Android Market - Currency fees make it pointless...
I'm sure I'm not the only person here who can't effectively buy apps/games from the Market due to the stupidity of pricing them in multiple currencies??
I'm in the UK but I'm sure it affects other places too - if I buy an App/Game which is priced in any currency but my own (e.g. EUs or Dollars in my case) I'll pay a small commission (fair enough) and a LARGE fee on every transaction. The lack of a shopping basket means I'll pay that fee on EVERY purchase too - e.g. I'm not going to be buying much.
The fee in my case is UKP £1.50 on EVERY transaction - that's often more than the transaction!!
Asking around it seems most UK debit cards and many credit cards levy similar fees - surely this must be crippling the Android Marketplace as people learn they'll give more to their grasping bank as to the developer!?
It would cost them nothing to price Apps/Games in local currency - failure to do so is going to drastically curb s spending surely?
Unless anyone knows of a workaround to buying Apps/Games without these fees??
Last edited by johnpeat; August 5th, 2010 at 02:29 PM.
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I'm in the U.S. and purchased an Android app from the Market listed at £3.99. The currency exchange rate was just over $6 American so my transaction was $6.08. My google account was using a credit card which charges an additional 2% fee of the purchase price for overseas transactions which in this case was only 12 cents bringing my total to $6.20. So, other than the small international transaction fee from the credit card company, there was no other fee on my transaction.
I have since change my google checkout to another credit card that supposedly only charges 1% for international transactions, but I have not purchased anything to know for sure.
Google needs to get this sorted out. There is no point buying an app at €1 which receives a £1.50 charge from the bank. The bank is making more money than the developer. It's a joke and until it's sorted people will continue to just use the lite or demo version.
I also think this is your bank. The only app I ever purchased with a foregin currency let me know how much that equates in USD. I actually wasn't charged a premium at all for the transaction.
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Definitely the bank that's charging. Unfortunately most UK banks charge this fee. My bank charges £1.00 + 2.9%. Google needs local app stores. I can't buy apps unless I want to pay stupid amounts of money to my bank for them.
If anyone knows a UK bank that doesn't charge please let me know
Not really a Google problem as much as it is a bank problem. I've had a $1 fee from Wells Fargo due to international purchases before. Of course, that might be because I used a debit account, rather than credit. With that said, since I'm from the US, I have no idea what banks do and don't do this in the UK.
Google just announced Buyer's Currency so now prices can be set separately for each currency. I'm not positive this will stop currency charges but it probably should.
I'm in the UK but I'm sure it affects other places too - if I buy an App/Game which is priced in any currency but my own (e.g. EUs or Dollars in my case) I'll pay a small commission (fair enough) and a LARGE fee on every transaction. The lack of a shopping basket means I'll pay that fee on EVERY purchase too - e.g. I'm not going to be buying much.
Fees are pretty small from my US bank. Be careful assuming trends based on a single data point. If you don't like the fees then talk your bank about it.
I got a fee on some ebooks from Google. The amount was in USD, but apparently the books were from Australia. I saw nothing about a fee. How are you supposed to tell?
I saw nothing about a fee. How are you supposed to tell?
Thats part of the problem. I didn't find out about this until I got my bank statement - just after I got my first Android phone. Coming from iOS where this isn't an issue, I went crazy and got lots of apps for my shiny new Android phone. Had a bit of a shock when I looked at my bank statement after I'd been charged £1.50 for every app I purchased (even ones I'd returned).
While I understand it's definitely not Google charging me, I think they could have done something by now to stop my banks ridiculous charges.
iOS and webOS have never had this problem. WP7 launched with this problem, but a solution is being rolled out from today ... after being around for only a few months.
Last night at Google's Android conference they did announce some changes that will possibly address this:
This feature lets you price your applications differently in each market and improves the purchase experience for buyers by showing prices in their home currencies.
So it might make it a bit clearer about what we are going to be charged, but it doesn't tell us if the banks will still charge us an overseas transaction fee or not.
Again, I completely understand the overseas transaction fee is not Google's fault, but I do believe it is their responsibility to fix the problem considering the other major smartphone OS's don't have this problem. It's very hard to get away from it because nearly every UK bank charges for this.
Thats part of the problem. I didn't find out about this until I got my bank statement - just after I got my first Android phone. Coming from iOS where this isn't an issue, I went crazy and got lots of apps for my shiny new Android phone. Had a bit of a shock when I looked at my bank statement after I'd been charged £1.50 for every app I purchased (even ones I'd returned).
While I understand it's definitely not Google charging me, I think they could have done something by now to stop my banks ridiculous charges.
iOS and webOS have never had this problem. WP7 launched with this problem, but a solution is being rolled out from today ... after being around for only a few months.
Last night at Google's Android conference they did announce some changes that will possibly address this:
So it might make it a bit clearer about what we are going to be charged, but it doesn't tell us if the banks will still charge us an overseas transaction fee or not.
