DCC: Dynamic Currency Conversion (2026)
 

4% seems almost refreshingly low compared to some other places, but I'm not sure how they're figuring it. The difference is US$15.11, which is almost 4.8% of $316.31 and even if they are erroneously calculating 4% after the markup $15.11 is still ~4.6% of $331.42. Even if they're using an exchange rate from yesterday or Friday, there's not a significant difference, you have to go back like a week on the XE graph for it to be 4% of the non-marked-up amount. Unless I'm the one mathing the math wrong...

Anyway my main novelty in posting this is that I forget whether I have seen the "defer" vs. "immediate" phraseology before.


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Defer vs immediate -- kind of sneaky. "What happens if I don't lock it in now? Better press immediate". I know many infrequent travelers who would fall for it. I would hope that visa and Amex would educate us. " pay with your visa and select USD to get the best rate, another advantage of using your card vs cash!"

as an aside, it pays to educate people. I was recently texted by a friend on vacation in Morocco who remembered my boring discourse on DCC but didn't register the logic. He sent a picture of the terminal, asking me what to do. He's a uber smart guy and generally sophisticated -- MD, MBA, military Academy -- sat thru my boring dinner dissertation and still got confused. He said one place hovered around 10% which kind of shocked me.

I withdrew money from a UOB ATM at Changi Airport a few hours ago. The DCC offer was $161.72 for S$200.00 and advertised as a 3.99% markup. Visa's rate is $155.52, so it did match. The ATM screen was clear and showed the flags of the desired transaction currency.

Had basically all terminals in Prague ask for DCC on a Euro Visa, all with a roughly 8% markup.

Does the shop get a cut of DCC? Asking because I had a lot of the staff select pay in CZK on their own without me asking or even seeing the question, which is a very nice gesture IMHO.
Would be counter-productive if they get a cut of DCC though.

In the UK, I only encountered DCC at Holiday Inn Express Heathrow T4.

Yes, they do, and this gives an incentive for shops to offer DCC when they otherwise wouldn't.

Fortunately, many staff know it's a bad deal and will opt out on your behalf.

I just tried to use my UK Revolut card at an ATM in SAN that claimed it had DCC but didn't get a DCC prompt, just a withdrawal of $20 as expected. Any idea why I wasn't prompted? I scanned my card again a few days ago to make sure it actually was a UK issued card and the ATM definitely read the chip.

If I remember correctly, these are PNC Bank branded ATMs but were something else before (maybe BBVA, which PNC acquired). Perhaps the ATMs had DCC when they were the previous branding but no longer offer it as PNC ATMs.

That's very possible. I wonder why they didn't remove the DCC advertising, then.

Anyway, I'm in MCO for a few days so maybe I'll end up running into DCC here?

It's possible, but I wouldn't go out searching for DCC at the opportunity cost of using a higher earning card for the transaction.

Of course, especially since I'd have to transfer money into Revolut using my regular debit card (other options aren't instant) and Revolut charges fees for that. It'd likely have to be something with obvious DCC advertising before I attempt again.

I just got back from a Taiwan trip, and I went to a restaurant inside an outlet mall where we had seen DCC before. Despite being by myself this time and my elementary Mandarin proficiency, I was able to opt out without any issue. I had control of the card and terminal throughout. The screen popped up "DCC..." and the currency selection was 1 for USD and 2 for NTD. The transaction has already posted as $16.31, so DCC would have been closer to 5% rather than the 4% quoted.

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Most egregious DCC "offer" I've ever seen - at an ATM at a hotel in Amsterdam (unbranded ATM).

The quoted markup is 16% but based on the rate the charge hit my account at ($121.55) the actual markup was 17%!

Apologies for the glare, but it was a rare sunny day in the Netherlands. The withdrawal was 100 EUR, fee 4,50 EUR (ridiculous enough), quoted rate 1 EUR = 1.36139 USD (rate from Google 1 EUR = 1.15 USD, Visa rate 1E = 1.1632 USD), quoted 'margin' 16.0%, offer amount in USD $142.27.

At least it was easy to opt out ("Continue without conversion"), but still.

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