Looks like Visa has come out with something called the "Visa Multi-Currency Solution" with their latest rules, which seems similar to what MC offers. DCC is also prohibited with those cards:

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...45b81bdbda.png
Other DCC rules seem to have been extended to "ATM Acquirers" (vs. just regular stores), but of course, the preexisting rules aren't exactly followed all that well in some countries as it is. We'll see how that goes I guess.

With a general prohibition, it should be easier to get a chargeback done as you'd only need to show that you have the right kind of prepaid card.

It seems on paper to be more customer friendly, but like you said there are some merchants/countries that already don't follow the merchant acceptance rules for Visa or MC.

Travelled all around Montreal and Ontario and not encountered DCC. Until I came to Niagara Falls and a restaurant processed my American card as USD with DCC without ever informing me. I am going to make a dispute and see where TD Bank takes it, but I find that to be a disgusting business practice.

Which restaurant? How was it without ever informing you? Every restaurant I've visited in Canada in recent memory either has pay at the table or customer facing pin pads. Are you saying they did back office DCC after the transaction completed?

I'm enjoying using the CSR with contactless extensively here in Australia. It avoids DCC, if present, even if it's rare here.

It was Napoli Ristorante. It was pay at the table, but the waiter took my card as I held it and put it in himself (even though it was contactless), then put some stuff in, handed me the terminal, I put in the tip and agreed to all in CAD, the rest was handled by the waiter. Everything up until then was done in CAD, the receipt printed out with DCC.
The process looked the same way as every other restaurant with pay at the table, but this time there was DCC involved. I don't know at which point it was turned on.

No way is that setup compliant. I always hold onto the terminal until the transaction has completed, suspecting something like this might occur. This confirms at least one setup, but it seems post facto DCC. What about the signature receipt? Did you protest after seeing the DCC line?

I've been seeing this more and more and am tired of signing credit card receipts "Declined" and then protesting to bank/credit card company to get what is admittedly not very many dollars back. Had it happen at an ATM in Sicily two weeks ago (EURONET ATM). I'm sure I declined it as I've done many times, but I knew something was wrong when it didn't print a receipt when I asked it to. I then logged into my bank account within an hour, saw an outrageous charge in USD, and immediately sent email to EURONET asking them to reverse and then charge in Euro's. They refused and insisted that I agreed to what they called a convenient and competitive rate. I asked appeals process and they told me to go to my bank which I will do when they open tomorrow.

Is there anyway I can get banks/credit card companies to set my account to refuse any foreign transaction that comes in USD? That would seem to solve the problem.

BTW...I have literally been yelled at by restaurant managers and front desk clerks when I tell them that I did not agree to DCC (as they are handing me a receipt to sign that says I was given a choice and I agreed to it). They insist that this is they way they always do it and that I don't have a choice. I'd really like the transaction declined if possible so that it will force them to start from scratch and do it in local currency.

There isn't to my knowledge a way to refuse transactions that come in from overseas in USD. There are international locations that use the USD as their native currency, officially and unofficially, without DCC being applied. There are also multinational companies who will have a US storefront but process their payments, regardless of currency, in their home country. This is the case with some airlines, and I was once hit with a 3% foreign transaction fee due to this before 0% FTFs became a common feature of US cards. There is no way to determine which transactions are coming through as DCC versus not and systematically blocking foreign USD transactions might decline transactions that you do want to go through.

There are several protective measures that you can take. For hotels, rental cars, etc. never select the express checkout/return option. Insist on a return at the front desk/counter with the transaction processed at the time you depart. This avoids back office DCC. For restaurants and retail transactions, use contactless/mobile payments as much as possible, which deflects 99% of DCC. (There was a single report of this not being the case at the Zurich Airport a few years ago.) When checking in to a hotel, rental car, or anywhere else the merchant does a preauthorization, have it go on an AmEx. AmEx does not support DCC. Upon checking out/returning the car, tell the cashier that you would like to use a different payment card. Furthermore, if AmEx, Discover, JCB, or UnionPay are an option, especially in high risk DCC locations, use those payment methods. Even if the rewards earning is inferior, DCC would erode any marginal gain in rewards.