Again, I completely understand the overseas transaction fee is not Google's fault, but I do believe it is their responsibility to fix the problem considering the other major smartphone OS's don't have this problem. It's very hard to get away from it because nearly every UK bank charges for this.
Unless Google decides to become based in Europe and such, there isn't much they can do. Its a international banking thing. I don't think even Google has the power to "game" the financial industry.
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Just been reading this thread. Another disgruntled UK market here experiencing the same annoying fee. Can we not do something about this? I'm tempted, and am being serious here, to look up that Eric CEO guy of google, and send him a little email
Just been reading this thread. Another disgruntled UK market here experiencing the same annoying fee. Can we not do something about this? I'm tempted, and am being serious here, to look up that Eric CEO guy of google, and send him a little email
Yes you can do something about it.. get with a decent bank that doesnt charge for international transactions, such as HSBC
As has been said it has nothing to do with google, its about how your bank processes the transaction and if they feel like being penny pinching little shites
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Just been reading this thread. Another disgruntled UK market here experiencing the same annoying fee. Can we not do something about this? I'm tempted, and am being serious here, to look up that Eric CEO guy of google, and send him a little email
Larry Page is CEO now I believe.
It's still the banks' fault though. I would imagin living in the UK you guys do a lot of shopping in other countries, I'm a bit surprised honestly that there isnt more competition for lower fees there.
I may lower my price for UK a bit because of this though. It's certainly interesting to hear -- not something I knew about.
I'm another UK consumer who just got hit by this bull....
I think it's disgusting, prices are in GBP and don't mention you're buying from abroad. I've been buying from the web for years, no other company has made my bank charge me overseas transaction.
I've recently bought my first android tablet and started to learn to develop for android. I got charged £1 for my developer account and £1 for a £0.63 app! Following that there's no f-ing customer service contact and you can't even send in a generic question or complaint about google checkout.
It's not the bank's fault, it's Googles. They should know about this, they should understand and they should make a change. If they're going to make a paypal-like system it should work, not hide foreign transactions away so people get charged and offer no customer support.
I'm seriously considering not going into android dev now and following the sheep to iOS development. It saddens me really, I was quite enjoying it. Why should I support a company who won't support me when people won't buy my apps because of overseas charges.
It must be your financial institution. I live in the U.S. and have purchased several apps from oversees... I have never paid more than was advertised. So I'm not familiar with the problem you are describing.
I'm another UK consumer who just got hit by this bull....
I've recently bought my first android tablet and started to learn to develop for android. I got charged £1 for my developer account and £1 for a £0.63 app! Following that there's no f-ing customer service contact and you can't even send in a generic question or complaint about google checkout.
.
There is indeed a help/contact us link regarding Market purchases/items on the Market.... I've used it a few times. I can't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure you just have to go to Help.
Not really a Google problem as much as it is a bank problem. I've had a $1 fee from Wells Fargo due to international purchases before. Of course, that might be because I used a debit account, rather than credit. With that said, since I'm from the US, I have no idea what banks do and don't do this in the UK.
I think it's entirely Google's fault. May be they should look at what Apple does and have a local Market for each country it operates in, with everything priced in local currency. Then no one is charged for currency exchanges by the banks and everyone is happy.
Unless Google decides to become based in Europe and such,
Well Google operates in Europe, they have domains and offices there. It might be a US corporation, but then so is Apple and Microsoft.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Demache
there isn't much they can do. Its a international banking thing. I don't think even Google has the power to "game" the financial industry.
Apple solved the problem right from start with it's iTunes Store business, and have never had 'international banking' problems and customers getting charged for international currency transactions.
I was in Hong Kong a couple of weeks ago, and nothing in the Android Market was priced in HK$, it was all USD, Stirling and Euros. Basically a mess.
So anyone with a HK bank account which charges for currency exchange would certainly lose out big time here. Apple seems to have no problems with pricing everything in HK$ there, why can't Google?
Here's another major difference between how Google and Apple operate their respective app stores, which certainly affects me.
I am British with a UK bank account and UK credit card, as well as a Chinese bank account and debit card. With the iTunes Store I can select whatever country is appropriate for me. Which means I can buy from the UK iTunes Store all priced in Stirling, with my UK credit card, even though I'm in China, and not be charged at all.
On the other hand Google Market and Google Checkout are completely useless in the PRC. I can't buy anything from the Market, only free apps, and no way to fix it. Except maybe use a UK proxy, to fool Google that I'm in the UK.
Last edited by mikedt; May 24th, 2011 at 05:17 AM.
Couldn't Google implement a similar system to Amazon?
If I buy through them I can charge in AUS - with a rate slightly more favourable to them (as I use an AU CC) or remain at the USD price and take my chances on currency conversion & fees when charged to the card.
Android Market - Currency fees make it pointless...
