Payment Gateway Question?
I am almost one month away of finalizing my website and I am planning to start charging my customers at the beginning (albeit with a high discount). The problem is, since I am based in Egypt, all payment gateways that are based in Egypt (any other outside of Egypt did not accept my website because I am only starting and not yet incorporated), can only charge customers outside of Egypt with Egyptian Pounds (estimated to be around 90% of the total customers) . The Payment itself will be shown in USD, however, the actual currency deducted from users' banks will be in Egyptian pounds (and equivalent to the USD price shown ofcourse). Do you think this is okay or is kind of abnormal (to the extent that users might feel unhappy about it?)
Try Paddle.
Will check it out now. Thank you.
Hey Darko, I checked Paddle and other alternatives. I think gumroad seems like a better alternative (because of pricing). Paddle is 5%, gumroad is 3.5% + US10 monthly. What do you think, since, maybe you tried one of them out?
I think it depends also on your audience. Gumroad is great for things you create, as it offers you a page to sell that product etc. Paddle, on the other hand lets you embed the selling dialog on your own page in a better way. I'm using both myself - I use Paddle for selling subscriptions to my time tracker, and Gumroad to sell licenses for a js lib.
Yes, this is exactly the feedback I read when researching. Thanks Almar.
If you use Paddle, it's easy to charge customers in their own currency. The price is then dependent on the current exchange rate of the dollar (if your reference price is in dollars). I think charging in your customers own currency is always better than charging dollars. People will understand that e.g. dollar != euro.
Not sure how Gumroad handles this TGBH
Gumroad does have other currencies as well, but I am not sure if it converts them automatically like Paddle does or not. They need to put a video example, like Paddle. Thanks for your help.
Abnormal, unhappy.
If it's less than the display price, that's fine.
If it's more, even a single cent, that's "deceptive" territory, and I wouldn't go there.
100% agree, actually, my concern now is the conversion fees that they customers may incur. I am researching other solutions now like Paddle or Gumroad. Thanks for the direct feedback :)
I assume you're talking about credit card payments here? What happens is that your clients will be charged the equivalent of the E£ amount in their respective currency, plus a foreign exchange fee which is typically 1-3% of the transaction amount. That isn't really your problem, but people might be surprised to see that on their card statement. It will be particularly surprising for people with US$ as their primary currency, since they expected to be charged in US$. For that reason, I voted "might lead to unhappy customers".
I would avoid showing US$ but instead use E£ as the primary currency and offer an approximate conversion to the user's selected currency.
Thanks for the feedback Matthias. But what do you think with Paul's suggestion below, which is to put a small note stating that the prices stated may be converted to E£? I am guessing that might look better, what do you think?
My personal preference would be to stay true to the facts. A "may be converted" isn't accurate if it definitely "will be" converted. I wouldn't trust your service to generate a proper financial report if basic financial matters like pricing and payment details weren't 100% accurate.
Good point. Got it. Thanks for the feedback.
Think it depends on your customer but I wouldn't care 🤔
Thanks for the feedback, appreciate it :)
I went with abnormal but don't care. If the published price is USD and users don't see the conversion until it hits their bank statement I wouldn't worry too much about it. You could always add a courtesy note such as "Prices shown in USD may be converted to EP on your bank statement".
Thanks for the feedback Paul. This is what I am thinking as well, but was just worried that is is what I want to think to make it seem fine. Thanks again :)
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I am thinking of doing that as well, along with using Paddle or Gumroad. More costly than my current options, but I think that's better than having unhappy customers.
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Noted, thank you for the help.