As a last resort, request that the merchant void the transaction and rerun without DCC. If the merchant feigns ignorance and/or suddenly seems to lose all knowledge of the English language, cross out the DCC verbiage on the receipt, circle the local currency amount, sign the receipt DCC REFUSED, and take a photo with your phone to assist in the dispute process. File a chargeback with your card issuer saying that you were refused the option of paying in local currency.

Fortunately there have been fewer reports recently since people have wised up to the DCC scam, and there are viable countermeasures that were unavailable even a few years ago. There have also been a couple of merchants who got sick of receiving chargebacks so disabled DCC on their end.

Speaking of avoiding DCC, is there any consensus on using PIN preferring cards vs. signature preferring if for some reason neither contactless nor AmEx can be used? Or does that more affect the ability to dispute it later on? (I'm aware that this might not be an option for most Americans.)

In theory, a PIN-preferring card would prevent the situation Barciur mentions up-thread since PIN entry should always be the last step of the transaction. In a restaurant, so would not handing the terminal back until the slip prints--which is what most people here do regardless. At a hotel or other place where the terminal sits behind the counter, though, a PIN-preferring card forces the clerk to hand you the terminal. If s/he's already DCC'd you, you can simply cancel the transaction and force the clerk to run it again in local currency if s/he wants to get paid. With a signature card, the clerk can just hit OK, which runs the charge and leaves you to deface the signature slip and dispute.

As for contactless, the last time I was in Spain I was offered DCC when using Google Pay at a pub with a VX680 terminal (I know because I took a picture of the "2%" markup that was closer to 10 before declining it), so I don't think contactless is a universal way to avoid it. I've also seen it at a restaurant way off the beaten tourist path in Italy.

I haven't seen DCC anywhere with the physical contactless CSR but I think that's a function of not having been anywhere that tried it since getting the contactless card--DCC is extremely rare in BE/NL.

I agree. I think chip-and-PIN is the better option in most cases. There could be a case where the terminal does the DCC at the last stage after PIN entry, and you might have limited recourse if the receipt says verified by PIN with the DCC verbiage. This would not be compliant, but few situations related to DCC are.

Thanks for the data points on DCC with contactless. Admittedly I've had few card transactions in Spain in recent years. I used Google Pay extensively in Italy in 2017 and 2018, visiting some very tourist places that I'd consider candidates for DCC in Rome, Florence, Milan, and Venice. I did not see DCC once. The few cases where the merchant didn't accept mobile payments I didn't see DCC either. Perhaps I got lucky?

I was given two receipts, one with the standard item list / total / tip / total w/tip / thing and then the terminal print out receipt at the end. I did not get to sign that one - the one which says I agreed to it did not have any signature line. I only signed the standard one in CAD.

I did not protest it because I did not see it at first, which is my mistake. Especially being on here, I should have been very vigilant. To my defense, this was at the end of a 4 day trip to Canada and I had not experienced anything like this at all on the trip and I've dined in a number of places with a similar set up, so my vigilance was soft.

I don't follow this thread so closely these days because I have become used to paying an extra 2 bucks. As much as I dislike the concept of DCC, it's simply not worth causing a scene over it on a $50 dinner (e.g. I'm now blacklisted from a handful of restaurants) or hounding my cc company after the fact.

On a more positive note, DCC is less and less of an issue in Shanghai.

This presumes that the amount prints out on the same screen as the PIN prompt, no? At least in the US, this doesn't seem to happen--assuming the terminal even has PIN enabled at all, which is becoming less common outside of the merchants that support PIN debit.

Ultimately that's what they rely on: people who don't know better or don't care enough (or even want the supposed "convenience").