I accepted a conversion on a deposit. What rate do I actually pay?
Does the currency I pick at check-in stick for the whole stay?
It carries through to the final bill, and the terminal will not ask you a second time. It is not sealed while you are still standing there.
Moneris, a Canadian acquirer, documents the terminal mechanics in a March 2017 program guide written for its own hospitality terminals: the pre-authorisation advice automatically uses the currency the cardholder selected during the pre-authorisation, and there are no DCC prompts in the advice transaction. That is one acquirer's guide for its own equipment rather than a scheme rule, so whether a given terminal re-prompts is an implementation detail.
The scheme rules fix the currency chain rather than the prompt. Visa requires an acquirer to enter presentments into interchange in the exact amount of transaction currency the cardholder authorised. Mastercard's 2025 merchant guide adds that no pre-authorised DCC transaction can be billed for more than the hold, and that if the total will exceed the hold, an additional authorisation request must be submitted for the extra amount using the trace ID from the initial pre-authorisation.
The hold is not a cap on what you can end up paying. It caps what that one authorisation carries, and the excess goes through as a further authorisation. Visa's rules say as much from the issuer's side: an estimated or incremental authorisation amount may differ from the final transaction amount, and the estimate must be a genuine estimation of what the cardholder will spend.
Where it is not sealed is at an attended check-out. Mastercard's 2025 guide states that if the cardholder interacts with merchant staff during check-out, they must be informed of their right to opt out of DCC if they change their mind, and that the final amount, exchange rate and currency selection can be confirmed with staff at that point. Moneris describes the same thing as a procedure: before or during check-out or car return, staff cancel the pre-authorised funds with a zero-value pre-authorisation advice and take a fresh pre-authorisation, during which the customer selects the currency again.
So the button pressed at the desk on day one prices the whole stay, unless somebody re-opens it while you are still there.
Is the rate on the screen the rate I will pay?
At a terminal, no. What you agree to is a currency and a markup. The rate is set later.
One note on weight before the detail. Mastercard's DCC Performance Guide is guidance about Mastercard's Standards rather than the Standards themselves, and its 2017 predecessor states on its face that it does not contain Standards. Where a binding rule exists, it is named below.
Mastercard's 2025 merchant guide requires hotels to tell the cardholder that the exchange rate shown at check-in is an approximation, because the final exchange rate is determined on the date the transaction is processed.
Moneris says the same operationally: the completion applies the conversion rate in effect on the date the advice is performed. Its two mandated disclosure texts are worth keeping apart, because they belong to different documents. The statement it requires on the registration form or rental agreement says your final charges convert at a conversion rate in effect on the date when payment is completed. The hotel express check-out form it supplies says the rate in effect on the date of your check-out, and prints the markup as the DCC base rate plus a percentage the merchant fills in.
| Situation | Which rate settles | Stated by |
|---|---|---|
| Hotel, DCC accepted at check-in | The rate on the date the transaction is processed. The check-in rate is an approximation. | Mastercard DCC Performance Guide, 2025 merchant edition |
| Car rental preferred customer programme, no agent present at return | The exchange rate on the day the car is returned | Mastercard DCC Performance Guide, 2025 merchant edition |
| Car rental preferred customer programme, older guidance | The currency and rate agreed at pick-up | Mastercard DCC Compliance Guide, February 2017 |
| Ordinary rental handed back to an agent | Not stated. Rental merchants are told to follow the same DCC requirements as other merchants. | Mastercard DCC Performance Guide, 2025 merchant edition |
| Pre-authorisation completed later on a Moneris terminal | The rate in effect on the date the completion is performed | Moneris hospitality DCC guide, March 2017 |
| Online booking with a DCC offer | The rate quoted in the offer, reused at capture | Visa Acceptance Solutions DCC implementation guide |
The car rental rows are narrower than they look. Both the 2025 and the 2017 wordings sit in a section about preferred customer programmes and returns where no rental agent is involved, and the two editions disagree there: 2017 says the currency and rate agreed at pick-up, 2025 says the rate on the day the car is returned. The 2025 text supersedes, and the older wording still circulates in merchant training material. For an ordinary rental where you hand the keys back to a person, neither guide states which date's rate settles.
