Robespierre, you and the red type are speaking letter of the "law." Enforcement and appeal are wholly different matters.

I would love to see Visa et al require an added line "I have been offered a choice and I accept this billing in dollars" that you have to sign.... nah ganna hap'n.

Enforcement is as simple as cutting off the merchant for violation of the Merchant Agreement.

This is not rocket science.

"Enforcement is as simple as cutting off the merchant for violation of the Merchant Agreement."

Nah ganna hap'n either.

If the merchant is doing the "conversion" then this cuts OUT the bankcard's ability to apply their OWN 3% or whatever it is "conversion fee"...is this correct?

If so, then the bankcards are obviously being deprived of a significant(?) source of revenue..correct or not?

As has been pointed out previously, millions of dollars are on the table. The networks will do whatever makes economic sense.

If they become convinced they're losing significant transaction fees because buyers revert to cash, they will act. They have more to gain than lose.

I wasn't referring to people "reverting to cash"...I was referring to not being able to tack on a "conversion fee" because the merchant beat them to it.

I can't speak to &quot;conversion fees&quot; because I've never paid one. My debit card purchases are always settled at the day's rate published at xe.com My guess would be that the networks tack on their percent(s) anyway. But they also lose <i>that</i> if the transaction is done in cash, providing even more incentive to get tough with the merchants who indulge in this deplorable practice.

This last Feb we were in PV Mexico. At a restaurant we always love to go to, ( I think it changed managers) we ordered three meals and drinks. The service was terrible! No chips and we asked for salsa and water and napkins at least 4 times. It took 70 minutes to get our meals! We tipped 10% because the service was so bad! I was really interested to see my Visa when I got home I thought for sure they were going to do the DCC on us.I wasn't surprise I was billed an extra $5.00 dollars on my bill! I disputed the charge and was credited the money as I had my copy with the correct total amount. ( I also had written paid in Pescos on the charge.) The amount was so low the Visa representive told me that the restaurant will just get the money and I wil get a credit back. They would only go after the place if it is complained about many times. So check your charge amounts! Because we customer always end up paying in the end with increased credit card fees!

Intrepid, that would be nice, but I think the cards that charge for conversion actually still charge that 1-3 pct under DCC. The reason is that they do not label that charge a conversion fee. They simply call it a &quot;foreign transaction&quot; fee. They can tell charges from any foreign country, and simply charge an addon for all of them.

I don't think Kelly said she was a journalist, actually, just that she was working on an article. I would hope a journalist for the WSJ would do more thorough research on this topic than just posting on internet boards to understand it and to know where it is taking place. I don't think that would be considered reputable sources or research (xyz on fodors.com told me....) -- at least it wouldn't in my line of work, and I write papers and articles (but not for a newspaper). I can see using someone from here for a quotable anecdate as newspapers may do, but not for basic comprehension of the industry facts. Of course, lots of journalists seem to get stuff published nowadays without having to even prove it is accurate or it even being real.

Christina,
In response to your question, I (of course) have to use official sources -- travel experts, credit-card companies, etc. -- for much of my research. But it's also nice to get some real-world experiences. Online bulletin boards are a good way to find out what travelers are thinking about, problems they encounter, anecdotes, etc.
Best,
Kelly

The article appeared in the <u>Wall Street Journal</u> for June 26 (Sunday), and is available to subscribers on line. The article is titled &quot;Watch for Conversion Fees on Foreign Bills.&quot;

Is there any way to access the article without being a WSJ subscriber?

Believe it or not we had very favorable currency conversion at CDG airport. We had 100 euros left and we wanted to exchange them before we came back home. The lady at the counter gave us 107 US dollars for our 100 euros. We didn't think that was correct but of course we said nothing and quietly cheered to ourselves.

You're kidding, right? You got $107 for the 100&euro; you paid $122 (or more) for?

What a deal!

You call that favorable, ilovetulips? Euro 100 is currently worth 120.77 US dollars. They charged you a little over 11 %. I would think that's about standard for an exchange booth, however.

The currency exchange that you refer to should have given us less than 100 US dollars. Basically when we were there about 3 weeks ago our dollar was worth about 28-30% less than the euro.

Yes, ilovetulips, we know. But what you're saying means that it takes a bunch more dollars to buy an equal number of euros, and at the same time you should get more back. If the dollar slipped to being worth half of what the euro is, that means when you turn in 100 euro you get 200 dollars. Just like if you wanted to buy 100 euro it would cost you 200 dollars. Right?

What you've experienced is what makes Europeans so happy to come to the States these days. When they exchange currency they get MORE dollars for their euros.

I understand what you are saying. We already knew that we lost money from the inital exchange but it was nice to know that we didn't compound it by losing even more money the second time around.

Huh?

nevermind.