The DCC scam is spreading
 

So, I was booking a room in London for three nights at one of the LSE student dorms. I've stayed there (Grosvenor House on Drury Lane) before, and it's a good deal for London - en-suite single with full kitchen for 64.80 GBP a night, paid in advance. That's 284.86 USD for three nights according to xe.com.

The site offered me the choice of paying in USD instead of GBP. How kind of it. It would have cost me an extra 11 USD! (I was using a card with zero foreign transaction fees.)

I noticed last year that DCC seemed to be spreading. Take this as a warning to more vigilant this year.

A couple of hours ago I was making a purchase in the basement hardware department of BHV (Paris) and the credit card reader gave me a choice, #1 US dollars, or #2 Euros. No comment from the clerk, one simply had to make the choice. That was the first time I'd seen it done that way. It appears to be here to stay.

I've recently seen that choice on ATM machines in Italy when they see you're using a non-euro credit card.

I wouldn't call it a scam, though, unless you're not given the choice.

bvl - unless people are savvy enough to come here [though other travel forums are available] they don't know that choosing their own currency may land them with extra charges, in fact they may never know as they never get to see what picking the € option would have cost.

so giving them a choice, without the snags being explained, amounts to no choice at all.

This happened to me and Keith in Switzerland in 2012. We chose CHF when asked whilst paying by US credit card.

An American man checking out of our mutual hotel in Wengen chose USD when paying by credit card and basically told me to mind my own business when I told him he was making a big mistake.

I said to him, "I'll have the last laugh when you get your credit card statement."

Thin


Thin

ATMs in Bordeaux now offer the same choice. It galls me.

This was great info to bring to France. Thanks all.

I will say that the LSE site spelled out quite clearly that there would be a cost to picking USD, and what the percentage would be. That is more than often happens.

Thanks for reminding me of this. It seems to me that a clerk put my charge in dollars last year before I realized what was happening.

I'll be careful this time.

thursdaysd i am interested in the place you are staying. I imagine it is available when school is out - i can call to find out the dates they have availability but can you mention if the area is convenient for the central London area? Any other information would be helpful - thanks!

There are several different buildings, with different facilities. All are pretty convenient, Grovesnor House is close to the Covent Garden tube station, for instance. You can book through the website:

http://www.lsevacations.co.uk/Accomm...Locations.aspx

This is not luxurious or atmospheric accomodation, but clean and functional.

Nanabee, you can check the locations at
http://www.lsevacations.co.uk/Home.a....EmiNaD7O.dpbs

But they are mostly very central.

This is so helpful, thanks so much to both of you! :)

What is DCC?

Dynamic Currency Conversion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynami...ncy_conversion

Dynamic currency conversion

It's perplexing that anyone booking at LSE would choose DCC when they state clearly that it will cost more to be charged in USD. What do people see as the benefit?

We encountered DCC a couple of times in France last fall. Once at an Ibis in Amiens and then in the food court in the airport at Keflavik. There was no choice offered either verbally or onscreen at the Ibis. I just happened to catch it and stopped the process. My husband paid at the airport and didn't notice anything, but wasn't paying close attention.

Thursdaysd - that is a real bargain! Having spent much of my working life in the city and west end and stayed in many places around town, I knew LSE offered great value rooms, but had no idea they were in such a fantastic location. We will be looking for a place to stay when we return from South America for a few weeks and may well give that a go. Thanks for sharing.
As for DCC, I didn't realise that it had now infected the UK!

Hi crellston - the LSE rooms are mostly available just during vacations. However, you might also look at universityrooms.co.uk.

Yes, I don't remember encountering the DCC scam in he UK last year, and I booked LSE last year too. It was very much in evidence in Switzerland and Spain, though.

We had this happen to is recently while traveling in Hong Kong and China. We made made them redo the transactions.

My very first experience of DCC was, in fact, in the UK several years ago. I, of course, never having heard of it at that point, accepted their kind offer. It was at an Edinburgh Woolen Mill store in the Peak District. So it's been lurking in the UK for some time.

I just called various credit cards to inform them of upcoming travel, and was surprised to learn that my Citi credit account will now <b><u>waive</b></u> currency conversion fees IF (and only if) I select US $ when I make a purchase in a non-US country. Interesting! I think I'll stick to my no-conversion-fee ever cards, if for no other reason than principle.

It has been rife in UK for outlets with high overseas visitor business, such as car rental, hotels, stores in tourist areas or Central London etc, but now seems to be spreading among other sectors, presumably because of continuing high visitor numbers and push by their card handlers (they and retailers get a cut from DCC).

I told a clerk in the Dublin airport I wanted to pay in euros and she put out through as $ anyway. When I refused to sign she said she couldn't redo the transaction. Of course she finally had to.

In a small hotel in Ireland I again said euros only and she put in $. I said no way and she said she didn't know how to change it. I showed her and she acted so surprised.