That same section carries a protection worth knowing. In the no-agent flow the merchant must obtain your express written agreement to apply DCC by the time the car is returned, and if you do not respond to the notice, the merchant must not apply DCC automatically and must use the local currency. For the ordinary case the 2017 guide is blunt: the rental sales agent must ask the renter whether they want to be billed in the local currency or their billing currency.
The last row shows that the terminal behaviour is a design choice. Visa Acceptance's implementation guide tells developers to apply the same exchange rate used at the time of payment authorization when they capture, and the DCC offer it returns carries an expiry timestamp. Locking a rate is technically normal in the online flow.
Whatever rate lands, the markup rides on it. Visa Acceptance describes the DCC rate as a wholesale exchange rate including a DCC markup.
No published field test measures DCC markups on deposits, holds, hotel folios or rental settlements. The two measurements available are of other transaction types. BEUC's 2017 position paper, reporting a 2016 Stiftung Warentest test across 13 non-euro countries, put in-store card payments at 2% to 5% and ATM withdrawals at 2.6% to 12%. A Mesec.cz test of Prague ATMs in April 2026, benchmarked against the ECB reference rate on the transaction date, found 6.51% to 19.00% across ten operators, and Euronet reproduced the same table on its own corporate site. Treat the older in-store band as a floor rather than a forecast: on a EUR 900 bill each percentage point is EUR 9, so 2% is EUR 18 and 12% is EUR 108.
You can check the markup on the paperwork afterwards, but the two networks require different things. Visa's receipt rules require a DCC receipt to show the conversion rate and the commission, fee, markup or margin over a wholesale rate. Mastercard's receipt rules require both amounts, both currency codes and the rate used, but not the markup. Mastercard puts the markup elsewhere: in the disclosure you are owed before the transaction, and in the written agreement for a priority check-out, which is the express check-out form.
What happens to charges added after I have gone?
They follow the currency you chose, at the rate on the day they are put through.
Moneris states it plainly: all transactions, including delayed or amended charges, are processed at the currency conversion rate in effect at the time the transaction is performed. A minibar item found the next morning, or a cleaning charge added after you have gone, converts at that day's rate with the markup on top.
If you signed an express check-out form, the binding rule is Mastercard's Transaction Processing Rules 3.8.3, Priority Check-Out. Before the conversion is initiated the merchant must complete a written agreement with you specifying that you were offered a choice of currencies, that you agreed to the conversion, the specific transaction currency agreed, any currency conversion commission, fees or markup on the exchange rate, and, if applicable, that the exchange rate will be determined by the merchant at a later time without additional consultation with you. Mastercard's 2025 guide prints a worked example of that form and adds one more declaration to it: that the cardholder has the right to change their mind and opt out of DCC, in which case there is no express check-out.
Refunds are where the gap opens. Mastercard's 2025 guide says refunds must be processed in the same currency used in the original transaction, and lists a credit with DCC applied at the exact exchange rate as the original among the permitted forms. The 2017 guide attaches the condition that makes it fragile: the same conversion method and rate must be used where merchant technology allows for the storage of rates.
Fiserv's DCC terms of service, one processor's contract rather than a scheme rule, show what that condition means in practice. Refunds are treated as separate card transactions, the original date's rate is applied only where the merchant supplies the Rate ID, and otherwise the refund converts at the prevailing DCC rate at the time and date the refund is submitted. Chargebacks in the same document always use the original date's rate. The merchant holds the Rate ID, not you.
If that gap costs you money, do not assume it is disputable. Mastercard's guide says a cardholder who suffers a loss due to currency conversion has a chargeback right for the loss amount, but Mastercard's Chargeback Guide opens only two currency-error grounds: the conversion was performed and the cardholder did not consent to it, or the conversion was performed incorrectly. A refund converted at the day's rate because the merchant did not keep the Rate ID is neither of those on its face. Ask your issuer rather than assuming it qualifies.
