Zurich ugly? Boring yes.
But perhaps you need to be stuck in Bucharest next time 😎

ATMs can charge a transaction fee with and/or without DCC so I'm not exactly sure what your question is. I was intending to say that I used a Euronet ATM which charged a transaction fee, and I declined DCC. I was reimbursed the ATM transaction fee at the end of the month by Schwab, so the fact that the ATM charges such fee is moot.

even for co-branded amex cards ??? or maybe i have to check the T&C of the amex i have

The acceptance agreement is between merchant and AMEX. Co-branded AMEX would be covered as it will settle thru AMEX network.

Thanks , and does this agreement cover ATMs ? or its another story ?

To my dismay, DCC is much more prevalent in Poland than it was before. Most if not all terminals show DCC, it is easy to avoid and use local currency and if it is managed by the cashier they will always ask, but it is still there. All ATMs use it and the big difference I am seeing now is that it is asked on contactless transactions now, when it the past it was only insert or when authorization was required. A typical screen that you'll get looks like this:


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f521a83d4e.jpg

I had an interesting one the other day--one of the main payment processors in the Dominican Republic offers DCC to all foreign cards. The terminals are customer-facing and it's extremely obvious how to decline (press 1 for DOP, press 2 for USD), so no problems there... but when I paid with a German card, it still offered to charge me in USD.

Even if more prevalent, it seems like a better situation than it was in the past where cashiers managed the terminals and didn't ask for currency selections. I don't care if it is ubiquitous as long as there is always an easy opt out available.

I haven't been around here in awhile (when I left, the malicious browser-hijacking ads had got so bad I just couldn't put up with them anymore), but with travel about to reopen I wanted to check out the DCC situation broadly. It's interesting watching how it changes. Ireland used to be one of the worst, but when I was last there just before Lockdown 1 (last February, I was in Dublin), I didn't see DCC once. But it looks like other countries have gone the opposite direction.

I wonder if it's cyclical - merchants and banks get this "brilliant" idea, then find it destroys their reputation and costs them more in chargebacks than they earn off of it.

Welcome back, and I was wondering what caused the DCC uptick in some locations and disappearance in others.

I haven't been doing many transactions not in USD, but the above reports show that places like Poland which used to not have an opt out or unwilling cashiers now gives customers the choice. The last time I was in the UK was about a month before things shut down, but I didn't see any DCC with my transactions. I was exclusively using my CSR with contactless on the card or my phone.

I was in Shanghai December 2019, but I only had one data point with no DCC. I mostly used Alipay's new tourist pass option which didn't have a credit card fee when it debuted (nor did it have DCC). The hotel was on an AmEx, so there was no data point there.

Merchants in Europe got new payment processing systems to comply with new EU rules in late 2019 / early 2020 so the terminals were upgraded/replaced just before the pandemic hit. I suppose with the upgrade the logic of DCC and the customer facing interfaces also got redesigned. Since there is a massive uptick in contactless payment (card wave, smart devices, qr code scan etc) DCC is also moving with the times and adapting to be in that space too :p

It’s also more prevalent in Scandinavia than it used to be. Easy enough to decline, but I’m sure many don’t understand what DCC USD selection means for their costs. Some are getting fleeced.

I'm happy there's an easy opt out now, but we must continue our education. It's nice to see an increasing number of travel bloggers call attention to it too.

A couple of years ago at the Prado gift shop the cashier asked me why I preferred to have my charge processed in Euros instead of US$. I explained the conversion fee. It was an eye opener for her and she thanked me for the explanation. Hopefully, she used her newly found knowledge to educate other customers.

The European Union has regulated DCC transactions. It is no longer possible to claim that the transaction will use the "Mumbo Jumbo Bank wholesale rate" (or whatever) with no fee and then hide the fee in the exchange rate. It is now mandatory to present the fee in the form of the difference between the merchant's rate and the latest exchange rate posted by the European Central Bank. When I withdraw cash from a Nordea cash machine in Denmark last month, Nordea had to accurately report the conversion fee to SEK as five point something per cent. As the fees are now easier to spot, more people are likely to discover what a rip-off they are. Even if you don't discover this the first time, you will find out eventually. Unfortunately, merchants and banks only have to present an accurate exchange rate if the card is denominated in the currency of an EU/EEA country, so travellers from China, Russia, the United States and other places might not find out about the real fee.

Since I live in the UK it's hard to tell, but as far as I know, DCC has always been rare here except for very rich tourist-focused shops like Harrods (which once outright told me the reason they don't have contactless enabled is because DCC doesn't work with it - or didn't at the time, a few years ago).

It's also worth noting that this most recent trip to Ireland was entirely contactless, so it's possible they just haven't caught up with contactless DCC.

Meanwhile in the last couple years, many receipts in the US feature "USD" in the transaction amount. Is this because of DCC? Meaning, if a foreign card user accepts DCC, the final transaction amount would not be USD?

I'm sure that every bank in Spain that has been listing a 0.5% markup and charging a markup closer to 5% will totally cut it out now that there's an EU directive (/s). Just like all the institutions (including the European Parliament!) that still ignore the 2011 directive banning IBAN discrimination and all the airlines that fight claims for delay compensation that they're clearly obligated to pay.

