Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC)
#811
Moderator: Lufthansa Miles & More, India based airlines, India, External Miles & Points Resources
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: MUC
Programs: LH SEN
Posts: 48,185
Merchants in Europe got new payment processing systems to comply with new EU rules in late 2019 / early 2020 so the terminals were upgraded/replaced just before the pandemic hit. I suppose with the upgrade the logic of DCC and the customer facing interfaces also got redesigned. Since there is a massive uptick in contactless payment (card wave, smart devices, qr code scan etc) DCC is also moving with the times and adapting to be in that space too
#812
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
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Posts: 102,095
To my dismay, DCC is much more prevalent in Poland than it was before. Most if not all terminals show DCC, it is easy to avoid and use local currency and if it is managed by the cashier they will always ask, but it is still there. All ATMs use it and the big difference I am seeing now is that it is asked on contactless transactions now, when it the past it was only insert or when authorization was required. A typical screen that you'll get looks like this:
#813
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: SJC
Programs: AA, AS, Marriott
Posts: 6,061
I'm happy there's an easy opt out now, but we must continue our education. It's nice to see an increasing number of travel bloggers call attention to it too.
#814
Moderator: Travel Safety/Security, Travel Tools, California, Los Angeles; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: LAX
Programs: oneword Emerald
Posts: 20,639
A couple of years ago at the Prado gift shop the cashier asked me why I preferred to have my charge processed in Euros instead of US$. I explained the conversion fee. It was an eye opener for her and she thanked me for the explanation. Hopefully, she used her newly found knowledge to educate other customers.
#815
Join Date: May 2017
Posts: 2,016
#816
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 3,537
Welcome back, and I was wondering what caused the DCC uptick in some locations and disappearance in others.
I haven't been doing many transactions not in USD, but the above reports show that places like Poland which used to not have an opt out or unwilling cashiers now gives customers the choice. The last time I was in the UK was about a month before things shut down, but I didn't see any DCC with my transactions. I was exclusively using my CSR with contactless on the card or my phone.
I was in Shanghai December 2019, but I only had one data point with no DCC. I mostly used Alipay's new tourist pass option which didn't have a credit card fee when it debuted (nor did it have DCC). The hotel was on an AmEx, so there was no data point there.
I haven't been doing many transactions not in USD, but the above reports show that places like Poland which used to not have an opt out or unwilling cashiers now gives customers the choice. The last time I was in the UK was about a month before things shut down, but I didn't see any DCC with my transactions. I was exclusively using my CSR with contactless on the card or my phone.
I was in Shanghai December 2019, but I only had one data point with no DCC. I mostly used Alipay's new tourist pass option which didn't have a credit card fee when it debuted (nor did it have DCC). The hotel was on an AmEx, so there was no data point there.
It's also worth noting that this most recent trip to Ireland was entirely contactless, so it's possible they just haven't caught up with contactless DCC.
#817
Join Date: May 2006
Location: PMD
Programs: UA*G, NW, AA-G. WR-P, HH-G, IHG-S, ALL. TT-GE.
Posts: 2,911
Meanwhile in the last couple years, many receipts in the US feature "USD" in the transaction amount. Is this because of DCC? Meaning, if a foreign card user accepts DCC, the final transaction amount would not be USD?
#818
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: DEL
Posts: 1,056
The European Union has regulated DCC transactions. It is no longer possible to claim that the transaction will use the "Mumbo Jumbo Bank wholesale rate" (or whatever) with no fee and then hide the fee in the exchange rate. It is now mandatory to present the fee in the form of the difference between the merchant's rate and the latest exchange rate posted by the European Central Bank.
Probably just standardization across markets. A lot of currencies use the $ symbol, but there's no question what currency you used when the slip says "USD". DCC seems a lot less common in the U.S.--I know it exists but I've paid with EUR cards a fair bit and never seen it firsthand, whereas paying with USD cards in some parts of Europe it was ubiquitous.
#819
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 4,477
Perhaps you're reading too much into it. To have a meaning, any quantity must have a number AND the unit of measurement. It's usually assumed that USD will be that "Unit" for purchases within the realm. But it can be spelled out, so no one would try to slip a Canadian quarter.
#820
Join Date: May 2006
Location: PMD
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Perhaps you're reading too much into it. To have a meaning, any quantity must have a number AND the unit of measurement. It's usually assumed that USD will be that "Unit" for purchases within the realm. But it can be spelled out, so no one would try to slip a Canadian quarter.
#821
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Paris
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Posts: 2,648
I'm sure that every bank in Spain that has been listing a 0.5% markup and charging a markup closer to 5% will totally cut it out now that there's an EU directive (/s). Just like all the institutions (including the European Parliament!) that still ignore the 2011 directive banning IBAN discrimination and all the airlines that fight claims for delay compensation that they're clearly obligated to pay.
Probably just standardization across markets. A lot of currencies use the $ symbol, but there's no question what currency you used when the slip says "USD". DCC seems a lot less common in the U.S.--I know it exists but I've paid with EUR cards a fair bit and never seen it firsthand, whereas paying with USD cards in some parts of Europe it was ubiquitous.
Probably just standardization across markets. A lot of currencies use the $ symbol, but there's no question what currency you used when the slip says "USD". DCC seems a lot less common in the U.S.--I know it exists but I've paid with EUR cards a fair bit and never seen it firsthand, whereas paying with USD cards in some parts of Europe it was ubiquitous.
Probably the only positive aspect of American exceptionalism I have heard! 😂
#823
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: NYC
Posts: 538
The only time I have seen DCC presented in the US was at...the Gap! It was well-presented, and my friend with the foreign card didn't need any help to make the right choice.
#824
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: San Diego, CA
Programs: GE, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 15,508
Re: DCC in the US--I wouldn't be surprised if it became more common in areas that have large numbers of international tourists. There are a lot of places that aren't as well traveled, though, and for those DCC would be a pretty hard sell for merchants in the first place. After all, if you maybe only get one foreign card a week, are you really going to make enough from DCC to justify the effort (especially if you have to change your existing practices to make it easy for the customer to opt out)?
On that note, another factor that might make DCC less common is the cultural expectation in certain industries (e.g. restaurants) that the customer not run their own cards. Of course, DCC is still possible via the checkbox on the receipt method (like what Hong Kong apparently does/did), but I'm not sure it's worth the trouble for many to implement that approach.
On that note, another factor that might make DCC less common is the cultural expectation in certain industries (e.g. restaurants) that the customer not run their own cards. Of course, DCC is still possible via the checkbox on the receipt method (like what Hong Kong apparently does/did), but I'm not sure it's worth the trouble for many to implement that approach.
#825
Join Date: May 2017
Posts: 2,016
On that note, another factor that might make DCC less common is the cultural expectation in certain industries (e.g. restaurants) that the customer not run their own cards. Of course, DCC is still possible via the checkbox on the receipt method (like what Hong Kong apparently does/did), but I'm not sure it's worth the trouble for many to implement that approach.