ira

The Iowa restaurant, just off Gran Via metro stop - opposite the McD- in Madrid.

It´s not cheap, but the food isn´t bad, and it is a nice place to people watch.

Be prepared to pay cash or be charged an additional 7% for the convenience of being billed in your local currency.

Anyone else who would like to post a warning about other places, please feel free to do so.

MmePerdu

Edinburgh Woolen Mills shops in the UK. Charged me in US dollars and told me afterward.

Dukey1

It used to be that the merchant was required by agreement with the cc company that the option to bill in the local country's currency was a requirement. That was my understanding anyway and if the merchant refused you could write on the sales slip "billing in local currency refused."

Now they seem to have gotten around this by adding the "additional" percentage charge "for your convenience."

I really wish the cc folks would do something about this but I suppose if nobody complains they won't bother and we'll get screwed again.

Thank you for this "warning" and perhaps if folks start avoiding these places of business entirely they'll get the message but somehow I'm skeptical.

thursdaysd

Marriott in Tbilisi Georgia (fortunately I only ate dinner there, I slept elsewhere).

kybourbon

H10 hotels Spain.

>>>It used to be that the merchant was required by agreement with the cc company that the option to bill in the local country's currency was a requirement.<<<

AFAIK they still are required to ask, they just don't. Then they pretend they can't cancel the charge or suddenly don't speak English.

kybourbon

Hertz Italy. This is stated in their contract so you need to prepay your reservation before traveling.

thursdaysd

Now I think about it, a couple of B&Bs on Gower St in London, early 2011, but they did ask before running the card.

Dukey1

I'm not so concerned about whether or not a merchant asks because you can always demand that they charge in local currency (or you make the notation on their copy of the charge slip that they refused to charge in local currency).

My greater concern is this charge of an additional percentage for you to GET charged in local currency.

raincitygirl

JK Place Hotel in Florence uses it but I emailed before our recent stay there and asked to be billed in Euros. They said they always ask before preparing the bill at check out.

Several stores in Florence also used it but they all asked beforehand.
Didn't see it in Naples and we are now on the Amalfi coast, so far, so good.

I have educated all my travelling friends and none of them had heard of it, not even the friend who is a travel agent. In fact, in the Bulgari store at Marco Polo airport last year I opened my big mouth as she was agreeing to DCC and gave her and the salesman an education.

MmePerdu

Whether the merchants ask permission or don't ask, figuring we're too clueless to know there's no advantage for us, why can we not have this dishonest practice removed entirely? It seems to me that the banks with whom we are customers and the merchants for whom we are also customers are colluding to steal from us. Using a credit card has long been a way to get decent exchange rates on the money we spend and this is a blatant way to remove that advantage. I know why it's done, just not why it's permitted.

Michael

I've seen it in different venues in Poland.

xyz123

I had said I would no longer respond on this but there are people who deny that this is metastasizing throughout the travelling world (it most assuredly is), that it is rare that merchants pull this without asking (perhaps) and there are others who say it is not a scam; rather it is a service being performed by merchants to assist the travelling public in understanding what something costs (a small pocket calculator will serve just as well and they're being given away in this day and age).

But then again, without criticizing anybody's thought processes, there are still people who use credit cards (Americans I'm referromg tp as I don't know credit card practices throughout the world) that charge a 3% foreign transaction fee even if the charge is done in the cardholder's currency when there are oodles of credit cards available which do not have this obnoxeous asinine what should be made illegal charge.

But the reality is that some people simply see this is something that should be in a merchant's perogative. The best one can do is to warn about this and suggest what people should do when this is pulled on them and not to allow it to ruin one's holiday.

Dukey1

I don't think charging in something other than a local currency is illegal or even "dishonest" even if it isn't to the patron's best advantage. It obviously isn't supposed to happen unless you give permission and if you (perhaps foolishly) do then that isn't "dishonest" or illegal.

I do wonder if there is any way that charging an additional percentage to not engage in DCC is illegal.

Christina

I don't quite understand Ira's post but it sounds like he is saying at that restaurant, you cannot use a foreign credit card and refuse the DCC. I suppose that might violate some CC agreement (don't know, from what I've read), but it isn't too different from charging a different amount for cash and CCs, which lots of gas stations do where I live in the US. It is obvious and even posted on the pricing signs.

Surprisingly, I was in Spain recently and never once encountered DCC and I had expected to. The one place I encountered it on my recent travels (to Spain and France) was in Paris at the Cluny Museum, much to my surprise. They did ask me though before ringing it up, so they followed the rules.

xyz123

I don't think (but Ira will have to speak for himself) that the restaurant has a policy of adding 7% to charges if done in a dcc transaction; rather he was probably referring to the spread between the exchange rate the cc company would use against what the dcc merchant is charging.

(Add to that and I'll repeat it the fact that many US banks charge 3% for all foreign transactions, even those done in US dollars and even those done where the transaction is physically done in the USA but processed through a foreign bank such as foreign airlines and it begins to add up.

May I recommend to Americans the Bank of America travel rewards card which has no annual fee, no foreign transaction fee and an emv chip, although it's chip and signature not chip and pin and the Andrews FCU credit cdard with no annual fee, now no foreign transaction fee, and an emv chip which can function as chip and pin.

Over and out.

kybourbon

It's Visa and MC that are involved in this. AmEx is not, but their fees overseas are higher than most Visa/MC.

Like Hertz, it's standard on Marriott. When you check in, you must read the fine print on the form you are signing as it automatically opts you in unless you check the little box to opt out. Hertz does not allow an opt out.

ekscrunchy

How would the restaurant be able to determine the local currency of a patron? Does it give your address on the credit card?

xyz123

ekscrunchy....it's not the restaurant or the hotel or whatever. Here's the way it works. The merchant swipes the credit card. From the number the pos terminal is able to determine where the bank that issued the card is located. It then, on the terminal or spits out a slip, telling the merchant that he or she can offer the customer the "convenience" of paying in the currency of the card issuer and the amount it would be.

At that point, the merchant is shown the option of pressing one button on the termnal that the customer agrees to the conversion and a different button if the custyomer does not. The problem comes in when the merchant simply presses the customer accepts the conversion button without asking.

At that point, it goes from the merchant performing a service the customer requests to a scam as the rate is invariabley well above the rate the bank would charge.

Dukey1

Correct me if I am wrong but my understanding is that the merchant MUST offer you the option of charging in the currency of the country in which the merchant is located. If the merchant does not do so or says it cannot be done then the patron should clearly mark on the slip that the option was refused.

I think these merchants have now "figured out" a way to discourage charging in their own currency by charging the patron an additional percentage if they demand that DCC NOT be performed.

And as to Hertz and their rental agreement in which the DCC option is included, you can refuse that if you are willing to make a big enough stink about it at the rental counter. I did this once at Heathrow and, of course, they tried to bluff me out by refusing to budge at first and then when i started talking about calling the Gold program desk immediately, etc., they gave in.

Michael

Ryan Air imposes the DCC and since all transactions are for pre-paid reservations and over the Internet, it is impossible to decline the "convenience".