I was in Santiago Chile just recently and the terminals there are all over the place. It doesn't present the transaction as USD vs local currency, it just shows an upcharge amount for the card being "foreign" and asks if you want to accept it. Anywhere from 2% all the way to 11% depending on the bank terminal and transaction amount. Some larger stores didn't charge it but I ended up paying cash a lot.

Also the ATMs charge nearly $8 USD (7000 peso) transaction fee for each transaction, even in local pesos. Luckily schwab reimbursed it but its definetly higher then I've seen in a lot of places.

I saw my first DCC offer at an ATM in Japan last night. Previously in Japan I've seen DCC offers here and there but never at ATMs. The pending transaction is $76.52 whereas the DCC offer was $79.46. This was 3.84% versus the quoted rate of 3.5%. The opt out was easy enough if you know what you're seeing.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c2c816f519.jpg

As a follow up, we saw our first point of sale instance of DCC at KITTE Marunouchi when Mrs. Majuki was making a purchase at one of the stores. The terminal displayed a prompt on the LCD with clear instructions of what to do to decline DCC. The cashier also presented a quote slip, similar to what I've seen in Taiwan and Singapore. I also saw the quote slip at the transit hotel that The Royal Park Hotel operates at Haneda about 5 years ago. The pending transaction amount shows the non-DCC rate, and Mrs. Majuki double checked to make sure that she was signing a receipt denominated in JPY.

This terminal DCCs (compliantly).
I made a split payment - on my HK-issued HKD-denominated card, choice between JPY and HKD was offered (and I was able to select the former).

But when I put in Wirex card (issued by Wirecard Pte in Singapore), no DCC is offered and it goes straight to JPY charging.
DCC doesn't work on a multi-currency card (a good reason to get one if yes!)?

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...6d87c3d51.jpeg

Mrs. Majuki and I were at an outlet mall in Taiwan, and I saw my first case of DCC on a tap transaction at the food court. The cashier asked us which currency, and we said TWD. The cashier helped Mrs. Majuki select TWD. I couldn't see the exchange rate from my vantage point, and the cashier opted us out quickly. The pending transaction amount is the Visa conversion rate, so I was unable to tell what the DCC rate was.

It's unfortunate that contactless no longer offers a certain way to avoid DCC. Others have posted here as well, but this was my first experience.

Random, maybe answered upthread... do US merchants do this bs to foreign visitors/tourists too? (i.e., should I warn friends and business associates and strangers I meet in restaurants about this?)

No personal experience as to how common it is but from what I remember others saying earlier in the thread, it's easy to opt out of DCC in the US.

I would rather warn them about the mandatory 18% restaurant service charge in many tourist areas. If you see it on your invoice, it's perfectly ok not to add another tip on top.

DCC does exist in the US, but I've not had any recent data points since early 2015. DCC was present in retail settings at major chain stores where the option appeared on the customer facing terminal. As I mentioned at the time, it was almost counterintuitive for me to select USD. :D

Yes, it was easy enough to opt out. Judging by the blank stares from cashiers as we went through the purchase process they had no influence on the DCC selection.

There was a data point from one of our UK posters here a few years ago of DCC being present at large chain restaurants, but the waitstaff was able to opt out. As I said at the time, in those cases the customer service oriented attitude and prospect of a tip would be able to get a DCC opt out even if initially present as part of the tip adjust process.

Mrs. Majuki has a single non-USD card that we can use to test. However, it's a non rewards card with a foreign transaction fee, so we're not too inclined to go around just to collect data points.

Chase just confirmed the credit is official and permanent, but I have no clue if they dinged the vendor or just closed me out since it is so cheap. I remain convinced the restaurant is doing this to their customers as regular practice (since that's what they told me flat out).

We're pleased to tell you that we've resolved your dispute. If you have questions, please call us at 1-800-849-3574, ... Transaction Post Date Merchant Name Transaction Amount Dispute Amount 11/13/2022 LE SALAMA $187.94 $9.42
We gave you a temporary credit when we opened the dispute. That credit will remain on your account.

THANK YOU everyone for the advice and learning.

In Canary Islands now... all restaurants trying to scam you with the DCC conversion. Constantly hitting "bill in EUR" to avoid. Disgusting practice.

Ideally they'd do a chargeback to the merchant. There's no way to tell what happened here, but it's important to dispute every single one of these instances.

Is the opt out easy enough? While I'd prefer no DCC at all, I can live with it being present as long as there is a customer initiated or respected opt out.

