Tesco Lotus Credit Card Fraud

[donnacha]

For quite a few years now, retailers have had the option to charge your credit or debit cards in the card's home currency at a ridiculous exchange rate. You end up paying about 6% more for your purchase, and the retailer gets a share of that. This "service" is called Dynamic Currency Conversion, or DCC.

Officially, the retailers are meant to ask - and you always should also say no when asked - but some do not. You might expect that would tend to be smaller retailers but, according to my bank, the card networks (Visa, Mastercard etc) will sometimes threaten to cancel a smaller retailer's merchant account if they receive too many complaints, so, they tend to be more careful.

In the case of the larger retailers such as the supermarkets, however, the card networks simply do not have the same leverage. In effect, this leaves individual store managers free to pump their numbers a bit by setting the machines to DCC by default and instruct the staff not to mention it at all. This now means that, when you use a credit card issued by a non-Thai bank, the onus is on you to state clearly, before you hand it over, that you want the transaction to be in baht.

From my own experience and what I have found researching online, the worst offender for forced DCC is Tesco Lotus, in particular larger branches. The entire transaction will appear to be in baht, you will only notice a mention of the conversion in one section of the receipt you receive after your card has been charged, but the receipt will mostly mention the baht amount.

This is an almost perfect form of credit card fraud because it is for small amounts of money multiplied by millions of transactions, it is hard to tell that it has happened, and, of the very few farangs who notice, the vast majority will be too lazy or busy to do anything about it, and it is ultimately your word against theirs that you did not verbally agree to the conversion. Your bank can't do anything about it and there is no question of the Royal Thai Police ever doing anything, even if you were nutty enough to file a complaint.

If you complain right away at the register, there is a mechanism to cancel the charge, but it will take a while and most Tesco managers are not entirely sure of how to do it. You are likely to instead be offered the option to return your groceries for a store credit for the baht amount of the transaction, but this is useless as it does not stop the higher charge going through to your card, and you probably don't want to return your groceries anyway.

The only way to not get charged that extra 6% is to have them cancel the transaction and run the transaction again, this time charging in baht. It is, apparently, not possible to cancel a charge when the banks are closed.

Your home bank will not allow you to dispute these charges. The problem is partly that you are not disputing the entire amount and, although you are being stung for 6% more than you agreed to pay, that fee is hidden by the currency exchange, your bank only sees the full final amount in their currency, they have no details on what the original amount was supposed to be. Even if your bank cared, it would be impossible for them to successfully charge it back because the store will simply say that you verbally agreed to it.

So, be aware of this scam, particularly in Tesco Lotus. I have not experienced this in Big C or Topps, but perhaps other members here have experiences they can share. If in Tesco Lotus, try to use cash or a Thai bank card but, if you have to use a non-Thai card, be as clear as you can that you want to pay in baht. This being Thailand, you might end up have DCC applied anyway, no matter how clear your were, and there's not much you can do about that. You may not want to waste time complaining for the sake of a few dollars but, frankly, the only way to stop this fraud from spreading is if enough of us do insist, on principle, that we do not want to pay yet another "farang tax".

Edited November 17, 2018 by donnacha

[ukrules]

If it mentions any currency other than THB tell them to change it.

 

[ChouDoufu]

also happens at the hospitals......

[theguyfromanotherforum]

It's only a couple of percent extra. Not much for balling retirees who already have no issue putting 800k for visa extensions.

 

Oh wait....

[ukrules]

1 hour ago, ChouDoufu said:

also happens at the hospitals......

Not in my experience, and I just checked a receipt, they didn't ask about a foreign currency at all and charged my UK card in Baht.

 

[Pib]

I live in Bangkok.  At the numerous Tesco Lotus stores I've used in the Bangkok metro area none of them have every attempted a DCC on me.  I always pay with two different US credit cards...one Visa and one Mastercard.

 

Now a few other merchants such as HomePro will always default to using DCC for a foreign card....or at the  three different HomePro stores I frequent.  Pizza Place stores have attempted the same on me....The Villa grocery stores will also.   Whenever I'm sure or unsure if a merchant will attempt DCC I always make direct eye contract with the cashier when handing them my card and say, "Charge Thai baht; not US dollars" and they charge baht...DCC not attempted. 

 

But in those cases where a DCC did happen which a person can easy see by baht "and" his card currency being on the Receipt for Signature, I do not sign the receipt, tell them to cancel the transaction and rerun the transaction in baht.  Takes them about 2 minutes total to cancel and return.....probably had to do that around 10 times over the last 5 years here in Bangkok....never a problem regardless of time of day and night.

 

Even though the DCC charge may hit your card account in Pending status, it will fall off in a few days....seems the Pending charge is immediate but a cancellation takes a few days to remove the Pending charge.

 

 

[Thailand J]

In my 11 years in Thailand, this only happened once: at Somerset Park Suanplu Hotel. Have not experience such "fraud" in Tesco because I don't recall ever used a credit card in any Tesco :)

[CanuckThai]

I sometimes use my Debit/Visa ATM card (Canadian) at larger stores.  This is good to know...

 

About 2 months ago, while going through Khon Kaen, wife and I stopped at a Tesco.  When we got home, I checked my transactions online, and low and behold, the amount of the transaction was considerably more than what the display on the cash register indicated.  

 

But here is the kicker.  I reached for my ATM card.  Couldn't find it.  Searched every where...couldn't find it.   Looking at my transactions again, bought fuel before Tesco...then Tesco, no problem.  I asked the wife to call the Tesco, and ask if they had my card (left at the cashier).

 

The wife got into a long conversation with the customer service person on the phone.  Wife described the card, as in what bank issued the card.  The person asks her "Is it the green one?"   My heart jumped....I said yesssssss to the wife!   The lady says: "no, don't have, sorry".   Huh...but how.....but how did she know.....

 

Called my bank in Canada immediately....

[Thailand J]

I don't leave my cards behind anymore.

After leaving 2 debit cards in the ATM , now I put my cards in a plastic jacket before putting them  in the wallet. The plastic jacket is out of the wallet when I am using a card, serves as a reminder. Works for me.

 

[moana]

Tesco introduced a new system from BBL not too long ago. It hasn't reached all branches yet, but it's making the rounds.  This system started defaulting to DCC on foreign cards, and the average Thai cashier simply presses the same button again and again until the card is billed, not even looking at the screen. Result: a huge amount of DCC transactions, enjoyed mostly by BBL.

 

It appears they have now changed the default again to THB, probably because of the huge amount of complaints and time wasted. I still make sure to tell them every time I hand over my card - THAI BAHT KAP - loud and clear, and make sure I get a "Ka" back before I let go. I don't want to waste more time waiting for them to void the transaction and rebill me in THB.

[watcharacters]

On 11/18/2018 at 3:53 PM, Thailand J said:

Have not experience such "fraud" in Tesco because I don't recall ever used a credit card in any Tesco.

 

That's a great reason for avoiding the "fraud" in Tesco.     

[ricklev]

On 11/18/2018 at 2:38 AM, ChouDoufu said:

also happens at the hospitals......

Yes, I had St. Louis in Bangkok do it without asking.