"So, it seemed that that Expedia will definitely make extra money by charging in USD if USD IS stronger and charges in local currencies it USD is weaker, which is definitely a way of ripping off their customers."

It also definitely makes no sense.

"I had done many bookings with Expedia before"

And you never noticed they charge in USD?

It does state on Expedia Malaysia site that:

"All prices quoted in Malaysian ringgits"

It doesn't say anything about converting to US dollars when processing the actual charge, so I see why that's confusing. Have you tried calling Expedia and asking about this? Seems more productive then complaining here.

Could it be that you accidently booked on the expedia.com website instead of the Malaysian Expedia website? if you did it's charged in dollars. If we book through Expedia.it it's charged in Euros and Expedia.co.uk in Pounds.

I have had bad experiences with Expedia.

Booked a hotel in Spain, however their site didn't book it but they only got the money. I phoned their so called 24 hours service and a nice lady said, that they had problems with Ideal and it would be booked back right away. After a week I had nothing on my account. I phoned again and I talked with five different people and one guy Diederik convinced me that everything was okay and he had contact with his manager. A week later I phoned again, same answers, but what I discovered was that their so called "service" is just a call centre to back you off. You cannot speak to one normal manager . However the conclusion is, that I still have not got my 460 euro's back. It cost me three hours phoning and mailing.They lie and steal. It was their fault and they just keep the money.

So, never ever book with Expedia.

Mariette v... your post has nothing to do with this thread apart from the fact that you are talking about Expedia. Your post will get lost tagged on to the end of somebody else's issue and you won't receive appropriate response. You could have made your comment in a new thread.

OH yes!

Had e-mail them many times, the only thing I got so far are the auto replies, nothing else yet!

Is this something to do with that horrible and frankly ridiculous direct currency conversion (DCC) "service"?

I get this issue with overseas hotels every time I travel, and I have to insist that they "please bill my credit card in RMB/Rupees/Baht/Pounds and not US Dollars". The last hotel I stayed at (in Bangalore) tried the "because it's a US card it can only be billed in dollars" trick.

FYI - DCC converts your bill to your home currency before submission to the credit card company. But it's at a far worse rate than if they bill it in the local currency and then the CC company convert it themselves.

NO, I believe it is not the DCC issue.

I believe it is either Expedia is converting the charges from USD (though the displayed price was in local currency) when the exchange rate for USD went up, or it has to do with the bank, still not very clear, had not got any proper explanation from either party yet.

Yes, I know what you meant by the DCC, it is something the hotels used to rip off unsuspecting guests/tourist. We experienced it once when we stayed at Patong Merlin Hotel (Phuket, Thailand) recently. The hotel converted the charge direct into the currency of my home country directly, using the hotel's prevailing exchange rate (which is 10% higher than actual bank's rate) and on top of that, they charged another 3% service charge. I noticed that before signing the chit, and asked them to reverse the charges and paid them in Thai Baht, never stay at those hotels again, definitely not Patong Merlin , and if you do, make sure you have enough cash to pay them.