Interesting, I didn't know this... Of course it makes absolute sense not like a credit card has a WiFi connection lol.

I'm pretty sure I've seen damn DCC applied automatically before but I could have just missed the waiter pressing button but almost always in Poland they hand you the terminal (should do this in USA as it prevents skimming somewhat)

Lol when my Polish girlfriend came to USA... I told her she should always pick zloty over USD when promoted on our machines. (She doesn't get charged FTF I believe...) Yet the conversion rate when picking zloty from her bank to USD was worse than the merchant rate!

I'm confused because DCC will always result in a surcharge beyond whatever the Visa or MC rate is. Paying in local currency will use the Visa or MC rate. The card issuer never sets the conversion rate. It's either the payment network when paying in local currency or the acquirer when it's DCC.

Where have you seen DCC in the US? I don't get much experience with non-USD denominated cards in the US, so it's extremely rare to see DCC prompts stateside.

Yes. There was a period of time that it defaulted to dcc. I saw merchants put the amount in PLN and it would spit out the receipt with the usd dcc. There wasn't even an option to select if one wanted usd or PLN. And I spoke with the owners of these places and it wasn't them who modified the terminal, but they noticed this after a update issued by the bank terminal. After a few months, it reverted back to normal (option to select the currency). I try now to use my PLN card in poland when I can, unless I'm dining out on a higher bill and I'll earn a ton of points. But for the headache to dispute a 5$ charge, I'd rather just use my local card.

DCC at Ibis hotel in Barajas near Madrid airport, Spain.
 

I've been following this for a while and thanks to all contributors for the useful information.

I have read here that Accor are one hotel chain the employs DCC, so thought I'd share my recent experience at the Ibis in Barajas near Madrid airport, Spain.

I checked out and paid my bill with a U.K. issued MasterCard which has no foreign fees.

The card terminal showed the amount as EUR 126.10 and after entering my PIN and returning the terminal to the staff member, I was asked if I wanted to pay in EUR or GBP.

I requested payment in Euro but the resulting payment receipt showed that Dynamic Currency Conversion "DCC" had been used
and I had been charged GBP 114.48.
I was under the impression that the currency selection had to take place before the transaction was authorised by the card holder by PIN but this appears not to be the case.

I pointed this out immediately and the staff member reversed the transaction. I'm not sure if this was a scam or a genuine error.

Anyway, the reversal is for the local currency amount of EUR 126.10 which has been refunded to my card account as GBP 112.37, instead of the amount of GBP 114.48.

My card issuer asked me to contact the hotel in the first instance, so I fired off an email to the manager with all the details, asking for a refund of GBP 2.11.

A few hours later, I got a reply with an apology and a EUR 5.00 credit to my account, so I'm now a couple of pounds ahead.

I'd still like to see DCC banned though.

I am trying to figure out what happened. Did the receipt show the [X] next to the GBP amount? Did the EUR/GBP prompt happen after PIN entry and the receptionist ask you the question, or did you see the prompts on the terminal?

The best practice is to retain the terminal while it authorizes post PIN entry to avoid staff at a merchant making a selection for you. This is most certainly intentional; the rate of "genuine error" when referring to DCC hovers between 0 and 1%. This is a case of Automatic DCC and goes against MasterCard's compliance guidelines for DCC:

It sounds like the transaction was refunded rather than voided. If you ever find yourself in a DCC situation in the future, make sure that the transaction gets voided versus a simple refund. Usually with a refund the merchant will not use DCC and let Visa/MC process the conversion. Again, this is intentional. I'm happy that the hotel provided a €5 credit, but you shouldn't have to jump through the process to get this.

I would encourage you to file complaint with MasterCard using this form. There is a selection for "Currency Conversion" under the topic, and explain the circumstances of the transaction.

Thanks Majuki for your useful info.
The refunded transaction was processed as a "Devolucion" = refund and only had the EUR amount.
I guess in both cases the hope was that I'd run out the door and not check the details.

I'll certainly send a complaint to MasterCard - thanks for the link.

KT

I just returned from Spain and Portugal. Most places in Spain offered DCC, however all but one charged in Euro upon request. However, the Real Alcazar in Seville claimed it was not possible to charge a card in Euro (despite presenting a slip saying I’d been offered a choice of currencies). In Portugal, I was only offered DCC at El Corte Ingles (which had a customer facing terminal and offered a choice).

I love that store (except for that crazy spiraling parking garage exit). ^

In reference to Post #290 , I thought one of the benefits of having a PIN card was that the PIN protected against auto-DCC? Because you'd select/reject DCC before entering pin, and know exactly how much you are charged and in what currency BEFORE entering pin?

Thanks.

A malicious DCC processor can still opt everyone in Chip and PIN terminal into accepting DCC.

Visa's compliance program is only a paper CYA job. Not to mention MC runs its own.

I’ve come across one or two terminals that ask after the PIN.

So asking before is a lot more common?

Yes, but it's best to retain the terminal after entering the PIN to opt out of DCC if offered.

Just spent a week travelling Thailand and Australia, except for the Conrad BKK asking politely if I would prefer to pay in USD I didn't see any DCC in action.^ And we were at a lot of places...