Pay in PLN or your home currency? Dynamic currency conversion in Kraków explained

You tap your card in a Kraków restaurant and the terminal asks a question: pay 240 PLN, or pay 58.40 EUR? An ATM on the Main Square offers a “guaranteed rate” in pounds. Both are the same product, called dynamic currency conversion, and in almost every case the right answer is the same: choose PLN.

This guide explains what is happening behind that screen, why the offer exists and how to say no to it without confusion.

What dynamic currency conversion is

Dynamic currency conversion (DCC) is a service in which the card terminal or ATM converts the amount into your card’s home currency at the moment of the transaction. Instead of your bank converting złoty to euros, pounds or dollars later, the terminal’s operator does it immediately, at a rate the operator sets.

The pitch is certainty: you see the exact amount in your own currency before you confirm. The cost is the rate. The operator’s rate includes a markup, and that markup is shared between the companies involved in the transaction. That is why terminals and ATMs offer it so eagerly, and why the home-currency option is often the bigger, brighter button.

Why PLN is almost always the better choice

When you choose PLN, the transaction reaches your bank in złoty and your bank or card network converts it. Card network rates are typically close to the mid-market rate, and many banks and travel cards add only a small fee or none at all.

When you choose your home currency, the conversion has already been done by the operator at its own rate. Markups of several percent are common, and at some standalone ATMs they are higher. Your bank may also still charge a foreign transaction fee, because the purchase was made abroad, so you can end up paying twice.

A simple illustration, with made-up but realistic numbers:

	You choose PLN	You choose EUR (DCC)
Bill	240 PLN	240 PLN
Rate applied	about 4.38 (card network)	4.11 (terminal)
You pay	about 54.80 EUR	58.40 EUR

On one dinner the difference is a few euros. Over a week of meals, tickets, taxis and a hotel bill, it adds up to a noticeable sum, with nothing received in return.

There is one honest exception. If your bank charges unusually high fees and a poor rate on foreign currency transactions, DCC could occasionally come out similar. That is rare. If you are unsure, check your card’s foreign transaction terms before you travel, or use a card designed for travel.

What it looks like on a card terminal

In shops, restaurants and hotels the terminal shows two amounts side by side: one in PLN and one in your currency, sometimes with a line such as “exchange rate” and “markup included”. What to do:

1. Look for PLN and select it. It may be the less prominent option.
2. If the staff member hands you the terminal with your home currency already selected, say “in złoty, please” (w złotówkach, proszę) before you enter your PIN.
3. Check the receipt. It should show PLN as the transaction currency.

Most staff will simply switch it for you. If the payment has already gone through in your currency against your wishes, you can ask for it to be cancelled and repeated in PLN.

What it looks like at an ATM

ATMs are where DCC costs the most, because it is often combined with a withdrawal fee. The flow usually goes like this: you choose an amount, and then a screen appears offering to charge your account a fixed amount in your currency, with phrases like “guaranteed rate”, “no hidden costs” or “accept conversion”. The other button says something like “decline conversion” or “continue without conversion”.

What to do:

1. Choose decline conversion or continue without conversion. You will still get your cash. Only the conversion is being declined, not the withdrawal.
2. If the machine also announces its own withdrawal fee, decide whether to accept it or to find a bank-branch ATM instead.
3. Prefer ATMs attached to bank branches over standalone machines in tourist spots, shop entrances and airports.

Some screens are designed so that declining looks like cancelling. It is not. If you press it and the machine proceeds to dispense cash in PLN, you did the right thing.

Your right to see the cost

EU rules require operators that offer currency conversion at an ATM or card terminal to show you the cost before you confirm, expressed as a percentage markup over the European Central Bank reference rate. The rules were written for conversions between EU currencies, for example a euro card used in Poland; with cards in other currencies you will usually still see the offered rate and the final amount, but not always the markup. In practice this is a line of small text on the conversion screen. It is worth reading once: seeing the percentage in black and white makes the decision easy.

Whatever the screen says, the conversion is optional. No shop, hotel or ATM can require you to accept it.

Cash, cards and where an exchange office fits in

Poland is very card-friendly, and Kraków especially so. You can pay by card or phone almost everywhere, and for those payments the rule is simply: choose PLN.

Cash still matters in some situations: small market stalls, some craft sellers, tips, public toilets, and the occasional place whose terminal is “broken today”. If you arrive with euros, pounds or dollars in cash, exchanging them at a fair exchange office is usually cheaper than withdrawing złoty from a tourist-area ATM with conversion and fees.

When you exchange cash, the same logic applies as with DCC: what matters is the rate you actually get, not the slogan. Our guide to buy and sell rates shows how to read a kantor’s board and check a rate in a minute, and our money guide for visitors to Kraków covers ATMs and cash needs in more detail.

At our office at Floriańska 37 we exchange cash only, with 0% commission and both buy and sell rates displayed. You can see today’s rates before you come.

When you need cash in Kraków

If you are in Kraków and need złoty, you have two sensible routes. One is an ATM at a bank branch, with the conversion declined. The other is exchanging the cash you already carry at an exchange office that displays both buy and sell rates. Either way you avoid the double markup described above.

Our office is at Floriańska 37, under two minutes on foot from the Main Square and a minute from St. Florian’s Gate. Step-by-step routes from the Square, the station and the Planty are in our guide on how to find the exchange office near the Main Square.

A quick checklist

• Card terminal asks PLN or your currency: choose PLN.
• ATM offers a “guaranteed rate” in your currency: decline the conversion, keep the withdrawal.
• Staff pre-selected your currency: ask for złoty before entering your PIN.
• Check the receipt shows PLN.
• Use bank-branch ATMs, not standalone machines in tourist spots.
• Bringing cash? Compare both the buy and sell rate before exchanging, and avoid airports.

One word covers most of it. When a screen in Poland asks which currency you want, the answer is złoty.