

Ask HN: Are you put off by non-USD prices? - MattBearman

US residents: Are you put off from paying for an SaaS service if the price are not listed in US Dollars?<p>The reason I ask is now that Stripe has finally entered the UK, I'm thinking of using it as my payment gateway for BugMuncher.<p>My only concern is that with Stripe I can't accept USD directly with out an American bank account. This is an issue as the vast majority of BugMuncher's customers are American. My current gateway (Fastspring) allows me to list prices in USD, or any currency.<p>Changing to Stripe will mean that prices will be listed in GBP (or EUR) and the buyer's bank will exchange it to USD (and probably charge them a fee for doing so). Do you think this will affect my conversions?<p>Thanks in advance.
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codegeek
In general, Yes. I would prefer to see prices in USD as a US resident.
However, can you not show both depending on the location of the user/visitor
OR just display them in a table ? Something like:

USD | GBP

20 | 14

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MattBearman
Thanks for the response.

I could theoretically show two prices, but I cant guarantee the price a US
user would eventually be charged.

All I can do is say 20 GBP / Month. It's up to the buyers bank / card issuer
to decide what that costs in USD (exchange rate plus fees). I can see that
causing more problems if I say £20 is $30, and then the buyer get's charged
$33

edit: typo

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codegeek
You are right. I did not realize/pay attention that you don't have a US bank
account. Exchange rates are a big PITA since I deal with them all the time
personally.

Since US customers are critical for you, you have 2 options:

1) look into opening a US bank account if you can

2) Display the prices in all currencies with an * saying that the USD prices
are an estimate based on today's rate and you cannot guarantee when the actual
exchange happens. Not very optimal but better than losing customers completely
.

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dirktheman
Can't you open an American bank account? I believe HSBC offers such a thing.

~~~
MattBearman
Interesting, I'll have to investigate that, thanks for the heads up!

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coryl
I'm Canadian, but I'm used to seeing/paying USD prices online. I get slightly
uncomfortable when dealing with Euros or GBP, because it feels like the
service or product isn't targeted towards me (as if somehow I won't be
supported or something). Its definitely a weird consumer psychology glitch. Do
Europeans feel the same way when seeing online prices?

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tagabek
Yes and no. If I've never seen the product before, then I probably will not
buy. If I have seen the product before, it doesn't matter to me.

Isn't there a way to localize prices in web apps to reflect the location of
the user?

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fastspring
You may want to take a look at this post from last week: "Why Using Multi-
Currency Makes Cents": <http://bit.ly/18Hilrv>

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1123581321
If you detect an American IP, put (about $20) and an information symbol after
the GBP price. Clicking on the symbol explains the situation in more detail.

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saddestcatever
Yes. It's not the currency, but rather shipping and language barrier that I'd
be worried about. (GBP are obviously slightly less of a concern)

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fastspring
Gotcha. In case it's helpful, FastSpring order pages are localized into these
languages: Arabic, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Czech, Danish, Dutch,
English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Polish,
Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish

