update. CIBC and TD bank ATM offers DCC.

I am in London. I overheard the receptionist talking to a guest checking in, directing him to select GBP unless he had a preference since "the rate is much better". I'm glad to see staff are now guiding customers to declining DCC. While most of my transactions were contactless, I personally didn't see a single instance of DCC this trip.

I bought an airline ticket last night on Volaris (a Mexican LCC) and the payment page offered a selection of Pesos or USD. The page said "our rate is better than your credit card" under the USD price. A quick conversion showed that the peso price was about $4 less, a decent bit, considering the ticket was about $50.

Interesting.

How did you get the conversion rate? I recall DCC in Hong Kong airport, but only remember choice of currency, not a rate. How did you determine the rate, or did you figure it out from prices quoted (since you presumable were online and had time to do this).

Mrs Majuki and I were in London last week, and I noticed the app defaulted to DCC. I used an Amex, so I wonder what it would have done if I had left alternate currency checked.

For all other transactions I used contactless, so I didn't see any DCC personally. I did see a customer in front of me at the duty free shop at St Pancras receive a DCC prompt on a euro denominated card (and the customer declined), but that was it.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...bc3fd16d80.jpg

Dumb question, but contactless is the only guaranteed way to avoid DCC? If so, I have to start tapping more. For whatever reason, I'm used to inserting my card.

Me too. That's news to me.

In Poland this past summer I received many DCC prompts on tapping, whether it was a physical card or Google Pay. So, that is not even a guarantee. I think it depends on how the terminals are set up.

Was there an amount threshold? I do think it's how the terminals are setup, but I have seen many instances where a card insertion results in a DCC prompt whereas a tap bypasses it. The duty free shop at St Pancras was one of the examples.

It seems tapping for amount lower than 50€ makes the system just process the charge and move on. Anything larger triggers the authorization process which includes pin or signatire capture and of course the dreaded DCC dialogue.

All of my transactions were under this amount, so it's unsurprising I didn't see any DCC prompts.

It depends. When I was there in 2019, I never got DCC on taps below 50 PLN which was the contactless limit for no PIN. I have seen exactly what you describe - tapping below 50 PLN and get nothing, insert and be hit with DCC prompt every time. However, this year when I went, on newer terminals, I got it every time on tapping as well. On older terminals, still nothing until I go over the threshold. So, depends totally on the terminal.

Case in point, this is what I got with a tap at one of the terminals:


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7be6d21aba.jpg

In this example does the terminal have a touchscreen, or which button does one press for PLN?

I **think** I pressed the first - on the left as I do not think this is a touchscreen. I may be wrong, as that is from July, but i think I just figured I'll press the button most to the left as that is where PLN is. Not very intuitive, to be honest.

It's like some of the terminals where you have to press the yellow button at the bottom. The red button will cancel the transaction.

Other than the one merchant processor that doesn't support it, I get DCC prompts every time whether contactless or chip and regardless of the amount when using American cards in the Dominican Republic. Same goes for Apple or Google Pay.

Either way prompts for DCC and then spits out a slip with no signature required for amounts under 10,000 DOP (about 180 USD). Over that, you have to sign the slip but still no difference whether chip or contactless.

95% of the time when the terminal is cashier-facing, they pick DOP without even asking so at least I've got that going for me.