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

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5819486

by MattBearman • 13 years ago

4 11 13 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

US residents: Are you put off from paying for an SaaS service if the price are not listed in US Dollars?

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.

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.

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?

Thanks in advance.

codegeek2• 13 years ago

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

MattBearman2• 13 years ago

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

codegeek2• 13 years ago

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 .

dirktheman• 13 years ago

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

MattBearman2• 13 years ago

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

saddestcatever• 13 years ago

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)

fastspring2• 13 years ago

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

1123581321• 13 years ago

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.

fastspring2• 13 years ago

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

tagabek• 13 years ago

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?

coryl• 13 years ago

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?

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

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