I don't understand what you mean, Hyatt hotels do accept American Express.

I think OP means there is no Amex branded Hyatt cards.

That's right. Hilton and Marriott both have Amex cobranded cards available. For Hyatt, it's only Visa. Historically, I had Visa branded cards for all three (Hilton via Citi and Marriott via Chase), so I always had to be vigilant when using the cards in a non-USD location.

Fortunately, I haven't seen any DCC with my Chase Hyatt card, but I only have a handful of data points using it internationally.

The primary issue is that most places don’t give you the reader, the staff keep hold of it while you tap your card from the back. It’s a bit sad that the ease of contactless makes DCC easier. If anything, solutions like Apple Pay should give users more control via the UI of their phones, not less.

As such, with contactless you often can’t see the prompts on the screen or even if you can see it they quickly take it away once they hear the beep. I’ve had to literally take the reader from staff just to ensure there is no DCC. And sometimes feel like a jerk when the prompt doesn’t appear.

Most places in Portugal use the handheld readers so it doesn’t matter whether it’s a sit down or casual cafe.

One particularly shocking experience was in Graça where the staff said they had a rule requiring USD and then spat out a receipt that claimed we had been given a choice. I wasn’t the one paying and didn’t catch it until afterwards.

In LPM restaurant in Abu Dhabi they’re pushing payment via a QR code delivered to the table using “qlub” (never heard of it).

I tried to pay, as it clearly listed the bill in AED, via the QR code using Apple Pay. Luckily for whatever reason the payment was rejected, but it forced DCC, saying “your payment in GB£ has been rejected, please try again.”

I then paid using a normal hand held terminal which offered a choice of AED or GB£. AED selected of course.

I wouldn't worry about the hotel. You may well be 'offered' DCC, but as long as you make it clear you want to pay in EUR the staff are unlikely to try and trick you. If for some reason the transaction goes awry, someone -- the receptionist you're dealing with or their manager -- will know how to void the transaction.

Restaurants can be trickier because -- as islandguy84 wrote -- many servers hold on to the POS terminal. (With contactless, as long as there's no DCC involved, that's actually the most efficient way to do things -- as long as you can see the amount before holding your card up.) And sometimes, when you are put in charge, the second question catches you out.

Disputing a charge and getting it voided is typically harder in a busy restaurant/bar environment (and doesn't become easier if you've had a glass or two of wine). For a dollar or two, with friends waiting, I'm not going to make a massive fuss -- just make my position clear, take my printed receipts and dispute the mark-up later.

To put the above in context: I've used a USD Visa card almost 30 times since arriving in Portugal and only had three DCC issues. One was a hurried server, one was me misreading the second DCC question, one was a hotel receptionist pushing buttons while dreaming. Of the three, one was voided immediately. Chase instantly refunded my DCC loss on the second and I'll dispute the third once it moves from "pending".

Card issuers and the phone giants should indeed be blocking this.

If contactless transactions are not immune to DCC - in some places contactless is successful in preventing DCC - is it possible to insert the card for a chip-and-signature transaction? If so, you have the ability to deface the receipt or refuse to sign unless the merchant voids and does the transaction again without DCC.

I understand that there is more likely to be recourse at a hotel in the case of default, inadvertent, or attempted forced DCC. It's a more controlled environment than a busy restaurant or cafe. However, the situation I often find myself in Europe is checking out in the early morning for a transatlantic flight home. I'm often in a rush to leave and perhaps haven't had the opportunity to get a full night's rest.

Thanks for the data points and the number of transactions. Knowing that there might be two DCC prompts can help out, and, unlike islandguy84, I am not embarrassed at all to hold onto the terminal until the transaction completes. There have been too many cases of forced DCC to give any place the benefit of the doubt. I particularly like the waiters who were joking around with me and having a great conversation suddenly feigning ignorance or, in some cases, seemingly forgetting the English language entirely upon questioning a transaction with DCC. They know what they're doing. I respond with a 0% gratuity (when they're all expecting a hefty tip based upon my North American accent).

Many times staff in other countries do not realize that a signature slip has been printed. In any event the USA transaction networks no longer require signatures, and I do not think that absence will prevent a transaction from posting to your account.

While it is true that staff in chip-and-PIN locations sometimes don't realize that a signature slip has been printed (and some others try to be handwriting experts), I'll take my chances contesting DCC on a signature verified transaction over a contactless transaction with no verification required.

I used a Euronet ATM at LIS on Wednesday evening (with the Thursday Visa rates). While I didn't want to give business to Euronet, I wanted to check the new trick they have about Cash & Balance. Honest Guide has a video on this in further detail, and I was able to opt out of the balance inquiry option after having watched this video:


The displayed DCC offer was displayed as 13.95% at 0.8004 EUR = 1 USD for $254.78. The pending transaction with my bank is $225.32, which matches Visa's rate for 8/15 and is effectively 13.07%. I saved $29.46 by declining DCC.

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I encountered the "double decline" implementation of DCC in Portugal that others here have described with two point of sale terminals. In both cases the terminals were facing me. The receipt said Global Payments. I didn't see the markup on the first transaction, but the second one was showing as $4.05 for a €3.50 purchase, so 4.75%.

There was a food truck where I paid cash on a de minimis purchase since the merchant didn't appear to have a card terminal. The merchant did, but it was cashier controlled behind the counter. Sure enough, DCC was present. I know this because, in fairness, the cashier asked the customer after me whether he wanted £ or €. The guy correctly said €.

Every instance I've seen for DCC so far in Portugal has been the double decline version. I went to Time Out Market, and I was looking for a merchant that had a customer facing terminal. (The food hall is cashless, so you either have to use a bank card or load a stored value card with cash.)

I was casually observing two customers in front of me, both with GBP denominated cards. The first customer got the DCC prompt (on the customer facing terminal) and correctly declined by pressing 2. At the second screen, he pressed 1 for accepting the conversion, and I could see that the receipt printed in GBP. I'm a bit surprised that the terminals aren't configured to switch the button order, such as, "Confirm decline conversion?" 1) Yes 2) No after having pressed 2 on the previous screen for local currency. However, at least in this one data point, it was enough to confuse the customer. The DCC offer in my case was $25.70 on a €22.25 purchase, so it was 4.70%, which is in line with what I've been seeing here.

The next customer was paying with a Visa branded debit card, and this card did not present a DCC prompt. Perhaps the transaction got processed via a debit network instead of through Visa?

Could be a dual-currency EUR/GBP card, too. I don't think foreign cards end up routing any differently than whatever the card brand is.

I wrapped up my trip to Portugal and successfully dodged DCC for the duration. When checking out of the Hyatt Regency, I was given the choice of €1410.00 or $1619.54 on Tuesday, which was a 3.6% DCC markup. The terminal was a Yomani XR pinpad that was customer facing with the local currency option on the left and home currency option on the right. Surprisingly, the posted transaction was using an exchange rate from August 15th, which was lower than the exchange rate on the transaction day for a total of $1,557.77, saving $61.77 by opting out of DCC.

Thanks again to those who informed me of the double decline process in Portugal such that I wasn't quick to hand back the terminal to the merchant in case of DCC.

I'm in Taiwan now with Mrs. Majuki. She was offered a 15% DCC at Zara (on a Global Payments branded terminal). That's the highest I remember seeing outside of Euronet/Travelex style ATMs.

The hotel where we are took an 8% DCC on the preauth, but I will make sure to opt out when we check out.