The strong dollar

If you're referring to the option when using a credit card of local currency vs the $, you are still better selecting "local currency" since you will get a better exchange rate from the credit card issuer. That hasn't changed.

The exchange rate (€/£) hasn’t fluctuated much in the past couple years. One of two cents variation isn’t going to cost or save you much especially since most transactions will be contactless. When using a credit card, always charge in the local currency. Nobody can guess what the future holds.

Thank you for responses. I thought the same but wanted to confirm.

You're always better off paying in the local currency and letting your credit card issuer perform the conversion.
You never want to accept "dynamic currency conversion".

In January, I had a rather large bill of 2117 CHF to pay by credit card. Payment site gave me the option of paying in USD $2445, or pay in CHF. I chose CHF, and when I checked my credit card, I had paid USD $2330. So that choice saved me $115.

That 5% mark-up for letting them convert was possibly even cheap. I do not see any reason to ever enrich the banks for their vulture fees. No mayor how good the actual exchange rate is that moment you will always be paying more when you let them provide you this convenience.

Yea, sure Larry. Life should be free.

But on the subject of strong dollar, yes, it's a little better right now against the euro than it was a year ago, but not as strong as it has been at one moment or another in the last 3 years.

Where the dollar is doing much better is against a number of the non-euro European currencies. The dollar has gained more than 10% against a some of them. Still, you don't change your conversion philosophy, you just enjoy a slightly better .... or less expensive .... holiday.

Yo, E - As long aș people are willing to blindly pay the fees the system will not change. DCC is not a reasonable fee for a service, it is a dishonest attempt to make money playing on human fear, emotion, and ignorance. I am waiting to see the first time a DCC tells you that to pay the 100 Euro charge today in dollars it will cost you $110, while if you don't it will only cost you $105 -rather than "we can't guarantee what it will cost."

It is exactly because the $ is strong, ie, just about at parity with the Euro, $1.03 or $1.04 that I change a large amount into Euro, ie in excess of two thousand.

Using cash in a couple of my hotels in France gives me a discount on the room rate plus the Euro cash will come in handy paying for meals in Germany and Austria on the trip this summer.

Google for a 5 year graph of the US vs Euro exchange rate and you might agree speculating on the exchange rates doesn't pay off.

I wish I could "Like" Larry's second post.

Two years ago the dollar hit parity with the Euro (1:1). That was nice. Personally, | think anytime the dollar is worth 0.95 Euro or better it's a good deal to pay in euro. And while bank fees are ridiculous, inflation eats away at purchasing power a lot more.

When charging for a purchase, the actual exchange rate is somewhat irrelevant when deciding to pay in local currency or US dollars. What is important is what are you going to be charged for the conversion.

In almost all instances, your bank/credit card issuer will charge less than the bank the supplier (hotel, restaurant, shop, etc.) uses. Let's say you eat at a restaurant and pay in US dollars. Well, the company doing the conversion wants to make a profit and the restaurant will also make extra money. You will usually be charged more for the connversion.

To save a bit more, only use credit cards that have no foreign transaction fees.

And while bank fees are ridiculous

This goes back to a few comments about bank fees up above. Just exactly what BANK FEES are you paying? Because I dont think many people pay any? I use one of 3 banks to get cash almost every week (OTP, K&H and Raiffeisen) none charge me a euro-cent in fees. Oh, sure, some people, but not all if you pick the right bank card, pay their bank some sort of international transaction fee usually 1% to 2%. The bank did something for you, so they got paid for it .... or if they didnt charge you because they wrote the loss off as marketing to get you to use their card.

I cant figure out a scenario where using the retailer's exchange rate is better than my banks exchange rate so I dont use the DCC. You get offered a choice, so you can choose. You were smart enough to earn the sort of life that includes trips to Europe, I assume you are smart enough to figure out the best deal for yourself.

As far as buying euros as speculation? You gotta know what you are doing. Dont forget, buy and sell are not the same numbers and those prices on the internet arent for $100 transactions. Good luck. Most will not come out ahead. But it could be a fun game or hobby I guess.

FrankII is correct about inflation being a bigger determination. The Hungrian forint fell agains the dollar by almost 15% in the last year. Great deal? Yes ..... No. Inflation was higher than in the US so a lot of that 15% got ate up.

Exchange rates, buy sell spread, hourly rate fluctuations, inflation vs spending power.... just not a rabbit hole i want to go down as part of a holiday.

Anyone with a brokerage / investment account can lock in the current exchange rate by purchasing an Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) that holds cash in the desired currency. ‘FXE’ is a fund that holds Euros. The buy/sell spread is small, the market is liquid (millions of shares exchanged each day) and many brokers don’t charge a transaction fee. When you get back you can sell the FXE shares to pay the credit card bill.

The issue with this approach is that FXE doesn’t pay interest or dividends so you’re forgoing earnings on the money. I unfortunately don’t know of any easy way to hold foreign currency and earn interest on it.

Real Estate ?

When charging for a purchase, the actual exchange rate is somewhat irrelevant when deciding to pay in local currency or US dollars.

Absolutely correct. Always, always, always pay in the local currency. Doing otherwise means you're actually paying two entities for currency conversion rather than the usual one.