I would say many people are still unaware what's happening with DCC based on informal observations at hotel receptions and discarded ATM receipts. Taxes (and some fees) are required. There are some fees, such as resort fees, that are a merchant cash grab. DCC is in the same category.

For smaller transaction amounts, it is about the principle, but there has got to be a threshold where most people would complain. For instance, if you had a restaurant bill of $90, paid $100 cash, and only received $5 in change, I'm sure you would speak up.

Yes, pretty much my sentiment in Post 913.

It is absolutely a deception. I would bet that the vast majority of tourists have never heard of DCC and have no idea what is happening.

I agree. It's not consumer friendly and quite frankly, it should be illegal.

Hell NO! By that logic any banking operation would be shut down, since they're all taking cuts without delivering goods or useful services. DCC must at least disclose the actual charge, which is not the case with bank spreads. CitiGold at one point advertised "No Fee" ForEx with free mail delivery. After some digging I learned that "Free" really meant a 10% Buy/Sell spread. And if "consumer friendly" is now a requirement, how come airport exchange offices are still in business?

The waiter would ask if I want to pay Polish or (the other currency), or tell me to press a button on the terminal.

What percentage of implementations are fully compliant with this? I've had terminals pop up something as terse as "35.37 USD OK?".

Banks provide a safe place to store your money and also help provide a safe way to transact with it (e.g. by providing credit and debit cards). DCC, on the other hand, is only good for shoveling money into the pockets of merchants and the processors that support it.

I find this thread useful in helping fellow travelers to avoid the pitfalls of DCC or deceptive practices (if they still occur). If it loses focus or devolves into grandstanding, it would be a loss for all who reads it. When we travel we should also not lecture the locals how to run their businesses. There's nothing wrong for them to make money, especially when it doesn't affect us or we engage with them voluntarily.

I just saw DCC for a transaction in front of me at Harrods at LHR. The rate was £52.95 @ 1.1777 USD/GBP and quoted on the register as $62.37. I couldn't see whether the card was a Visa or Mastercard, so I don't know the exchange rate that would have been used. However, the markup would be close to 4% using the current exchange rate. The cashier didn't mention anything, so my guess is that the prompt appeared on the credit card terminal.

I paid with a Visa and used contactless. This avoided DCC automatically for my £35 purchase.

I had only a couple of transactions (taxi and gift shop) recently in Netherlands and France, with no DCC encountered.

Apparently you have no choice but to opt into DCC if you want to use your PayPal balance. For example, while the option to use your balance does appear if you opt to be charged in USD:

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...77a6d59162.jpg

it does not appear if you opt out of DCC:

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...bfe293a16c.jpg

Probably not a new thing they're doing but figured I'd let people know.

(€129.95 is $127.03 at current exchange rates per Google, so PayPal's conversion would result in paying $133.64 - 127.03 = $6.61 extra, not taking into account the existing PayPal balance.)

While the exchange rates there are unfavorable, I imagine there's not a graceful way to do the transaction split between the PayPal balance and a card across currencies.

I'm surprised they didn't do something where they "helpfully" convert a USD balance to a EUR one (using the same poor exchange rate that DCC uses, of course).

Anyway, I don't mind transferring the balance to my bank account first. I'd probably end up with more UR points doing that, too, since the charge would be on the full amount rather than the remaining USD balance.

9% at BCN airport ATM :D

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...392f5a7ee7.jpg