Thread: Discover Drops Foreign Currency Fees

Discover Card only owns Diners Club International.

They are actually working currently on switching the DCI terminals over to accept the card to become more widely accepted.

Discover Card is actually widely accepted in the rest of the world.

• In Japan it is accepted everywhere JCB card is accepted.
• In South Korea it is accepted everywhere BC card is accepted.
• In China it is accepted everywhere China UnionPay is accepted.
• In the rest of the world it is accepted everywhere Diners Club is accepted.
• Diners Club is still kind of popular in Europe and South America.
• Discover network has expanded to Mexico, some Caribbean countries and some Central American countries.

It's very good that they won't charge international fees anymore.

Originally Posted by DavidNY

Good point, if of course, thay take Discover (or JCB, UnionPay or DCI)

The latter three are a bit iffy. I've had my Discover card rejected in Japan at Starbucks, of all places. They took my "proper" JCB card just fine.

And the second: Not until Discover fully ties into the UnionPay online system. Their online payment system is a glorified wire transfer- you type in your card number, it detects your bank, takes you to your bank's online banking where you have to log in and approve the charge (my Chinese credit card requires me to type in my online banking login, a PIN from a provided code card, and a dynamic PIN sent to my cellphone). Discover doesn't have to go that far; all they need to do is load a pointer in the system saying and doing something to the effect of "we approve this charge and are now releasing the funds to the UnionPay merchant" like a typical American CC purchase. And, of course, it doesn't work with the many merchants who have individually forged agreements with issuing banks instead of putting everything through UnionPay.

Maybe the third, I haven't tried.

Originally Posted by luisdaa

In Japan it is accepted everywhere JCB card is accepted.

Nope, as I've said, I've been declined at Starbucks, of all places.

Originally Posted by luisdaa

In China it is accepted everywhere China UnionPay is accepted.

Only offline, and you're at the merchant's whims. Most will try when given the accompanying card-thing that Discover has on its website. Some merchants are like brick walls when they adamantly insist that the card you hold is a "foreign card" and thus they won't take them. They really need to print a UnionPay logo on the card or at least offer a design with one for travelers to China, because I've had this problem even in big cities like Shanghai.