We thank Mr Chan Meng Sun for his letter (Allow credit-card holders to pay in the local currency when abroad, July 28).

We would like to advise that any merchant offering Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC), regardless of the country they are in, is required to inform the cardholder that he has the option of selecting the merchant's local currency or the cardholder's billing currency of his credit/debit card.

In addition, information like the appropriate currency symbols, transaction amounts in both currencies and exchange rate are required. The merchant also needs to ensure that the cardholder has expressly agreed to the DCC transaction.

Should the merchant process the transaction as DCC without the agreement of the cardholder, the cardholder can dispute the charges.

The cardholder must provide the sales draft showing the transaction currency for the bank to proceed with the chargeback.

If the dispute is successful, the merchant will refund the DCC amount and charge the cardholder in the merchant's local currency.

However, if the merchant can present proof that the cardholder has agreed to DCC, the cardholder would need to honour the DCC transaction.

Ong-Ang Ai Boon (Mrs)

Director

The Association of Banks in Singapore