“Every currency tells a story, but wisdom counts the cost“.(my favourite quote this week)
Hello Hello 👋
Let’s talk about the one question that’ll cost you ££ abroad: “Pay in GBP or local currency?” Spoiler: Always pick the second.
Picture this: You’re in Paris, buying a croissant (or Prashant if you already adapted new name 😂) The cashier smiles, your card machine flashes “£2.50 or €3.0?” You think, “Ooh, Pound! No math!”
Bad move.
That “convenience” just added a 5% “tourist tax” to your pastry.
🚀 Meet DCC – Dynamic Currency Conversion or I call it Don’t Choose Convenience
DCC might seem like a traveler’s friend, but it’s actually a sneaky way for merchants to squeeze extra money out of your wallet.
DCC gives you the option to pay in your home currency (like USD or GBP) instead of the local one. But here’s the catch:
- The exchange rates are inflated, adding hidden fees.
- You could still pay a foreign transaction fee (3%-5%) on top.
⛵ Why You Should Avoid It Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC)
When you choose Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC), merchants sneak in extra profits by offering poor exchange rates. Paying in local currency lets your bank handle the conversion at a much better rate.
⛵ The Real Math of Dynamic Currency Conversion
- You could lose 3-5% in conversion fees
- Some cards charge additional foreign transaction fees
- This means you might pay up to 10% more for the same purchase
⛵ Your Smart Traveler Strategy
- Always choose local currency when paying abroad
- Use a currency conversion app to understand the real price
- Bring a credit card with no foreign transaction fees
- Check your bank’s international ATM policies
🚀 Bonus Travel Tip
Download a reliable currency conversion app before your trip. Apps like wise, XE or change iPhone calculator to currency convertor mode (Yes, iPhone has built-in feature within calculator) can help you quickly calculate prices and avoid Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) traps.
Convenience shouldn’t come at the cost of your hard-earned money. By understanding DCC, you’re already one step ahead of the game.
Travel light, spend right, explore without fright.
🟢 Until the next one, Keep chasing horizons, one frame at a time and let’s be mindful of our environment.
Cheers!!
🚀 Planning Trip, Check 🔻
⛳ Other fun stuff
✔️ New prints are available in the shop, check it out.
✔️ Rahul’s Newsletter – Learning & Sharing Concepts Beyond Text Books. The JustDraft is a free newsletter to receive ideas shared with 2200+ people each week directly to your inbox. Join now to start practising change.
✔️ Buy Ready To Use Itineraries – Hand curated travel plans, maps, guides, photo editing presets and many more.
✔️ UK Weekender – Wondering where to go next weekend. Join Weekender and receive travel insights from the UK, epic photography spots every week in your inbox.
🚀 Here are the tools I found interesting in last few weeks and still exploring
🎋 TextBehindImage is online tool uses advanced image processing to detect foreground and background elements, enabling seamless text placement.
🎋 Let’s Enhance uses AI to automatically enhance and upscale images, allowing users to improve resolution, colors, lighting, and remove JPEG artifacts without manual editing.
🎋 Motionleap by Lightricks is a photo editing and animation app that brings still images to life by adding motion effects such as animated geometric patterns, skies and water movement.
📆 Product update/offer
In this section, I share any cool new product, feature released in past few weeks or newsletter subscriber only offers
✔ Skylum launched new tool called Aperty. It is photo editing tool for professional portrait photographers looking to decrease post-processing times without sacrificing quality.
🎁 [Giveway] Luminar Neo – For every purchase of Luminar Neo, you can get into the prize draw to win extra gifts like a camera (Fujifilm X-m5 or a DJI Osmo 3, and many gifts from Skylum)
🎁 [Offer for you] Epidemic Sound introduced Sync to video – Cool feature if you want to quickly make video with great sound collection.
📚 Popular posts in the blog
📌 Adobe Lightroom vs Photoshop which one is better
📌 Master Light in Landscape Photography: Golden Hour, Blue Hour
📌 Best Place to See Cherry Blossom and Enjoy Spring in Japan
📌 Top free things to do in Tokyo
📌 Recommended cameras in 2024 for landscape photography
🍾 Photo of the week
Click here to see my favourite photo this week. For Print of any photos please reply here with photo link/url.
