Avoiding DCC (at least in Europe)

I’m sure what you actually meant was that DCC wasn’t targeting directly at English speaking people. Singling out only English people might come across as a tad discriminatory :ok_hand:

It targets people in Europe who don’t use the Euro. Which is pretty much UK citizens, US citizens and the like. There may be a very limited theoretical case where it is “worth it” if the card itself has a massive surcharge for “out of currency” transactions but these are few and far between. The convenience aspect is much overstated - this is a scam and a rip off, end of.

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An interesting document from Mastercard itself (especially Page 10):

So according to the rules:-
"DCC must not be offered on:

Mastercard or Maestro prepaid travel cards or debit multicurrency cards. These cards
are issued in one or more foreign currencies of the cardholder’s choice, which allows use in
the local currency when travelling abroad. Performing DCC on these cards results in the
transaction amount being converted multiple times, thereby negating the cards’ benefit."

Does that mean TransferWise and Revolut are exempt from DCC as I think they are multicurrency cards?

Revolut only offer full debit card now, as opposed to prepaid. So I don’t know it they still fall under the remit.

Wise (new name for Transferwise) - not for current cards / new customers as they provide Visa cards.

Revolut - As @anon22494410 says - no, they are not prepaid debit cards anymore, but their older Mastercard cards most likely were exempt as they were prepaid (again, any Revolut Visa cards would not be exempt from DCC).

So from Mastercard the two categories of card that are exempt from DCC are “Mastercard or Maestro prepaid travel cards or debit multicurrency cards”.

Here is a list of Prepaid Travel Cards for the UK:
https://www.mastercard.co.uk/en-gb/personal/find-a-card/general-prepaid-mastercard.html

But I can’t find a list of UK Debit Multicurrency cards. Does anyone have that list for the UK?

The first time I saw it was in Mexico and that was using a USD card. I don’t agree it’s European in origin or design.

I agree that Eurozone cardholders will be protected within the Eurozone but as soon as they step outside they are exposed as anyone.

I don’t agree it has some English speaking angle to it.

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English speakers - by dint of being citizens of one of the two English speaking nations in Europe, and being the one that is outside the Eurozone - were always going to be more exposed. So whether it’s by default or by design is irrelevant - English speakers will be disproportionately affected

As @Oberoth has stated. Its nothing to do with which country you come from.

Its more to do with going to a different currency zone - so would effect those in the EU moving between Euro and non Euro areas.

I first came across it in Hong Kong - and I think it’s fair to say it’s more common in certain regions and/or types of establishment

That would just be wrong of you to state though, for a remainer I expected you to know about EU states at a basic level; Malta functionally depends on English for large swatches of industry (it’s an official language, 88% of the country speaks it)

Gibraltar is also functionally it’s own little country and they speak English exclusively

There are also the British crown dependencies, Isle of Man, guernsey (can’t spell it) and jersey

Yes, this is the case. But the net result is that UK citizens is/have been disproportionately affected - I don’t think it was done on purpose but I do think certain regions and types of establishment exploited it. If they weren’t so shameless and greedy with the margins, it might even have taken off.

I take it you’ve never been to Gibraltar for any length of time ? The main language is actually Llanito, a creole of Andalusian Spanish and English. They may speak English to you (though I’ve been spoken to in Spanish as that’s who most of the visitors are) as a tourist, but it’s not their first language. The same in Malta.

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The sole official language of Gibraltar is English, though

Oh my. If you went by that logic, you’d have not a word to say in many a corner of our wonderful (sub)continent!

So, you’ve obviously never been there.

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I’ve been visiting Gibraltar regularly for the last 40 years, for work purposes the first couple of decades and latterly, solely for pleasure propping up the bars in Main Street before skulking over the runway to La Línea for cheaper beer. I cannot argue with your excellent explanation :laughing:

You paint an elegant picture. Mark Twain-esque, I’d go so far as to suggest.

Hints of “The Innocents Abroad”.

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Just to say I ordered a Nuri card - checking on binlist.net I can see that the Bin shows it as a German card so hopefully no DCC for Nuri (although on binbase.com it shows it to have different account ranges belonging to different countries as the Bin database was extended a few years ago I think, I can’t fully check the range I’ve been allocated on binbase without paying). I guess I can check the card provenance by going to some random ATM in the UK and see if I am offered DCC on this Nuri German bank card as it is recognised as a non-UK card - but which ATM’s in the UK offer DCC to their foreign card customers I wonder …

Notemachines

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Found a NoteMachine ATM just now. Took £10 out (I had a 30 Euro balance), nothing unusual apart from “Your issuer may charge you for this transaction” which was weird for a VISA Debit card. And no DCC was offered.

Earlier in the day, I popped the card into an ATM at the Co-Op (but decided not to do a withdrawal of GBP) and that immediately gave me language options to choose from e.g. English, French, etc when I popped the card into the ATM.