{"id":12811,"date":"2026-10-01T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.penguintravels.gr\/?p=12811"},"modified":"2026-10-01T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T07:00:00","slug":"which-currency-to-pay-in-abroad-dcc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.penguintravels.gr\/en\/which-currency-to-pay-in-abroad-dcc\/","title":{"rendered":"Which Currency Should You Pay In Abroad? The DCC Trap"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At home in Greece it never comes up: we pay in euros and that&#8217;s it. But land in London, Prague, Budapest or Istanbul and the card terminal or ATM will ask something that sounds helpful: &#8220;Would you like to be charged in euros?&#8221; The answer that saves you money is almost always no. Here&#8217;s why.<\/p>\n<h2>What DCC is<\/h2>\n<p>Dynamic Currency Conversion means the shop, hotel or ATM operator converts the amount into your card&#8217;s currency on the spot, instead of leaving it to your bank. It sounds convenient, because you see the euro amount before you pay. The catch is the exchange rate: it&#8217;s set by whoever offers the conversion, and it&#8217;s usually noticeably worse than the one your bank would apply.<\/p>\n<p>Put simply, you&#8217;re paying for the comfort of seeing a familiar number on the screen.<\/p>\n<h2>The golden rule: always pay in local currency<\/h2>\n<p>When paying by card outside the eurozone, choose the country&#8217;s own currency: pounds in the UK, koruna in Czechia, forint in Hungary, z\u0142oty in Poland, lira in Turkey, francs in Switzerland. That way the card network and your bank handle the conversion.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>At a shop terminal.<\/strong> If the screen shows two amounts or two buttons, press the local-currency one. If the cashier is holding the machine, politely ask to be charged in local currency.<\/li>\n<li><strong>If the receipt already shows euros.<\/strong> Ask for the transaction to be run again in local currency. If they refuse, pay cash, or keep the receipt and raise it with your bank.<\/li>\n<li><strong>At the ATM.<\/strong> If you see wording like &#8220;lock in your rate&#8221;, &#8220;guaranteed rate&#8221; or &#8220;with\/without conversion&#8221;, choose the option without conversion. The question is often framed so that &#8220;yes&#8221; leads you straight into DCC.<\/li>\n<li><strong>At the hotel.<\/strong> Reception desks offer DCC too. Ask upfront which currency you&#8217;ll be charged in.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>ATMs worth skipping<\/h2>\n<p>In tourist areas you&#8217;ll find ATMs that don&#8217;t belong to a bank, often with &#8220;Free Cash Withdrawal&#8221; signs, placed right next to genuine bank machines. Rick Steves names independent operators such as Euronet, Travelex, Your Cash, Cardpoint and Cashzone as machines with high fees and aggressive DCC prompts.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Use an ATM attached to a bank.<\/strong> Ideally during opening hours, so you can get help if the machine swallows your card.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Make fewer, larger withdrawals.<\/strong> If your bank charges a flat fee per withdrawal, lots of small ones add up.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ask for an odd amount.<\/strong> To avoid getting only large notes, request something like 2,800 rather than 3,000 koruna in Prague.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don&#8217;t withdraw cash on a credit card.<\/strong> Cash advances usually carry a high fee plus interest from day one.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Which cards to bring<\/h2>\n<p>There&#8217;s no single right card for everyone, but a few things are worth checking before you go.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Foreign-currency fees.<\/strong> Look in your card&#8217;s terms or your bank&#8217;s app for the fee on purchases and withdrawals in another currency. Under EU rules, providers must publish it in their terms and on an easily accessible electronic platform such as their website or app.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Contactless and mobile.<\/strong> If your card shows the contactless symbol or is set up in Apple Pay or Google Pay, a tap is all it takes. The currency rule still applies.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Know your PIN.<\/strong> Ticket machines and fuel pumps often ask for it, even for small amounts.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Two cards, kept apart.<\/strong> One main, one backup, plus a little cash for the day&#8217;s essentials.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What the EU says, and where protection stops<\/h2>\n<p>According to the European Commission&#8217;s guidance on the cross-border payments regulation, since 19 April 2020 anyone offering DCC at a point of sale or ATM must disclose the total charge as a percentage mark-up over the European Central Bank&#8217;s reference rate. Since 19 April 2021, your bank must also send you an electronic message (SMS, push notification or email) with the conversion charges when you use your card in another EU currency. The rules don&#8217;t cap the charges; they just make sure you can see them.<\/p>\n<p>This protection only covers EU currencies, so Czechia, Hungary or Poland. It doesn&#8217;t apply in the UK, Turkey or Switzerland, where it&#8217;s entirely up to you to watch the screen.<\/p>\n<h2>Heading outside the eurozone this autumn?<\/h2>\n<p>At <strong>Penguin Travels &amp; Tours<\/strong> we put together city breaks to London, Prague, Budapest, Istanbul and wherever else you fancy, with flights from Athens or Thessaloniki, accommodation and transfers. And before you leave, we give you the practical money tips you&#8217;ll need at your destination.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>Want to spend your money on the trip, not on exchange rates?<\/strong> Stop by our office in Kalamata (Vasilissis Olgas 4) or call us at <strong>+30 27210 80701<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Card terminals and ATMs abroad ask &#8220;pay in euros or local currency?&#8221;. Why euros usually costs more, and what to press every time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12834,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_title":"Which Currency to Pay In Abroad? Avoid the DCC Trap","rank_math_description":"Card terminals and ATMs abroad ask \"pay in euros or local currency?\". Why euros usually costs more, and what to press every time.","rank_math_focus_keyword":"dynamic currency conversion, paying by card abroad, ATM abroad, which currency to pay in","footnotes":""},"categories":[431],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faq-tips-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.penguintravels.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.penguintravels.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.penguintravels.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.penguintravels.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.penguintravels.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12811"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.penguintravels.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12829,"href":"https:\/\/www.penguintravels.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12811\/revisions\/12829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.penguintravels.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.penguintravels.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.penguintravels.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.penguintravels.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}