Yes, the merchant/waiter hands you the machine and you have to click EUR or USD. Problem is, not everyone is aware that clicking USD is such a monetary loss. In fact, many waiters don't really give you a chance to read... they either say EUR or USD for you - and if they announce USD, you have to quickly respond No, EUR please so they don't push that button. Further they surely don't let you read the little conversion description if you agree to USD.

There were a number of DP's up thread about the prevalence of DCC in Poland. I happened to visit there last October, and can report a definite improvement. Some merchants in tourist areas were proactively suggesting that choosing Zloty is usually better.

Mrs. Majuki encountered her first instance of DCC by herself this evening at a Starbucks in Taipei. She said the opt out was easy enough, but again this was on a contactless transaction with a signature waiver. If DCC wasn't an easy opt out here, I might be inclined to avoid tapping a card in favor of a chip-and-signature transaction in case there was forced DCC.

What's curious is that at two other Starbucks locations there was no DCC.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...dcf5714a59.jpg

I returned to this location with a coworker today as a test to see if DCC appeared with Google Pay, and it did. The DCC and opt out process was identical, and Google Pay shows NT$160 as the transaction amount. Although I wouldn't test this as I refuse to give the DCC scam one cent, I'm curious if accepting DCC would cause the USD amount to appear under the transaction.

Another interesting difference is that the receipt showed (T) instead of (W) next to the card number.

Outside of the UOB ATM, I haven't seen any DCC prompts in Singapore, including the preauth on my World of Hyatt Visa at the Andaz. :eek: Most of my credit card transactions have been contactless, which may be bypassing DCC still.

The UOB ATM quoted 93.48 USD for 120 SGD. The Visa rate was 90.32 USD, so this was the 3.5% that the ATM quoted. Usually the quoted % does not match the Visa or MC rate. The screen even had language about understanding the costs of currency conversion. I would say this is probably the most compliant implementation of DCC that I've ever seen. (I'm still not a fan of course.)

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...3a89211b1e.jpg

As another Canadian data point, I'm in Quebec this week, used my US debit card to get cash from both a Scotia and Desjardins ATM, and no DCC at all.

Sadly, Desjardins didn't even give me the option of conducting the transaction in French (:(), but Dynamic Language Conversion is another topic entirely.

The only examples I've encountered of DCC in the Philippines have been at SM Supermarkets. The cashiers tend to hold the device away from you and ask if you want to pay in pesos or USD, so it's very hard to see how bad the rate is. I don't know if they are deliberately being sneaky or are just clueless. From a distance, at an angle, I think it said 5% mark-up, but I can't be sure. (Metro Supermarkets don't do DCC, but they make you sign two receipts as part of some crazy, slow bureaucracy they have going.)

CIBC ATMs DCC. Really doesn't affect which ATM I go to; just decline it if it pops up.

I have yet to encounter an ATM where DCC opt out isn't possible, so I have the same mindset.

SM supermarket?

Can't you ask for the terminal?

I've been in Ireland this week, which is the origin of this whole mess of DCC. I hadn't seen it on payments until having dinner tonight at Madigan's. I actually noticed it since a customer was paying at the bar with a GBP denominated card. He tapped the payment, and I saw the EU and UK flag appear on the handheld terminal's touchscreen. The customer quickly walked away without selecting, but the bartender selected EUR proactively.

When it came time to pay, the bartender maintained control of the terminal when I tapped the card and pressed the softkey which I knew was the DCC opt out selection. I verified by asking for a copy of the receipt that it was in EUR.

Thanks to the bartender for helping customers opt out of DCC!

Is this a DCC Situation?
 

I’m currently on a cruise ship, and received notice that onboard charges would be processed through a UK bank, but would be charged in dollars. The ship said that if we wanted to change the card on file to let them know.

Initially, I ignored the message, but started wondering whether this would somehow be a DCC situation, and whether I should change my card on file from JP Morgan to Amex.

Sound like a disguised DCC to the experts here? Suggestions?

Many thanks.

Are prices on board denominated in USD? If so, I imagine this is like what BA does with their ticketing. It's fine to keep the current card on file in that case as long as it doesn't have a FTF.

BA processes (or at least did in the past) their US website transactions in the UK even though the transactions are in USD. This used to be frustrating before the days of 0% FTFs since you'd get hit with a FTF on a USD transaction.

