Dynamic Currency Conversion

Elavon’s Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) allows a cardholder to choose to have their transaction processed in their native currency vs the merchants’ currency. This takes the heavy lifting off of our customers’ Property Management System (PMS) or Point of Sale (POS) system.

Current DCC support is on Visa and MasterCard credit and signature capture debit cards only. If a transaction occurs with one of these cards, a DCC Eligibility and Rate Inquiry call must be performed to see if the card supports DCC. Once verification is performed that the card supports DCC, the cardholder must be prompted to opt-in for DCC before DCC can be completed. It is important for the PMS/POS system to retain the cardholder opt-in status.

In the lodging industry, an additional complexity occurs since the actual DCC rate for the transaction is the rate at the time of check-out, not check-in. Therefore, before any incremental transactions are performed, the DCC Eligibility and Rate Inquiry message should be performed to obtain the value of the incremental transaction in the foreign currency amount.

Transaction Types

DCC transaction types are limited to the card present transactions listed below. All other transactions supported by your POS application based on the end user/merchant’s integration, industry and the chosen TPP Interface module. They are not required to follow the EMV protocol and are not referenced in this guide.

Authorization Only (Type 01)

• Credit only transaction type. It places a hold on the open-to-buy on a cardholder’s credit account. AVS and/or CVV requests can be performed. The transaction qualifier (Elavon Gateway API Field 0115) must equal 010.

Sale (Type 02)

• Credit or debit supported transaction type. The transaction goes online. The funds are immediately withdrawn from a debit cardholder’s account. This is the recommended authorization transaction type for both credit and debit.

Prior Authorization (Type 07)

• Credit only transaction type. It changes an existing Auth Only (Type 01) to a Prior Auth (Type 07), so it can be settled. Prior Authorizations can be performed on Forced/Voice Auth Only (Type 01) transactions as well.

Return/Refund (Type 09)

• Credit or debit transaction type. Used to generate a refund or add money back to the cardholder’s account. This transaction can be online or offline depending on the processing network used. On the refund transaction, it is recommended to use the DCC currency, rate, and exponent stored from the original DCC Authorization or Sale. If this information is not available, a new DCC Inquiry (Type 46) can be performed to obtain current rate, exponent and amounts and then submit those values on the refund.

DCC Inquiry (Type 46)

• Credit and online signature debit supported transaction type. If a card is DCC eligible, it returns the DCC converted amount and other DCC rate information, else it does not return any DCC data.

Full Reversals (Type 61)

• Credit and debit supported transaction type. It reverses the Authorization (Type 01) or Sale (Type 02) for the full amount. This is not supported by all TPPs at this time, so you will need to check the integration guides. This transaction is attempted automatically with a Void Sale (11).

Incremental Authorization (Type 75)

• Used to secure additional authorization for an on-going, previously authorized transaction. Type 75 is limited to certain industries and card types.

Function

Additional Eligibility Message

Initial Transaction is supported by:

• Payment Application/Simplify
• PMS
• POS

Incremental Transaction is supported by:

• Payment Application/Simplify
• PMS

Prior Auth Completion Transaction is supported by:

• Payment Application/Simplify
• PMS
• POS

Additional/Repurposed Message Fields

DCC Indicator is supported by:

• Payment Application/Simplify
• PMS
• POS

Cardholder Facing Modifications

Opt IN/OUT verbiage and Receipt Requirements are supported by:

• Payment Application/Simplify
• PMS
• POS