Probably just standardization across markets. A lot of currencies use the $ symbol, but there's no question what currency you used when the slip says "USD". DCC seems a lot less common in the U.S.--I know it exists but I've paid with EUR cards a fair bit and never seen it firsthand, whereas paying with USD cards in some parts of Europe it was ubiquitous.

Perhaps you're reading too much into it. To have a meaning, any quantity must have a number AND the unit of measurement. It's usually assumed that USD will be that "Unit" for purchases within the realm. But it can be spelled out, so no one would try to slip a Canadian quarter. :D

You still haven’t explained why “USD” went from zero to almost everywhere.

Other countries, other currencies are an afterthought in the US… I mean, do they exist? ;-)

Probably the only positive aspect of American exceptionalism I have heard! 😂

It did not for me. Have a pile of receipts containing mostly numbers, with an occasional $ character.

I will guess that this is due to the increase in the amount of DCC-capable hardware now present in stores, as things get upgraded to the latest stuff.

The only time I have seen DCC presented in the US was at...the Gap! It was well-presented, and my friend with the foreign card didn't need any help to make the right choice.

Re: DCC in the US--I wouldn't be surprised if it became more common in areas that have large numbers of international tourists. There are a lot of places that aren't as well traveled, though, and for those DCC would be a pretty hard sell for merchants in the first place. After all, if you maybe only get one foreign card a week, are you really going to make enough from DCC to justify the effort (especially if you have to change your existing practices to make it easy for the customer to opt out)?

On that note, another factor that might make DCC less common is the cultural expectation in certain industries (e.g. restaurants) that the customer not run their own cards. Of course, DCC is still possible via the checkbox on the receipt method (like what Hong Kong apparently does/did), but I'm not sure it's worth the trouble for many to implement that approach.

I suspect it's difficult to implement DCC if the customer is expected to leave a tip. If you try to fool your customers to pay extra for DCC, expect no or reduced tip.

Yeah, they probably need to do the initial charge in USD first or ask people prior to taking cards to the back, both of which are problematic. Maybe this is one of the upsides to US restaurants being so resistant towards pay at the table?

If you were to venture to I-Drive in Orlando or Times Square with a non-USD card, I'm certain you'd start collecting DCC data points all over the place. It was reported a few years ago in the thread here that even large chains like Red Lobster and Olive Garden had DCC at one point. The reason we don't see it is because we and those around us are predominantly using USD cards, but DCC certainly exists. Many big box electronic and clothing retailers have it, but it's easy enough to decline. Here is my sister-in-law's AUD card at Kate Spade for reference:

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...3140b7002b.jpghttps://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...bc4ea0400e.jpg

This was early 2015 so pre-EMV, but I doubt things have changed. We collected a few data points, but seeing as though her card had exchange fees, we limited the transactions. We currently only have one non-USD card at home, but Mrs. Majuki doesn't like to use it since there's a currency exchange fee and no rewards. :D

Rinascente Milan Duomo (largest department store in Italy)... US-issued card, contactless... got DCC....

Speaking of DCC in the US, apparently this is not uncommon. I saw it at Marshalls where the very dull screen all of a sudden went rich with colors show the US flag and the country flag of card issuance (for the two options, pay in USD or via a conversion rate). The unfavorable conversion rate was over 4% extra from the standard exchange rate all listed on one screen (well, the unfavorable rate that is). It was easy to choose local currency (USD), but still sad to see.

Yes, I suspect it is more common than we might know just because almost all of us have USD denominated cards. Also, it's a bit ironic that we need to select USD since normally we're running away from paying in USD when using our cards overseas. :D

I'd definitely have investigated this more had Revolut not kicked Americans off its service for a few years (only to allow us back and give us debit cards that behave just like any other card from a US issuer). Though at least those still prefer online PIN when run as credit, which they could easily have not done.

Mrs. Majuki has a TWD denominated Visa. However, the card has no rewards and has a currency exchange fee, so we're not that motivated to collect data points just to test for the presence of DCC.

It is. I used an Amex ICC USD Platinum in June since it had a 2X promo, and I was still working on the signup bonus spend. Despite it being a USD card, I was prompted for GBP/USD DCC a few times, probably because it's actually issued out of the UK. Also was asked to enter a PIN during a few transactions, which was interesting considering it's the U.S.

Thanks for the DP! According to several posts upthread, AmEx did not allow DCC on its network. Perhaps that view should be clarified or ammended -- we can always use more DPs involving AmEx cards.

I have used my US issued AmEx in Canada from February to June and did not have a single instance of DCC :tu: (working on minimum spend for a different card now, Visa, still no DCC since July).

Just came back from Poland, and got DCC at every single establishment, including the Covid test spot at the airport. Fortunately, the choice is clear, and the clerk always clarified which button to push to select PLN.

That’s interesting. I was in Krakow this past weekend and got it about 50% of the time. Less than Spain. But I could have just been lucky!

If the DCC terminal is made by a Chinese company, you may learn "yes" (Covid-positive result to the customer) is spelt "N-O" (at the terminal)

This is still an accurate statement.

Amex processes their transactions through their own bank as far as I understand so DCC would be redundant though not impossible…

that said Amex already charges a very hefty fee of close to 3% in many international markets (All of Europe) and its conversion process passes through USD which makes it even more convoluted and opaque.