Pay in your own currency?
What the terminal is offering
The offer is called dynamic currency conversion. Instead of your card network converting the charge at its own rate, the shop's payment provider converts it at a rate it chooses, and keeps the difference. The screen presents it as a convenience: you see the total in a currency you know. The convenience has a price, and it is built into the rate.
The same offer appears at cash machines abroad, often worded so that declining it sounds risky. Choosing the local currency is almost always the cheaper option.
How this works
Paying in the local currency costs the amount times your card's rate, plus your card's foreign transaction fee. Accepting the conversion costs the total the terminal showed, plus that fee too if your card charges it on purchases from shops abroad whatever the currency. The terminal's markup is how much worse its rate is than your card's.
Questions people ask
Should I pay in local currency or my home currency abroad?
Usually the local currency. The home currency option uses a rate chosen by the shop's payment provider, which is normally worse than your card's rate even after your card's fee.
What is dynamic currency conversion?
It is when a card terminal or cash machine abroad converts the charge into your home currency itself, at its own rate, instead of leaving the conversion to your card network.
Where do I find my card's exchange rate?
Your bank or card network publishes the rate it uses each day. It is usually close to the market rate shown by any currency converter.
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Free, and staying that way. If it saved you money at a terminal abroad, that is the whole point.
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