Whether the money is back yet is a different question from what rate it came back at. Release timing is covered at holdeta.com.
Can the desk change the currency later?
While you are standing at the counter, yes. Once you have gone, no.
Moneris documents three states. Before or during check-out or car return, staff reverse the pre-authorisation with a zero-value advice and take a fresh one, and you choose the currency again. After the completion has been performed, if you are present, they refund it and re-run it as a purchase, and you choose again. If you are not present, the guide says flatly that the currency cannot be changed.
The scheme rules point the same way. Mastercard's merchant guide says DCC must not be applied without the cardholder's consent or selected in the cardholder's absence. Visa forbids converting a local-currency amount you have already approved into another currency after the transaction has been completed but before it has entered interchange. Mastercard's Transaction Processing Rules require the merchant and terminal to honour your currency selection, and where you do not choose the billing currency, the transaction must be completed and processed in the local currency.
After you have left, the route is a dispute rather than a conversation, and the clocks are short. Visa's Dispute Condition 12.3, Incorrect Currency, covers DCC that occurred where the cardholder did not expressly agree or was refused the choice of paying in local currency. It applies for the entire transaction amount at the chargeback stage, though if the case reaches pre-arbitration Visa limits the claim to the difference between the original amount and the amount the cardholder should have been charged. The limit is 120 calendar days from the transaction processing date, which is the clearing date rather than the day you paid. Mastercard routes the same complaint through Currency Errors under message reason code 4834, within 90 calendar days of the central site business date for a non-ATM transaction, and there the issuer may claim only the difference from the start. On a Mastercard consent dispute the acquirer cannot second-present at all, and terminal logs are expressly named as an invalid defence.
A dispute is not a right
The UK's Financial Ombudsman Service, writing about card disputes generally rather than about DCC, states that a bank or lender does not have to raise a chargeback, that each scheme has different rules, and that chargebacks can fail. No equivalent guidance for other countries is verified here, but the structure is the same wherever you are: the conditions above bind the schemes and their members, and getting a dispute filed still depends on your issuer. The refusal playbook has the full recovery ladder.
What should I ask for at the counter instead?
One sentence, before the card goes near the terminal: the agreement, the pre-authorisation and the final bill all in the local currency.
Timing is the part people get wrong. Mastercard requires the currency disclosure to be given before an authorisation or pre-authorisation request is submitted, so the moment to speak is before the desk starts the transaction, not when the slip prints.
The rules sit on your side of the counter. Visa requires the cardholder to expressly agree to DCC by directly interfacing with a customer-facing screen or handheld acceptance device, forbids pre-selecting the DCC option, and forbids imposing any additional requirement on having the transaction processed in the local currency. Mastercard requires that the cardholder be clearly informed of the right to choose the currency, and that no conversion method be implemented as the default.
If nobody asks you at all, local currency is what should happen. Mastercard's rules say that where the cardholder does not choose to have the transaction completed in the billing currency, it must be completed and processed in the local currency.
Then take the receipt. Under Visa's rules a DCC receipt must carry the amount with currency symbols in both the local and the transaction currency, the conversion rate, the markup over a wholesale rate, and a statement, easily visible, that the cardholder was offered a choice of currencies and expressly agreed. A slip missing that statement is worth photographing before you leave the desk.
The EU rule does not cover most deposits
The markup-disclosure duty introduced by Regulation (EU) 2019/518, now codified in Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1230, requires currency conversion charges to be expressed as a percentage markup over the ECB reference rate and disclosed before the payment is initiated, at the ATM or point of sale. It reaches only payments denominated in euro or in another Member State's national currency. A euro-billed card charged in koruna in Prague is inside it; the same card charged in dollars, baht or dirhams is not. How the duty applies to an authorisation hold specifically is not spelled out in the regulation, so read the koruna case as covering the charges rather than the moment the hold is placed. The Visa and Mastercard rules above apply either way. The country guide has the local picture for where you are going.