Yes, prices are in USD and my card has no FTF. From your analysis, it seems like I’m safe. Thank you.

I'll just add my $.02 (or £.02 if it goes through UK ;)). Generally speaking, if you have a 0%FTF card, the only situation where you have to worry is when you're presented with a price in one currency, but the transaction runs in another. If you see a price that's posted in the card's currency, it's not DCC. In certain cases you may see prices posted in multiple currencies — then you can do your math and choose the one that's more beneficial. That was my situation when I was in Jordan — there were places that had prices in both US dollars and Jordanian dinars and in some cases they ended up being slightly better (a few cents) in $$. So if you chose the $$ price and paid in $$, you knew the exact amount and you could see what the dinars would convert to, so that wasn't a DCC situation either. Now if you chose to pay in dinars and THEN they would charge you in $$, that would have been DCC, but they never tried that.

That's right. There are concepts such as multicurrency conversion, but these situations are rare enough not to be a concern for most travelers. I've only personally come across this with VAT refunds with Global Blue.

There are destinations where there's a local currency but transactions are primarily in another currency. Two such examples are the Cayman Islands and Aruba. Unless you have a local card, payment processors will process credit card transactions in USD, regardless of the currency denomination of the card. Menu prices in the Cayman Islands usually reflect a KYD price with 1 KYD = 1.25 USD even if the official exchange rate is 1 KYD = 1.2 USD. In Aruba, most menu prices where tourists would be are denominated in USD. Some show AWG at the official exchange rate and others show < 3% markup to USD. However, these are all disclosed before you give payment, so, like with your examples in Jordan, you can decide if you want to pay cash or whatever the merchant decides the USD price would be if making a card payment.

Actually, in the US some cards will indeed charge a foreign transaction fee even if the transaction itself is in USD. The FTF and currency-exchange fees are two very different things. I get around this by using Capital One cards anytime I'm outside the US.

Indeed they are, and dmapr specifically cited 0% FTF cards in the above post. Ironically, back when many US cards had a CEF instead of a FTF, accepting DCC would make sense in cases where the CEF was lower than the cost of DCC since you'd earn points on the whole transaction amount but not the CEF. 15+ years ago, DCC was far less egregious than it is today. I remember seeing DCC being < 3%. Over time, US cards switched from CEFs to FTFs, and many travel cards later went to having a 0% FTF. In these cases, accepting DCC never makes sense, and DCC fees are now 4-5% or higher compared to the Visa/MC rate.

HBA airport. Easy enough to opt out, though I can't recall if I've ever seen anything this high :rolleyes:

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...51a32bb54e.jpg

13.5%?!! :eek: :td: At least they make it, and how to opt out, obvious.

Well, travelling in Spain and Portugal now and I can say DCC is pretty much on every terminal i encountered. Most terminals only activate it when there is a need for signature. This can be defeated with using your mobile device. Some activate it every time - just today at a local restaurant I had a €9.60 charge, paid by Google pay ask about currency choice. Easy to decline DCC but still..


The most curious instance I had was in a restaurant in Malaga though. I used an EU revolut issued for Poland. I have EUR on it and have been using it no problem and.. I was DCC'd! It asked if I want to pay in PLN or EUR. Funnily enough, I had no PLN on the account at the time. But this was the first time ever it did that, I wonder what the reason was/is.

If you had selected PLN, it would have declined?

Mainstream article

Traveling abroad? Don’t be tempted to pay your way using your home currency

https://www.cnn.com/travel/foreign-t...ncy/index.html

There is a link to new EU regulations here in the article:

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-cont...X%3A32021R1230

I wonder how this will work in practice.

Sorry for the delay but yes - it would have, and I had this happen at a local shoe store in a small town for the second time! The two younger cashiers were puzzled when the currency selection came up on their terminal and they pressed PLN and I got a notification that there was not enough money in the PLN account so transaction was denied. Then they went ahead and hit EUR and it worked like a charm. Interesting indeed.

Was recently in Europe for a little over a week, including PRG and parts of Germany and Austria. Did a ton of contactless with my CSR and was only prompted for DCC once at a restaurant in Prague (and the waiter asked so it was easy to avoid)

Took Euros out of an ATM in Germany, no DCC prompt and no ATM fee, quite refreshing! :tu:

This is the problem with DCC when the cashier controls the terminal. Had you had PLN in the account to cover the transaction you would have been hit with DCC.

If it's a Deutsche Bank ATM, you're liable to get €100 banknotes though.