Travel

What you should know about Dynamic Currency Conversion

Visa is committed to empowering consumers on handling different purchase experiences when travelling internationally. One likely scenario includes retailers or ATMs offering to convert a transaction into your home currency – otherwise known as Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC).  

What is Dynamic Currency Conversion?

When travelling in a foreign country, you might be asked to pay for your purchases in local currency. However, if the merchant offers DCC, you may receive the option to pay in your home currency, which includes exchange rate and additional fees. Or you might be withdrawing the local currency from an ATM and be billed in your home currency.

What to expect when merchants offer DCC 

Recognising that many cardholders may be unfamiliar or may not fully understand what DCC entails, Visa requires merchants and ATMs to clearly display the following details on the screen and receipts:
  • Purchase/withdrawal amount in the local and cardholder’s currency
  • Amounts with both currency symbols 
  • Exchange rate used for the currency conversion
  • Additional fees or markup assessed

Merchants and ATMs should give you a choice to accept or decline currency conversion and must not choose on your behalf. Additionally, providers should not use language or procedures such as different font size or colour to influence your decision. Note that if you don’t see the required details or feel pressure to choose one currency over the other, Visa recommends that you decline the currency conversion offer and report the incident to your card issuer. Opting to accept or decline DCC will not affect your ability to make purchases or withdraw cash internationally. 

The choice is yours

After carefully considering your own objectives and the costs of currency conversion, the choice is yours in deciding to accept or decline the Dynamic Currency Conversion offer.