Interesting (and disturbing) article on currency conversion from Washington Post
 

I apologize if this has already been posted (it's hard to tell with all the topping). The Washington Post ran an article recently on the various fees associates with currency conversion and, in particular, on the increasing number of merchants that automatically convert purchases to the currency of the credit card issuer's country of origin, to the detriment of the purchaser.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...072900927.html

What's the difference between converted and unconverted currency?

Converted currency has found god!

There have been many threads on here about dynamic currency conversion. A nasty business to be sure.

Visa operating rules REQUIRE that the cardholder be offered a choice of currencies, and that the merchant abide by that choice.

If you are NOT offered a choice, cross out the dollar amount on the charge slip, write LOCAL CURRENCY NOT OFFERED on it <i>where it can't be torn off</i>, and dispute it when you get home.

Thanks for posting this info, Indygirl. I've been one of the vocal posters on the board about this abominable practice. I'm glad the press is starting to getting the word out.

Robespierre - I would really like to know if any has actually had success with disputing the dcc with Visa when they got home. I have a complaint filed with MC International but really don't expect any positive results.

Everyone is out to get a piece of your dismal dollar!

I never ran into this in France but while in London it happened to me a few times both at restaurants and my hotel. Simply ask them to void it and re-enter it.

Better yet refuse to sign it and tell them you'll pay cash.

Richardab - The problem is merchants have been refusing to re-ring the transactions. Most people don't carry enough cash to pay a week's hotel bill and you don't know it's going to happen until it does. If you are at a hotel in the middle of nowhere and there are no ATM's to get cash (even if you could withdraw enough for the bill) and are on a tight schedule you don't have time to hang around and argue about the bill.
According to MC INT they don't need your signature.

Any charge appearing on my statement that I wish to dispute, knowing that I did NOT sign for it, will most assuredly be reversed by the bank/issuer. (as evidenced by a fraudulent charge for a computer on one of my accounts).

&quot;According to MC INT they don't need your signature.&quot; I don't think that's right. If a signature weren't required, why would merchants even bother to have you sign?

My Merchant Agreement with the networks says that I'm only liable for charges that have either a signature or PIN (for &quot;card-present&quot; transactions) or a CVV (for telephone or internet transactions).

I think MC INT must have been answering another question.

I always read the Post Sunday Travel section, it is usually very good. I thought that article had a lot of good information on this topic, and for once, the authors seemed on the side of how unreasonable such a charge is and gave good advice about how to avoid it. Too often, I've read travel articles/books that just shrug about a 3 pct CC markup and tell you that's a good deal or don't even seem to know much about it.

Now aside from the DCC issue, this article gave a website link about where to compare all the credit cards as for what they charge on currency conversion. The article was more comprehensive than just DCC. I haven't tried that website yet, to see what it says.

However, one interesting thing it had was the Capital One said they absorb even the one pct VISA/MC surcharge. I have their card and always use it for foreign charges and knew they didn't add on anything, but I have been told by Capital One customer service people that they do charge that one pct. So, I don't know, but I did notice from my recent trip when I compared the conversions to the going rate that day, they were very close so I couldn't tell if there was any markup or not--it was within one pct or normal daily rate changes.

Another point I don't think I've seen mentioned on here was that the article quoted some guy at MBNA, I think (or VISA, I forget) who said they had at least rescinded the policy of charging the same addon percentage to DCC charges already in dollars as to those in the foreign currency.

Christina, you stated in your post that the WP article provides a website link so that you can compare conversion fees. I have read the article several times now and must be missing something b/c I can't find a link. The only site that's mentioned is Bankrate.com. Is this the one you're referring to. If so, I've checked it and can't seem to find information on conversion fees.
Maybe I'm just having one of those days. Can you help me?!?

In any event, I'm tempted to get a Capital One card to supplement my MBNA Mastercard (which I purposely got several years ago b/c it had low conversion fees at the time). I hate the idea of having another credit card and what it could possible do to my otherwise good credit (hopefully nothing), but I just can't abide by MBNA's fees.

One other thing I'd mention in response ot Christina's experience with Capital One. The co-author of the WP article was on the live WP Travel discussion from Monday and she indicated that CO now absorbs the 1% Visa fee. That information came to her from high up on the customer service food chain. If a customer service rep indicates otherwise it's because they are relying on outdated information.

Visa has, for the time being, rescinded the 1% fee for being scammed by the dcc near criminal activity.

Where did you hear that? The Visa web site doesn't mention it.

<b>http://corporate.visa.com/pd/consumer_ex_faq.jsp#faq6</b>

In the Washington Post article referred to by the OP.

I have a Capital One card and was not charged any extra on a trip to Mexico in Feb.

Indygirl2, I don't understand why you think having another card would affect your credit rating. If anything, I would think that the fact that you responsibly handle more than one card would only enhance the rating.

I'll check on what I was thinking of -- I think it was that bankrate.com site and thought the article said it gave info on conversion charges.

Someone at Capitol One told me that about six months ago, so if they changed the rules more recently, I didn't know and am even happier. You'd think they would tell customers that good news, though, wouldn't you.

SusanP - Having a large number of credit cards can affect your credit score even if you don't use them and, if you do use them, even if you always pay on time. The reason is that lenders look at all that potential credit that you could be dipping into and get nervous. I doubt that one additional credit card makes enough of a difference to matter, but that's the theory.

I checked the article and it was the bankrate website that had a chart of foreign conversion charges. It might be hard to find from the homepage, so this is the exact URL

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20050624b1.asp

It doesn't list that many, but has some of the major ones. I have no idea how accurate or up-to-date it is.

FlyFish, That is interesting, I hadn't thought of that consideration. I recently applied for another card solely to have a backup card of my trip to Italy (since Discover can't be used there), and even though I have several others that I don't want to use due to the 3% conversion charge (and which I seldom use otherwise), I got instant approval for a large credit limit due to my excellent credit rating. It obviously didn't matter to them how many cards I had.