This leads me to believe that there is often a choice given but the clerk enters $ before we get the choice ourselves. You really have to be careful.

Because of the mc/visa regs that this scam can only be pulled with consent of the scamee, pos terminals all have a choice built in. Sometimes, it's a slip that comes through when the card is first swiped or inserted, sometimes it appears on the screen (press this button for local currency the other button for your currency. Especilly now that most US cards have emv chips, you see it right on the screen in front of you although sometimes the clerk pushes the button for your currency. But all transactions, all terminals, have to have provisions for voiding a transaction (you know sometimes an honest clerk enters the wrong amount) no matter what the clerk tells you. Of course, many of the clerks simply do not know. Their bosses tell them just to choose the dcc button and 99% of the time, the scamee says nothing. Some even think how nice it is; they know in a currency they understand what the overpriced souvenir is going to cost. But even more insidious, and this happens with some hotel chains, the acceptance of the scam is buried in your check in document (which most people don't read). Of course that situation is even worse in countries where English is not the primary language. Car rental companies are well known to pull this or sometimes you unwittingly when you join a car rental program, you agree to allow dcc on all car rentals with that company.

One solution to this is to use American Express which does not allow the scam to check in to all hotels and then at the end of the stay, use mc or visa long after the pre-authorization.

DCC is a cancer that indeed is metastasizing through the traveling world and has to be stopped.

@kja - thanks for that info! There was no mention of that last year when Citi announced they would stop charging foreign conversion fees! I will have to call them....

My only experience of DCC was in Oregon a few years ago. It was in an Indian restaurant and restaurateur would not offer us the dollar option when paying by credit card. Suddenly his English was not good enough to understand us, and things began to get a bit nasty. Since we didn't have quite enough cash to pay the bill and tip, we had no choice but to pay it under protest.

Interesting to know it's not just holders of US credit cards that are targeted.

Also, it is my understanding (haven't tried it myself), that in that situation you should write on the merchant's copy: "choice to pay in euros/dollars/whatever not offered" and dispute the charge with your credit card company.

Yes that is correct. If you cannot get the clerk to do the transaction properly, you ask to see the manager. If you still can't get them to do the transaction properly, you most assuredly do not offer to pay cash. Rather you circle the amount in local currency, cross out the amount in your currency and write local currency option not offered. When you return home, you dispute the transaction and demand it be charged back to the merchant. Very often, if the amount is not all that large, instead of charging it back to the merchant, they will offer a credit on the spot for the difference. That's what they did for me on a couple of occasions although I would prefer it be charged back and a penalty imposed on these vermin pulling this garbage.

It is not just US credit cards. It is any credit card payment where the transaction is not in your home currency, then it might be converted dynamically so you can see the amount in your own currency, so I get presented with DCC occasionally even in the US. I've seen it all over, for example at the supermarket in France recently(Auchan but not Carrefour), if I go to the Caribbean I am almost always charged in USD but I let that go (eg Cayman dollars vs USD is neglible and not worth arguing about).

"choice to pay in euros/dollars/whatever not offered" and dispute the charge with your credit card company.

I wrote that on a receipt and got charged in the higher amount anyway.

<i> I just called various credit cards to inform them of upcoming travel, and was surprised to learn that my Citi credit account will now waive currency conversion fees IF (and only if) I select US $ when I make a purchase in a non-US country. </i>

In other words, they'll waive conversion charges when someone else has already converted the currency to dollars!!! How magnanimous of them.

"I wrote that on a receipt and got charged in the higher amount anyway."

You need(ed) to dispute the charge with your credit card company.

...and when you dispute the charge, make sure you request a chargeback (although it's likely if the amount is relativelh small your credit card company will credit the difference) and make the point the merchant is in violation of mc/visa regulations by converting the currency without your permission

With a chip & pin system, you simply decline to enter your pin if the a amount on the terminal is incorrect. The transaction cannot go through without the pin, except as "cardholder not present", which immediately arouses uncertainty.

Unfortunately, US credit cards are mostly chip and signature not chip and PIN.

It has been rife in UK for outlets with high overseas visitor business, such as car rental, hotels, stores in tourist areas or Central London etc, but now seems to be spreading among other sectors, >>

As I always pay in my own currency, I had no idea that this was a common practice in the UK. keep complaining folks!

It's definitley not tjust argeting US cards, I first came across it in Singapore about 8 years ago, I told them I wanted to pay in S$ not GBP and pressed the no button and all was fine, I must admit I have always been asked or can make the choice on the terminal... It's been in S E Asia for years!

If my purchase had been a large one I would have contacted my credit card company, but as it was for a very small purchase it wasn't worth my time. It had already taken too much time in the airport. I was actually arguing for the principle, not the money on that one.

The only place DCC got me was in Hawaii about 8 or 9 years ago. Since then I watch for it carefully, and have seen it in Ireland, England, Italy and France and Australia.