I have US based Visa credit card issued by Chase that I use quite a bit for travel related expenses. Hence I have to be on the lookout for DCC. ;)

Singapore, I forget the particulars but a UOB ATM at Harbourfront (I think in the MRT fare area) offered DCC.

I was in Ukraine last weekend and came across an interesting DCC example at a PrivatBank (ПриватБанк) ATM.

Put my GBP debit card in the machine, asked to withdraw a few thousand UAH. Offered DCC, as expected. But it was changing it to EUR, not GBP. So my bank would still have to do a conversion. Rejected this and was offered it again. Refused a second time, next screen informs me there is a 150 UAH (~£4.25) fee for no-conversion. So I cancel transaction.

Another nearby ATM (IdeaBank) offered no DCC and had no charge - just the way I like it.

Otherwise I used a GBP credit card in bars, cafes, restaurants and shops seeing no DCC anywhere. Contactless and phone payments are very widely accepted, with some more expensive stores preferring it to cash.

I think you'd have a valid chargeback case.

The wrong card currency was identified, which should mean that you always are entitled to a correction of the currency to UAH if you used DCC. Also, it's not permitted to use fees or discounts to convince you to use DCC, so the fee should have been returned to you if you didn't use DCC.

I recently saw advertising for the Travelex prepaid card and I just realized something: with a currency conversion fee at 5.5%, use of such a card may be one of the few times where DCC makes sense. Assuming the DCC fee is below 5.5%, of course.

That said, there are much better cards than Travelex (even just paying the 3% FTF on a regular debit or credit card is better), so I imagine most people wouldn't even consider getting one. Not to mention that DCC in general is a horrible concept that shouldn't be encouraged at all.

A small hotel in Spain. Booked through booking.com, but full bill to pay on checkout. Very clear € bill. Very clear € instructions given. Very clear € on pin machine. Charged in GB£. Disgusting print out from terminal - "0% commission over wholesale rate". Actually a 6.5% markup over mastercard's daily rate. Charge back effected via NatWest. No replacement € charge made yet, but I'm happy if the hotel does that. It was a very small B&B type place and the owner appeared to not be overly commercially aware, so it may be Banco Popular (the terminal provider) over charging, or the owner is a good actor.

ETA: The MasterCard charge back code is now 4834 - p.168
https://www.mastercard.us/content/da...back-guide.pdf

Last week I was at the same station again and this time the agent handed me the terminal to operate. Sure enough a DCC question popped up where you had press the red button for no. The charge came in EUR and all was good. When I told the agent about the previous time she immediately responded with "that is why I tell my boss to let the customers push the buttons on the terminal" she was very inquisitive about DCC and didn't know that a mark up of 5% was involved. She mentioned that customers from the Gulf and the US preferred to be charged in their home currency.

From what I've read, it still seems to be 4846?

My guess is they don't know they're being ripped off.

Looks like DCC will no longer be allowed for prepaid Mastercards starting this summer: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel...-a8867606.html

That's not what that article said. :(

That's a tiny subset of MC prepaid cards. Certainly nothing of this sort is offered in USA. :( DCC is not allowed only if your prepaid MC contains local currency. To avoid DCC in Mexico, for example, your card must contain MXN. A USD based MC prepaid card is still subject to DCC. :(

The Travelex prepaid card is available in the US but the ~5% currency conversion fee (IIRC) is likely worse than just accepting DCC in some cases.

Thank you. ^ I didn't realize it is available. I suppose I never looked into Travelex as their rates and commissions are universally poor.

You still need to carry a card with local currency to avoid DCC though. If you carry a card with GBP and EUR but charge is in CAD, you are still subject to DCC. :(

This leaves other questions.

Let's say a prepaid multi-currency card allows you to deposit MXN. Will the terminal know if the MXN balance is zero, and should this matter to the terminal?

Let's say that you don't have any MXN, but you have EUR, GBP, JPY and USD. Which currency should the merchant offer conversion from? All of them?

During two months in Brazil I've seen DCC only in Cielo POS terminals. They provide clear instruction for user and most vendors either asked me or selected BRL without reminder. There is another problem in Brazil, especially outside SP & RJ - at many POS they do not accept credit card (Bilhete Único top-up in São Paulo metro for example) or have surcharge for them (there is no or smaller surcharge for debit cards).