Question
Why did the store or ATM ask me to choose the currency I want to pay in? What currency should I select at the terminal? What is Dynamic Currency Conversion?
Answer
Some merchants and ATMs offer their own currency conversion of transactions when they detect a payment with an international card, such as a ZEN card or ZEN Pro card. This service is called Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) and allows you to pay in a currency other than the local currency of the country you are in. By default, ZEN blocks the DCC transactions to protect you from unexpected currency conversion fees.
During DCC, the currency is exchanged at the rate set by the merchant or ATM, rather than at ZEN's attractive exchange rates, which means you pay more to exchange the currency. To avoid additional costs, always choose the local currency of the country you are currently in at the POS terminal or ATM (e.g., PLN in Poland, EUR in Germany, SEK in Sweden, etc.) and decline any exchanges proposed by the POS terminal or ATM.
Before making each transaction, information about the costs and the exchange rate should be displayed on the ATM or Point of Sale screen. If the information was not displayed and the fee was charged, please contact us to resolve the matter.
If you would like to allow the DCC transactions on your ZEN Card (we do not recommend doing this), or disable them again:
- Log in to the ZEN app.
- Go left, to the screen with all your available currencies.
- Press the button in the top left corner of the screen to open app settings.
- Scroll down and click on "DCC control".
- Enable or disable the DCC control. The setting will work across all your ZEN Cards for transactions with DCC made in ATMs and physical stores — please note that it will not block online transactions with possible DCC.
See also: Exchange currency in ZEN app