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DCC: Dynamic Currency Conversion (2017-2025)

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DCC: Dynamic Currency Conversion (2017-2025)

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Old Feb 3, 2024 | 1:03 am
  #1126  
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Not exactly DCC but Airbnb is going to start applying an additional 2% fee if you pay with your home currency instead of the host's:



(from the email they sent out earlier today)

On second thought, I've never used Airbnb for foreign stays--only for domestic ones--so I'm not sure if you're even able to pay in the host's currency in the first place. Something to keep in mind, anyway.
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Old Feb 4, 2024 | 6:10 am
  #1127  
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Originally Posted by tmiw
Not exactly DCC but Airbnb is going to start applying an additional 2% fee if you pay with your home currency instead of the host's:



(from the email they sent out earlier today)

On second thought, I've never used Airbnb for foreign stays--only for domestic ones--so I'm not sure if you're even able to pay in the host's currency in the first place. Something to keep in mind, anyway.
Very interesting. I think this would affect gift card users more than credit card holders.
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Old Feb 4, 2024 | 11:11 am
  #1128  
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Discussion has drifted past the fuzzy boundary between DCC to FOREX rates. I have moved two posts to this thread:

Foreign exchange rates discussion [FOREX]--all cards
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Old Feb 4, 2024 | 5:08 pm
  #1129  
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Originally Posted by nas6034
Very interesting. I think this would affect gift card users more than credit card holders.
I tried doing some searches for listings in Ireland just now and it would only show me prices in USD, even after I tried clicking on the globe icon at the top of the page and forcing the currency to Euro (which didn't actually stick as the selection went right back to USD). So yeah, it kinda does look like forced DCC to me (with a minimum of 2% worse rates than had I been allowed to view/book in Euros).
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Old Feb 23, 2024 | 9:55 am
  #1130  
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From an ATM in Belfast. The alert from my Schwab debit card showed a $55.29 withdrawal for reference after I declined conversation.

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Old Feb 23, 2024 | 10:04 am
  #1131  
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Originally Posted by tmiw
From an ATM in Belfast. The alert from my Schwab debit card showed a $55.29 withdrawal for reference after I declined conversation.
At least they were honest about the 13.95% markup. Yikes!
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Old Feb 23, 2024 | 12:59 pm
  #1132  
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Originally Posted by tmiw
From an ATM in Belfast.
And I thought the Travelex ATM was bad at LHR back in December!

My dad and I were there about a year ago. We were completely cashless for the week, so I had a lot of data points for card use but no ATMs. The only DCC I saw was at Madigans, but the bartender had already opted out on our behalf. The only reason I knew there was DCC was because the guy next to us had the terminal to enter his PIN, and I saw the EU/UK flags appear on the screen. I haven't seen DCC recently in the UK outside of ATMs. I was a bit surprised in Ireland, however, as I expected DCC to be present at every corner.
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Old Feb 23, 2024 | 4:56 pm
  #1133  
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Originally Posted by tmiw
From an ATM in Belfast. The alert from my Schwab debit card showed a $55.29 withdrawal for reference after I declined conversation.
That's a horrific but unsurprising exchange rate.

Belfast is a cool city! Be sure to grab a pint at the Crown - it's the most gorgeous bar/pub I've ever been to.
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Old Feb 23, 2024 | 11:26 pm
  #1134  
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Originally Posted by Majuki
And I thought the Travelex ATM was bad at LHR back in December!

My dad and I were there about a year ago. We were completely cashless for the week, so I had a lot of data points for card use but no ATMs. The only DCC I saw was at Madigans, but the bartender had already opted out on our behalf. The only reason I knew there was DCC was because the guy next to us had the terminal to enter his PIN, and I saw the EU/UK flags appear on the screen. I haven't seen DCC recently in the UK outside of ATMs. I was a bit surprised in Ireland, however, as I expected DCC to be present at every corner.
Yeah, so far there hasn't been any DCC with actual merchants (much like my last trip to the UK pre-pandemic).

Also, something to note with that ATM: they had extremely high presets for cash withdrawals too. The smallest I remember seeing was 100, meaning anything lower (which you can totally get away with given that most everyone takes cards) required a custom entry. I don't know if that would have impacted the transaction fees and/or DCC, though.
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Old Feb 24, 2024 | 1:13 am
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Originally Posted by tmiw
Also, something to note with that ATM: they had extremely high presets for cash withdrawals too. The smallest I remember seeing was 100, meaning anything lower (which you can totally get away with given that most everyone takes cards) required a custom entry. I don't know if that would have impacted the transaction fees and/or DCC, though.
Honest Guide talked about this specifically in one video about DCC at ATMs. If you had a card denominated in local currency, I imagine that the withdraw amounts presented would be much lower too.

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Old Feb 24, 2024 | 9:49 am
  #1136  
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Spoke too soon about merchant DCC--just ran into it at the pub at Giant's Causeway. I didn't catch the markup but opt-out was pretty simple on the Move/8000s they were using; just push "1" on the keypad for GBP.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I had tapped my card, so as others have mentioned that's no longer a way to prevent DCC.
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Old Feb 25, 2024 | 4:37 am
  #1137  
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My hotel tried to DCC on checkout this morning. 3.99% markup but again, easy to opt-out (tap the button with the GBP amount). This was with Google Pay, too, not inserted.
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Old Feb 25, 2024 | 2:38 pm
  #1138  
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Originally Posted by tmiw
My hotel tried to DCC on checkout this morning. 3.99% markup but again, easy to opt-out (tap the button with the GBP amount). This was with Google Pay, too, not inserted.
My dad and I stayed at the Hilton in Belfast last year and then HGI and Conrad in Dublin, but since I used my Hilton Aspire Amex, I didn't see any DCC prompts. I'm mostly using either the Hilton Aspire or Marriott Bonvoy Amex, so I have few data points for hotels internationally for a non-Amex. For the limited Hyatt stays I've done internationally, I've not seen DCC (or the reception has opted me out behind the scenes).
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Old Feb 25, 2024 | 3:02 pm
  #1139  
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Originally Posted by Majuki
My dad and I stayed at the Hilton in Belfast last year and then HGI and Conrad in Dublin, but since I used my Hilton Aspire Amex, I didn't see any DCC prompts. I'm mostly using either the Hilton Aspire or Marriott Bonvoy Amex, so I have few data points for hotels internationally for a non-Amex. For the limited Hyatt stays I've done internationally, I've not seen DCC (or the reception has opted me out behind the scenes).
The Moxy hotel I just checked into apparently keeps the terminal behind the counter, so I'm not sure what would have happened had I used a card other than the Marriott card. It's actually a bit ironic since US Marriotts pretty much all have customer-facing terminals as a matter of course (even if contactless is disabled on some of those).
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Old Feb 28, 2024 | 4:42 am
  #1140  
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A Burger King last night (definitely not first choice but it was one of the few places still open that was serving food) tried to DCC us. The cashier kept the terminal after tapping but fortunately pushed the EUR button after he asked us which currency we wanted to use.

Anyway, it looks like so far on this trip, DCC may be more likely at places that see a lot of tourists. Not enough data points to know completely for sure, though, but at least for us, most places in Dublin didn't DCC.
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