That is an exaggeration. Car rental and almost all petrol stations accept Amex. So do all major supermarkets and liquor outlets. It's pretty easy to use Amex for 90% of purchases in Australia unless you go to lots of small businesses, non-chain cafes, etc. (There are some weird situations with franchises. e.g. Domino's Pizza accepts Amex online, but an individual shop's equipment may not necessarily be set up for it if you walk in and want to pay them directly. Paying them directly means you can't use online coupons, which are often ~30% off, so usually a very bad idea anyhow.)

I observed lots of DCC in Thailand recently at IHG hotels, but they were good enough to clearly print the surcharge (around 3.8%) at the bottom of the pre-receipt. (Their standard procedure seems to be to show it to you and ask which you'd prefer. I guess if you are dumb enough to see a physical print-out that tells you that you'll be paying more and agree to it, you really have no recourse after the fact.)

I'd say DCC rate is negotiable, just not for the consumer. :p

Thanks for the recent data point. It looks like it hasn't changed. There have also been historical reports of the quote slip in Singapore and Taiwan, but I don't have recent data points or observations of either. (My last visits to both were right before 2020.)

Another Paypal data point: received a Paypal payment request denominated in Euros, but on opening it up in the app, Paypal displayed a USD amount corresponding to 1 USD = 0.93590 EUR. After poking around I was able to find a way to switch it to EUR (sorry for the vagueness, this was like a week ago, although I did write the numbers down) and pay in EUR via a no-FTF Chase card. Chase converted at 0.97466; the XE rate was 0.9878.

Really? Do you mean big department stores downtown, or shops catering to tourists? I've definitely seen signs saying "we accept USD" of course, but I've never known them to be advantageous to anyone actually using USD. I've always assumed that was to appeal to Americans who can't be bothered to understand Canadian dollars, and charging them for being clueless.

Some small eateries had signs "we'll accept USD at xxx rate". I remember thinking that the rates were pretty good for that time, even though I probably paid with a card anyways (didn't want CAD change).

Huh, that surprises me. For most Canadian merchants, dealing with USD is a hassle.

I'm currently in Poland and see that basically it is still an issue. DCC is everywhere. However, it is easy to avoid - every single time I have been asked which currency I want to pay in if it shows up on the terminal and I do not have control. However, I speak Polish, no idea how foreigners would be treated.

Nevertheless, in many places you do have control of the terminal and it shows up and you can refuse it easily as well.

It used to be that tapping was a way to avoid it, but no more. I noticed that sometimes tapping only triggers it when it is above 100 PLN which is the authorization trigger - PIN or signature required. Even if you use Google Pay, above 100 PLN it still triggers DCC.

Also, every single ATM has DCC here.

AMEX only way to avoid DCC then? What is AMEX's acceptance rate in Warsaw like?

AMEX acceptance is pretty common in more touristy areas etc., but sometimes it is lacking in random places. My understanding is that Amex is the most expensive for merchants hence they opt out. There are no banks issuing Amex, so it is not possible for a Polish person to get one without going to a foreign bank. But still, I would say maybe it's at 70-80% of merchants were Amex works, I could be off. But yes, that is the only sure way to avoid DCC, although like I said, it is pretty easy to reject it in almost all cases.

As a side note, Discover is also supported in about as many places as Amex is. I am actually quite happy as I get to get 5% back on restaurants during this trip while having no FTF :)

What is 100 PLN in USD? I can't read Polish. How is it obvious for someone like me to avoid DCC when paying with a Visa or MC?

Thank you.

It's about $22. This is probably the Visa Easy Payment Service (VEPS) threshold in Poland. I remember reading that DCC isn't allowed on VEPS transactions (although there have been non-compliant data points here in the past).

So I am not sure if that happens 100% of the time, but whenever I have been DCC'd, the prompt becomes English - whether it's very nice and graphic or it shows USD and PLN options. So no Polish reading required for that.

Also keep in mind that in many locatiions it just doesn't pay to worry about DCC. When the prices are already a tiny fraction of what you pay at home, it's zero consequence if they tack another 3% "stupid tourist" tax.

It's more the principle, really, especially when various merchants make it so that it's difficult or even impossible to opt out. If DCC was such a good deal for consumers, they wouldn't need to resort to dark patterns and various other sketchiness as consumers would willingly choose "yes" to paying in their own currency.

Yeah, I hear ya. Like I once bought some clothes at Koton store (in Turkey). Their terminals are on the cashier's side of the counter, and the girl had to insert my payment card. When I got the receipt, it was in USD with DCC applied. I sure was irritated for a few seconds. But given the crazy prices in TK, it only amounted to USD 0.12. It just wasn't worth delaying my vacation. At this point DCC is not even a deception as everyone knows what's happening. And there are many similar taxes and fees that we likewise pay all the time.