I’d like to suggest a feature to help prevent unwanted Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) charges.
Even when being careful, DCC still occasionally happens; typically when a merchant selects the billing currency without asking. This results in poor exchange rates and additional markups, which is frustrating and avoidable.
It would be useful to have:
A global toggle to block DCC on all card payments and ATM withdrawals
Alternatively, an option to decline non-local currency charges automatically
A per-merchant control or “trusted merchant” list, since some locations repeatedly make this mistake
This would give users more control and protect against accidental or merchant-initiated DCC, especially in countries where this practice is common.
If a merchant puts a transaction through DCC without your permission you can challenge it and either ask them to void it and re-do it correctly or challenge it via chargeback, Monzo should then be able to raise it under Visa code 76 or Mastercard code 4846 and they’ll usually settle the difference.
It’s annoying because in the moment you can’t do anything but ultimately if you can prove the charges weren’t done with your knowledge then you’ll get it back.
If they give a paper receipt at the time be sure to write on it something like DCC refused – local currency not offered that will help in evidence against them, usually it falls down to the merchant to prove they did offer you the choice if that’s sprawled on the receipt then it won’t help them
Yes, I’m aware of that and I do follow that process when it happens. It works, but it’s inconvenient and awkward, especially if it’s a vendor you otherwise like. It would be much better to be able to block DCC from happening in the first place, so the transaction is automatically rejected and the merchant has to process it correctly from the start.
Get where you’re coming from I think anti competition rules as well as card network rules ultimately hamstring Monzo from effectively outright blocking them but would be interesting if they could. I agree with your post and implementing an effective way to stop it without having to go to chargebacks every time
That’s an interesting point, I hadn’t thought about the scheme rules angle.
That said, I think it’s less about anti-competition and more about technical constraints. Monzo can already decline transactions based on certain conditions, so it’s not that they’re unable to block things outright. The challenge is probably that DCC isn’t always clearly or consistently flagged at authorisation, which makes it harder to detect reliably in real time.
They do usually know the physical location the card is being used though, so for most intents and purposes they could flag or decline a transaction if it’s in GBP but happening outside of British territory. In practice, that would catch almost all unintended cases.
So I can see why it’s not trivial to implement cleanly, but it doesn’t feel like something that’s fundamentally off-limits either.
@Jms@stevelacey I appreciate your comments - this is the first time I’d understood that there’s a specific route of recourse to dispute these occurrences. I had a situation while travelling where the merchant insisted on charging me in GBP rather than local currency - going so far as to take the terminal off me to press the GBP button themselves. I’ve just submitted a chargeback request mentioning the Mastercard 4846 code - now to wait and see
No problem Ned. How long ago was it out of interest?as code 4846 usually has a time limit of 90 days from the transaction date to file for chargeback (might as well try anyway) so if you’re within 90 days you should hopefully get good news so long as the merchant can’t provide something that shows they did offer you it (again where writing on the reciept helps for next time)
Crossing my fingers for you
Doug_hboy
(Always be alert because the World always needs lerts.)
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