Part of the broader Dynamic Currency Conversion scam, also found in person etc. Not as common as it used to be but when travelling I had to be quite forceful in stating I want to pay in $LocalCurrency . I've had many establishments ignore my request, select GBP, then hand me the terminal asking for my pin, then feigning ignorance when I explain that they are trying to cheat me
I can’t imagine the merchant gets that extra currency conversion money, nor why they’d care, they are still getting the exact same amount in their local currency while it’s their bank who profits on the arbitrage.
The differences involved make money if you are talking about the whole population but for an individual payment it's a relatively small difference. I'm not sure what would motivate someone handing you a card reader to try to cheat you - they can't possibly be making any money out of it.
> I'm not sure what would motivate someone handing you a card reader to try to cheat you
Immense pressure from their boss?
The first few times I let it go, wanting to believe an honest mistake, but when it started happening so frequently, I realised _someone_ in the chain is trying to scam me.
Anyone below an international corporation isn't getting cut in on the benefits. Maybe the big hotels and car rental (being large enough for the card companies to negotiate such a thing with in addition to having a significant enough percentage of foreign card transactions) services would see some benefit from that but I don't think most places would care.
There is always the other side that, although it's not a competitive exchange rate, at least you know the exact amount in your home currency. Also, I never remember which cards have foreign currency fees so it is a bit of a wash.
