International Transactions

Consider compliance and merchant remittance funding when processing international transactions.

Dynamic Currency Conversion
 Payment Services

When processing international transactions,
Dynamic Currency Conversion
 (
DCC
) is a service that enables you to convert a transaction amount from a merchant's local currency to the cardholder's billing currency in real time. This service is regulated by Mastercard and Visa.
The
DCC
 service enables you to choose your own currency-conversion service provider for
DCC
. This setup helps you comply with Mastercard and Visa payment processing rules and other regulations for these transaction types.
The currency conversion is performed directly between you and your
DCC
 service provider before authorizing a network-compliant
DCC
 transaction on your processor connection.
These card types support
Dynamic Currency Conversion
 transactions:
  • Mastercard
  • Visa

Compliance

Accepting payments from a country other than your own requires that you observe the processing rules and practices of the payment systems in that country. The following list describes areas of compliance that are especially important.
  • Merchant descriptor requirements—A merchant descriptor communicates merchant information to customers to remind them of the circumstances that triggered a payment. Merchant descriptors reduce the possibility of a chargeback. Accordingly, the merchant descriptor displayed on a customer’s statement should be a close match to the name on your website. It is not good practice to consolidate multiple websites into a single merchant account and use a generic descriptor that more-or-less covers all offerings.
  • Excessive chargebacks—To prevent an excessive number of chargebacks, you must maintain good customer support, rapid problem resolution, a high level of customer satisfaction, and transaction management processes that minimize fraudulent transactions. When payment card chargebacks become excessive, you must change business processes to reduce chargebacks. If chargebacks are not reduced to a satisfactory level, your account can be terminated.

Merchant Remittance Funding

You can request that the transaction proceeds be converted to another currency. Currency conversion uses a foreign exchange rate to calculate the conversion to the requested currency. The foreign exchange rate might be explicitly stated as a rate or implicitly stated as a transaction amount. The funded amount and can vary from day to day. The foreign exchange rate might also include an increase for the foreign exchange risk, sales commissions, and handling costs.