the Marriott properties. Back before the merger, I did encounter DCC at the Sydney Marriott, but I posted my opt out experience there on this thread's predecessor. I imagine the procedure hasn't changed. Hertz, at least as of now, doesn't have DCC, and I've been renting from them in Australia for 8 years.

While not 100% effective, I've observed contactless avoiding DCC, either with the card or mobile payment, consistently in all known DCC locations that I've seen personally. I know this is not universal given the data points from above, but I would say the protection is highly effective.

I had a type of DCC notification that I'd not seen before at an Ibis hotel in Thailand. The system outputs a separate printout offering THB or your home currency. It lists the exchange rate being used and claims a mark-up of 3.00%. Then you choose whether to be ripped off or not and your final receipt is printed separately.

In reality, the amount quoted for USD would have been 4.77% more than the amount the THB charge converted to.

This quote slip is common in Thailand and Taiwan. I think it's also present in some DCC implementations elsewhere in SE Asia, but I haven't seen it personally outside of Taiwan.

I think I saw something similar in Hungary as well, but it was presented along with the receipt for my PIN transaction (First Tech MC) in HUF. I had thought it was something specific to their POS setup, but seemed a lot like the one described here.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f6a17affeb.png
Beware when buying Switzerland train ticket

Did you get stuck with HKD or were you able to select CHF? From the screen shot it seems you had a choice somewhere.

I clicked the CHF button.

I use Android pay almost exclusively in Poland. Most places never ask about currency, some do - even with android pay - and there's a few who force it.

It's rare though and every single time it's happened automatically (ignoring when the person behind the counter messes up), it's been restaurants.

Data point regarding Canada: Except for an airport ATM, I didn't see a single instance of DCC. The airport ATM respected the choice to have visa do the conversion and was not overly aggressive.

This was for 4 days, everything from the local corner supermarket to spots in touristy areas to even the airport duty free. Purchases were a mix of contactless card, google pay, and chip (no pin or signature).

It definitely exists, but it's not forced as long as you know to decline it. In Canada, the customer should have control of the payment terminal the entire transaction, so the customer should be able to select appropriately for any DCC prompts.

I've seen DCC in taxis and in a couple of restaurants. It's not the norm. Recent data points have all been in British Columbia.

Good to know thanks. I was traveling throughout the Ontario Province, so maybe it's more prevalent on the west coast then.

I would agree that contactless does seem to avoid a DCC prompt in most cases. I am unsure if it is by design or the folks that design the DCC software have not gotten around to updating the software flow yet.

Yes, I did find one major retailer in the UK that still forced the DCC prompt on tap transactions. It was about 3-5% above the wholesale rate and did seem unique. It was not difficult to opt-out, but it definitely is possible to get the prompt even with a NFC tap.

This has been reported in a few instances. Which retailer did the DCC for contactless transactions? Fortunately in the UK, I've seen the ability to opt out 100% of the time.

That definitely isn't compliant and is post facto DCC. This is one time when I'm glad that US cards are signature preferring. You can refuse to sign and have them reprocess the transaction or, in the worst case, deface the receipt and take a photo for a dispute.

This was Harrods (downtown location).

I get that DCC is bad, but what is even worse is the VAT refund process. The companies (retailer and processing company) take so much of the refund that it is ridiculous. Now, you can't even get a card VAT refund without them putting a forced exchange fee unless your card is in the currency of the original transaction. Belongs in a different thread I know...

Thanks. I remember percysmith had an issue with Harrods a number of years ago, but I think they've fixed their implementation. I haven't purchased anything from the Knightsbridge location since before I had contactless cards and mobile payment options. The airport location disallowed a mobile payment about to years ago saying it exceeded the limit.

The VAT refund process is a scam and has been talked about here for lack of a better thread. I scoured the options with Global Blue, and there weren't any good solutions. Even getting a cash refund in local currency had a fee. The only way would be getting a refund to a Visa/MC that has a native currency of the country in which the refund was processed. However, since EU country residents are ineligible for the refunds, I don't know how common it would be where one would have a Euro denominated card if not a resident.

Maybe something like TransferWise or Revolut (once the latter officially reopens to Americans)?

I was thinking about Revolut, but what would be the card's native currency? I haven't figured out a way to get the full VAT refund without Global Blue getting a cut. Yes, it's better than nothing, but I remember taking a DCC level hit to the refund amount the one time I did it in Europe.

In the past, the currency code on the Revolut card's chip was GBP. However, who knows how it'll be set up for Americans. (I'm still waiting on a card from them, so assuming that I actually do receive it at some point, that'll be something I check.)

It's also possible they use the BIN or some other mechanism for determining the "native" currency, despite multi-currency cards IIRC officially being a thing in the MC rules.

I've had similar experiences as you. I agree with you and I can't emphasize it enough, do not let the cashier control the terminal.

I have a Schwab debit card and a few ATMs in Poland have asked me whether I want to withdraw in USD at rip-off rate...

still getting the occasional forced DCC with Android pay...

Fellow member terryversay encountered DCC at ZRH duty free store while using Apple Pay with a US Bank Altitude. This confirms another instance in Switzerland where DCC was still present even with a contactless payment. He was able to opt out successfully and proceed with the charge in CHF.

http://i.imgur.com/L7My1Mom.jpg

Was there a signature required, or was that receipt torn off of the signature receipt? There may have been a post facto DCC applied to change to EUR. I'm always vigilant with the receipts to check for DCC.

my time to shine boys

ordered pizza tonight and when the guy came to deliver the terminal did a forced dcc. the option (for currency) appears for half a second and then disappears and forces dcc.

my fiance complained but it's not the delivery guys fault. calling Boa tomorrow for forced dcc.
reason code 76 right?

there's too many sleazy places here that forces this that I need to charge back.

paid with Android pay.

That's the one. I imagine if the reverse were true in the US that most restaurants and delivery places would figure it out how to opt out quickly if customers in the know left no tip.

​​​​​​we still gave the delivery guy a tip. wasn't his fault.