Declining is not a penalty. Visa's consumer guidance says that opting to accept or decline DCC will not impact your ability to make purchases or withdraw cash internationally. It hands the conversion to your own bank instead, at your card's own rate and whatever foreign transaction fee it charges: Visa's rules allow the Visa rate to be adjusted by an optional issuer fee or by an issuer's own markup applied outside VisaNet. The comparison that decides it is the desk's markup against your card's own fee, and the ATM fees guide breaks down the charges inside a foreign transaction. The refusal card carries the sentence in 40 languages if the desk does not speak yours, and the FAQ covers the basics in short form.
What to do about it
Five moves, in the order they come up.
- Speak before the card goes in. Ask for the agreement, the pre-authorisation and the final bill in local currency. Mastercard requires the currency disclosure before the pre-authorisation request is submitted, so this is the easiest moment by a distance.
- Take the terminal yourself. Visa requires you to agree to DCC by directly interfacing with a customer-facing screen or handheld device. If it is turned away from you, ask to see it.
- Photograph the slip. A Visa DCC receipt must show both amounts, the rate, the markup and a visible statement that you were offered a choice and agreed. What is missing is your evidence later.
- Ask again at check-out. If a person is handling it, Mastercard's 2025 guide says you must be told you can still opt out of DCC, and the final amount, rate and currency selection can be confirmed then. Once you have gone, Moneris says the currency cannot be changed.
- If it went wrong, move fast. Visa's limit is 120 calendar days from the transaction processing date; Mastercard's is 90 calendar days for a non-ATM transaction.
The DCC calculator compares a quoted amount against the ECB reference rate, so you can put a number on the desk's offer before you agree to it. Keep the refusal card on your phone for the counter itself.
Sources
Every factual claim above is checked against a published source. Links go to the document itself, not to a summary of it.
- Mastercard, Dynamic Currency Conversion Performance Guide, 2025 merchant edition, ss.2.5, 5.3, 5.3.1, 5.3.2, 5.3.2.1. Guidance about Mastercard's Standards, not the Standards themselves. Pre-authorisation ceiling and trace ID; the hotel check-in approximation disclosure; the check-out opt-out duty and the confirmation of amount, rate and currency at an attended check-out; the written-agreement components and the opt-out declaration; car rental preferred customer programmes (return-day rate, express written agreement, local currency if no response); the general expectation that car rental merchants follow the same requirements as other merchants; the refund-currency rule and the conversion-loss chargeback right. Checked 22 August 2026. mastercard.com ↗
- Mastercard, Dynamic Currency Conversion Compliance Guide, February 2017. The superseded preferred-customer pick-up-rate wording, the duty on a rental sales agent to ask the renter which currency, and the storage-of-rates condition on refunds. States on its face that it does not contain Standards. mastercard.com ↗
- Mastercard Transaction Processing Rules, ss.3.8, 3.8.1, 3.8.3 Priority Check-Out, 3.8.4, 3.13.1. The binding text. Right to choose the currency; no default conversion method; merchant and terminal must honour the selection; non-choice defaults to local currency; receipts must show both amounts, both currency codes and the rate used, but not the markup; the priority check-out written agreement must state the markup and, where applicable, that the merchant will set the rate later without further consultation. Edition read carries the cover date 9 December 2025; the register logs a conflicting 9 June 2026 cover date for the same file, so no edition date is asserted on the page. Checked 22 August 2026. mastercard.com ↗
- Mastercard, DCC Performance Guide, merchant edition, ss.2.5, 2.5.1 to 2.5.3. DCC must not be applied without consent or selected in the cardholder's absence; disclosure due before the authorisation or pre-authorisation request is submitted. mastercard.com ↗
- Mastercard Chargeback Guide, Merchant Edition, 19 May 2026, Point-of-Interaction Error, Currency Errors (4834/34). The two currency-error grounds (no consent to the conversion, or conversion performed incorrectly), 90 calendar days for non-ATM transactions, difference-only recovery, and the bar on second presentment with terminal logs in consent disputes. mastercard.com ↗
- Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules, 18 April 2026, ss.1.7.5.1, 4.1.8.1, 5.7.2.4, 5.8.9.2. Presentment in the exact authorised transaction currency; the bar on converting an already-approved local-currency amount after completion but before interchange; estimated and incremental authorisation amounts may differ from the final amount and must be genuine estimates. usa.visa.com ↗
- Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules, 18 April 2026, s.5.8.9.2 DCC Merchant, ATM, and Branch Requirements. Express agreement on a customer-facing screen or handheld device, no pre-selection, and no extra requirements for paying in local currency. usa.visa.com ↗
- Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules, 18 April 2026, s.5.9.2.3 / Table 5-34 (DCC receipt row). The mandatory elements of a Visa DCC receipt, including the markup over a wholesale rate and the express-agreement statement. usa.visa.com ↗
- Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules, 18 April 2026, s.1.4.3.2 International Transaction and Currency Conversion Fee Disclosure. The Visa rate may be adjusted by an optional issuer fee or an issuer's own markup outside VisaNet, which is the cost of the alternative when you decline. usa.visa.com ↗
- Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules, 18 April 2026, s.11.9.2 Dispute Condition 12.3 Incorrect Currency. The DCC dispute route, the entire transaction amount at chargeback stage, the difference-only cap at pre-arbitration, and the 120-day limit measured from the transaction processing date. usa.visa.com ↗
- Visa, Decoding Dynamic Currency Conversion (consumer page), as published 22 August 2026. Accepting or declining DCC does not affect your ability to pay or withdraw abroad. visa.com ↗
- Visa Acceptance Solutions / Cybersource, Visa Currency Conversion (DCC implementation guide). The card-not-present flow: capture reuses the authorisation rate, the offer carries an expiry timestamp, and the DCC rate is a wholesale rate including a markup. developer.visaacceptance.com ↗
- Moneris, Dynamic Currency Conversion Program Guide for Hospitality Merchants (03/17). One Canadian acquirer's guide for its own terminals. The completion reuses the pre-authorisation currency but applies the rate in effect on the completion date; the registration form and rental agreement text; the separate hotel express check-out form text with the base rate plus markup; the currency-change procedures before, during and after check-out; delayed and amended charges at the rate at the time performed. moneris.com ↗
- Fiserv, Dynamic Currency Conversion Terms of Service. One processor's contract terms, not a scheme rule. Refunds treated as separate transactions, the Rate ID condition, and the contrast with chargebacks, which always use the original date's rate. Register flagged this as secondary-credible; clause text re-verified 22 August 2026. merchants.fiserv.com ↗
- BEUC, Dynamic Currency Conversion: When paying abroad costs you more than it should (BEUC-X-2017-118), 30 October 2017. Reports the Stiftung Warentest 2016 field test: 2% to 5% on in-store card payments, 2.6% to 12% at ATMs, across 13 non-euro countries. Measures neither deposits nor holds. beuc.eu ↗
- Mesec.cz, Turista u ceskeho bankomatu: Poplatek, spatny kurz, nebo oboji (test), 4 May 2026. April 2026 Prague ATM test benchmarked against the ECB reference rate on the transaction date: 6.51% to 19.00% across ten operators on a euro-billed card. ATM withdrawals, not deposits. mesec.cz ↗
- Euronet Worldwide, Bringing clarity to the conversation about ATM currency conversion charges in Czechia, 29 June 2026. Corroboration only: one of the tested operators reproduces the same April 2026 table on its own site. Not an independent measurement. euronetatms.com ↗
- Financial Ombudsman Service (UK), Problems with goods and services: section 75 and chargeback. A bank does not have to raise a chargeback, scheme rules differ, and chargebacks can fail. UK guidance about card disputes generally; it does not mention DCC. financial-ombudsman.org.uk ↗
- Regulation (EU) 2019/518, Article 3a currency conversion charges. The percentage markup over the ECB reference rate, disclosed before the payment is initiated and displayed at the ATM or point of sale. No longer in force in its own right. eur-lex.europa.eu ↗
- Regulation (EU) 2021/1230 on cross-border payments in the Union (codification), Articles 1 and 4. The currently applicable text, and the scope limit: Articles 4 and 5 reach only payments denominated in euro or another Member State's national currency. eur-lex.europa.eu ↗