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Dynamic Currency Conversion Providers by Luke
This site has devoted considerable attention to all these topics, but recently an email from a reader exposed a blind spot in our coverage. In her email she basically asks “Who are the major dynamic currency conversion providers, what rates do they charge and is there any reason to pick one over another?”. These are very good questions, and they demonstrate a fair amount of research to even know to ask them. Very often we hear that consumers have no idea what dynamic currency conversion is or that they might not be getting the best deal when they opt to take it. Over the coming weeks we’re going to try to answer all three of these questions, and we’re going to start by identifying the merchant service providers that make dynamic currency conversion possible. Before we do though, it’s worth saying that when you’re traveling internationally, it might be difficult to get a merchant to tell you what merchant service provider they are using to perform the currency conversion. For starters, they might not know — unless the cashier is the person responsible for deciding which merchant services provider to use. Secondly, just as most consumers aren’t aware that there are many different merchant services providers offering the dynamic currency conversion “service,” many merchants aren’t aware of all the different options. Most merchants offer the service because it enables them to take a cut of the currency conversion fee which you, the customer, will pay to have the currency converted. As a result, merchants sometimes try to persuade customers to take advantage of the dynamic currency conversion option. So bear this in mind: if you know all the merchant services providers offering dynamic currency conversion, you likely know a lot more than other travelers and merchants alike. Below is a list of some of the major merchant account providers offering dynamic currency conversion:
2 Comments to "Dynamic Currency Conversion Providers"
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November 13, 2006 
When making purchases internationally with a credit card, consumers need to be aware of three things:
Comments (2)
I recently visited London and experienced DCC firsthand. Not only are the cashiers clueless – I ended up arguing with a couple of them before cancelling the transaction. I was first hit with it on Day 3 of a 9 day trip to London. I signed a receipt at a shop in Windsor – the receipt indicated my purchase in GBP. When I looked at the copy I was given, it said I “agreed to be charged in the currency of my card”. As a CPA and law student, this set alarm bells ringing. I started pouring over all the receipts that I had accumulated thus far. We paid for a few tours thru our hotel concierge with local tour outfits. Nothing on the receipt indicated the charge would be in anything Other than GBP – and yet, in the small print on the back of the tour pamphlet, it said some disingenuous phrasing like “charges will be in local currency”. Having been burned once, I raised the question with the hotel concierge. They contacted the tour companies by phone to confirm that the charges would be in GBP. The tour company confirmed – long story short, they lied. My credit card statement was charged in USD for the tours. The rest of the trip was a minefield of reading the fine print. Even then, it wasn’t disclosed all the time. I got into several arguments with vendors, and most of the cashiers were clueless; they had no concept. It really frosted me to the point of considering filing a complaint with Inland Revenue on each of the businesses involved to be sure they were reporting the extra income they were making on these DCC transactions. We need another credit card class action targeting DCC fees and the banks involved.
I work in a shop and have been told to choose the customers own currency without aksing them or telling them about the 3% charge.If the customer notices and challenges it we are to lie and say that the till does it automatically.When they sign the receipt there is a statement saying that they were given a choice, but people dont notice it.This is greedy, immoral, and unjust.I am in big trouble for not doing as I am told, as all transactions are traceable on the system,they are checking up on us.