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Don't guess what currency I want to pay in either by the way. Your payment provider's automatic conversion is most likely more predatory than my bank's so I do

Don't guess what currency I want to pay in either by the way. Your payment provider's automatic conversion is most likely more predatory than my bank's so I don't want to use it. And even if you guess my location right, how do you know I want a badly/machine translated web site?

xobs 1y ago
OVH is awful for this. I’ve given up trying to use their site and always have to open a support ticket any time I want to give them money.
Aachen 1y ago
This. Related: if I had a penny for every time I needed a VPN just to load the payment method selection screen (but not for the actual payment, it's not geolocked) just to be able to pay somewhere, I'd get a lot of products for free by now... Why not let germans select iDeal and dutch users Giropay? They'll not click it if it's not useful for them. Adjusting the sort for what's most commonly used makes sense, but why actively thwart users from paying by geolocking payment methods by IP address...
- lxgr 1y ago
  Because then companies would have to charge all users the same price for the exact same service. Charging customers from countries with higher average purchasing power more and hiding the fact behind "charging people in the local currency for convenience" is much more profitable!
  - nottorp 1y ago
    I'm talking about those online stores that don't have a (customer hostile) thought out price for every locale, but they have some auto conversion. When price is set to $9.99 which works out to 47.89287237634 in your local currency. Although it would work out to 45.89327782 if you used your bank's conversion instead of the "helpful" service. In those cases i don't think the seller makes any extra money, they get their $9.99 minus payment processor's fees. They just think they're helpful but make you spend more for no good reason.
  - Aachen 1y ago
    Hadnt thought of that, but the price is the same between the two countries I had in mind. Indeed, if there are measures in place to keep products affordable for less lucky/affluent regions, by all means keep those. Just show them all available payment methods, irrespective of the adjusted price
knorker 1y ago
There may not be any conversion at all. I have cards able to carry balances in multiple currencies. I also have foreign bank accounts. Billing address is not a sure way to predict currency.
carlosjobim 1y ago
> Your payment provider's automatic conversion is most likely more predatory than my bank's so I don't want to use it. As of a few days ago, Stripe is forcing all their partners to offer their customers the predatory currency conversion. There is no way to opt out, except switching to another payment provider with their own problems.

xobs 1y ago

OVH is awful for this. I’ve given up trying to use their site and always have to open a support ticket any time I want to give them money.

Aachen 1y ago

This. Related: if I had a penny for every time I needed a VPN just to load the payment method selection screen (but not for the actual payment, it's not geolocked) just to be able to pay somewhere, I'd get a lot of products for free by now... Why not let germans select iDeal and dutch users Giropay? They'll not click it if it's not useful for them. Adjusting the sort for what's most commonly used makes sense, but why actively thwart users from paying by geolocking payment methods by IP address...

lxgr 1y ago
Because then companies would have to charge all users the same price for the exact same service. Charging customers from countries with higher average purchasing power more and hiding the fact behind "charging people in the local currency for convenience" is much more profitable!
- nottorp 1y ago
  I'm talking about those online stores that don't have a (customer hostile) thought out price for every locale, but they have some auto conversion. When price is set to $9.99 which works out to 47.89287237634 in your local currency. Although it would work out to 45.89327782 if you used your bank's conversion instead of the "helpful" service. In those cases i don't think the seller makes any extra money, they get their $9.99 minus payment processor's fees. They just think they're helpful but make you spend more for no good reason.
- Aachen 1y ago
  Hadnt thought of that, but the price is the same between the two countries I had in mind. Indeed, if there are measures in place to keep products affordable for less lucky/affluent regions, by all means keep those. Just show them all available payment methods, irrespective of the adjusted price

knorker 1y ago

There may not be any conversion at all. I have cards able to carry balances in multiple currencies. I also have foreign bank accounts. Billing address is not a sure way to predict currency.

carlosjobim 1y ago

> Your payment provider's automatic conversion is most likely more predatory than my bank's so I don't want to use it. As of a few days ago, Stripe is forcing all their partners to offer their customers the predatory currency conversion. There is no way to opt out, except switching to another payment provider with their own problems.