If you don't want to lose money while abroad, you better take all the reserves. Brian Kelly, founder of the travel site The Points Guy, said that Americans visiting Europe can be victims of a credit card currency exchange scam, a fraud method that has been increasing.
As he warned, the scam known as “Dynamic Currency Conversion” or DCC, has cost travelers hundreds and even thousands of dollars. This method is applied in commercial establishments that accept credit cards, and it is so simple that people usually do not realize that they have lost money until it is too late.
Basically what happens is that, when paying by credit card, sellers offer the traveler the opportunity to pay in US dollars instead of the local currency, in this case euros. Fraud is committed because they include an additional fee instead of a fair exchange, but that is not clear to the client.
As Kelly explained, everywhere he went they gave him the option to pay directly in US dollars. But when she paid attention she realized that she would end up paying more. As an example, He said that a charge that corresponded to 384 euros, they allowed him to pay it in US$437. But he decided to accept the payment directly on his card, without doing the conversion, and in the end he only paid US$416: “If I had clicked the 'yes' button I would have lost $20.”
What citizens of the United States suffer is a normalized fraud in Europe
It has already been mentioned that, on many occasions, it is not that businesses directly want to deceive customers, it is an implemented system that can lead travelers to lose hundreds of dollars without a malicious reason behind it. So much so that This also applies to ATMs.
According to Kelly, if an American goes to ATMs in Europe, they will see that they are configured to show the amount in dollars and not euros. That's why, The recommendation, if you do not want to end up paying an unfavorable exchange rate, is to always use the local currency and that the bank directly makes the transaction.
This is so common that even the European Consumer Organization issued a warning years ago: “It's basically a scam. He “The consumer almost always pays more just to see the price in their local currency.”
Although The advice is to always handle local currency when abroad, the financial company Visa told the media The Sun that if you choose to accept the conversion, this will not affect your ability to make purchases or withdraw cash internationally.
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