For most of us, that would cost way more (3% forex fee) than transferring the money to a US bank account.

If you have an Amex overseas, you should be able to get a transfer to Amex in the USA. Most Amex rewards I'm aware of are somewhat worse outside the USA and have been deteriorating. (e.g. the reductions in MR->Marriott transfer rates for Canadian and Australian Amex cards recently)

Actually no. I tried and the issue was that the card had to be issued by Amex or its subsidiaries. Not by a bank under license from Amex.

Also, you do get more APR internationally and SWIFT is generally free if you're a "good" customer of both banks, so running down is a moot point.

Mrs. Majuki bought a handbag from the Longchamp store at the Pavilion Kuala Lumpur. I've proactively been trying to use mobile payments as much as possible to avoid DCC offers, but this store did not have the option of contactless payments (or simply refused to take them). The DCC offer appeared on a monochrome customer facing signature pad, and the terminal was down on the counter. The cashier helped me select MYR on the signature pad, and the DCC selection was completely within the customer's control if one knew what to look for.

The quoted DCC offer was $126.25 for 485.00 MYR at 3.83%. The posted transaction amount was $117.42, saving $8.83, which would have effectively been a 7.52% surcharge with DCC had I accepted the DCC offer. I don't know how the acquirers calculate the percentage since the exchange rate hasn't changed between the transaction time and the posting date. Chase uses the Visa exchange rate from the posting date of the transaction, the effective percentage could change if there's a material change in the exchange rate between the transaction date and the posting date for the transaction.

Just came back from Ukraine and used my American visa credit card on Google Pay contactless. Pretty much every terminal offered DCC, luckily, cashiers usually hit UAH instead. What is really weird though is that sometimes, when the cashier hit UAH, they asked to tap again - it seemed like the terminal required that.

I thought people in some countries had mentioned that tapping avoided DCC? I guess it didn't then. I also came across DCC offer in Poland while tapping.

Speaking of Poland, many stores here flat out advertise paying in your own currency as an advantage. Many stickers are shown advertising it and it's an option that's available everywhere. So there is that. I'll take a picture to show you that at some point.

Contactless might have avoided it at some point, but I suspect they figured out how to make it work within technical limitations/the current rules.

Speaking of advertising, Elavon in the US is really pushing it as good for customers. On the other hand, this hospitality FAQ from them implies there might be re-certification work involved in getting DCC enabled, which may dissuade some merchants from going for it (but then again, the promise of additional revenue might make it worthwhile).

I've not seen DCC when using Google Pay even with merchants that offer it with a physical card. There are counterexamples to this though as mentioned above and in earlier posts.

Merchants state that you will pay a certain fee on top of a reference rate, but the merchant sometimes chooses a reference rate which already contains an unspecified fee. Instead of trusting the merchant's quoted reference rate, always look up a reference rate yourself from a trusted source.

You can always change the currency to original currency of transaction with PayPal and eBay. Where you cannot do so is Buyee.jp, for example.

Paypal sometimes changes that setting back to using DCC and some websites directly debit your Paypal account without showing any Paypal pages which means DCC without notification. The Visa and Mastercard terms of use state that a shop using DCC must ask you if you wish to use DCC or not for every transaction, and this is hardly satisfied by having a hard to find checkbox which sometimes automatically reverts back to using DCC. Just request a chargeback if you don't have the option to disable DCC.

Malta
 

Ran into the DCC scam this evening at an established restaurant in Malta. A bit surprised because everything else that I have charged in Malta, there has not been a currency choice - just Euros.

Charged dinner - X Euros. Waiter returns receipt for me to sign. Shows Euros and USD and the fine print that I have chosen USD. I told the waiter that this action just took the enjoyment out the of a very good local meal and I had not chosen USD. I refused to sign the slip and that it needed to be charged in Euros. I got the 'I just do what the machine tells me'. I told him that I'd dispute the transaction with VISA (Chase) and the restaurant would likely receive $0. (Not sure whether or not that is accurate.)

He sent the manager over. The manager did a good job back peddling - the waiter made a mistake, I'll train him better, and how can I fix it? I suggested that we use xe.com and he pay me the difference in Euros - cash - and I wouldn't dispute the charge. He agreed and all is good. But the difference was significant. That adds up when you do that to all of your customers.

It was funny that the manager quickly agreed to using xe.com...maybe he has run into this in the past...and the demeanor of the up to then friendly waiter changed for the worse.

First sentence of the OP: