DCC Rate Validation
Every conversion,
measured against the market.
Dynamic currency conversion is only compliant if the markup stays inside the scheme’s published cap. That is a measurable question with a definite answer — provided you compare against the right rate, on the right date, for each scheme separately.
Two rates, one date.
The whole check rests on comparing like with like. A markup measured against the wrong day’s rate is not evidence of anything.
The offered rate
The conversion rate actually presented to the cardholder at the point of sale — the number the merchant or terminal quoted.
The wholesale rate
The European Central Bank reference rate for the same currency pair on the same date, so the comparison is against what the market actually did that day, not a rate fetched later.
Each scheme,
on its own terms.
Visa and Mastercard publish different maximum margins, so a single transaction can be compliant under one and in breach of the other. Collapsing that into one pass-or-fail hides the finding that matters. Each is assessed against its own limit and reported separately.
Published caps
- Visa
- 4.0%
- Mastercard
- 3.5%
Maximum markup over the wholesale reference rate. These are the schemes’ own published limits, not our interpretation of them.
What comes back.
Enough to act on, and enough to put in front of an auditor.
- Margin
- The spread over wholesale, recorded to four decimal places rather than rounded to a headline figure.
- Per-scheme verdict
- Visa and Mastercard assessed separately against their own caps — a margin can clear one and breach the other.
- Breach flag
- Which scheme was exceeded, and by how much, rather than an undifferentiated fail.
- Evidence record
- Every check logged with its inputs and the rate it was measured against, exportable for an auditor.
Check a real rate.
Five free checks, no account required.