Using ProductCart - Pounds not nickles

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Pounds not nickles

Printed From: ProductCart E-Commerce Solutions
Category: ProductCart
Forum Name: Using ProductCart
Forum Description: Running your store with ProductCart
URL: https://forum.productcart.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1584
Printed Date: 27-November-2024 at 7:45pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: Pounds not nickles

Posted By: geoff
Subject: Pounds not nickles
Date Posted: 02-May-2008 at 6:22pm

My understanding is that PC can be configured to display all costs in UK pounds. How does the gateway know that the fee being charged is in pounds? Does the pounds configuration only work with UK gateways or also with US Gateways?

Specifically. say you sold an item on domain.com for 10 pounds, could you use a US gateway and merchant account to take the fee directly as US dollars and deposited into a US bank? Would the conversion be always transparent to the customer?

Thanks you your help with this.

Replies:

Posted By: MarkCoyle
Date Posted: 02-May-2008 at 8:09pm

I run a store in pounds from UK and have never had a problem. ProductCart passes the details to your merchant gateway which records the transaction accurately. ProductCart can only work in one currency but your merchant gateway should do an instant conversion to take the right amount in dollars from USA customers and so on.

You can see our site at http://www.wovenwheatwhispers.co.uk - http://www.wovenwheatwhispers.co.uk

cheers

Mark

Posted By: geoff
Date Posted: 02-May-2008 at 8:28pm

Hi Mark
Thanks for the prompt response. I understand what you have described - but what if you were running your UK site taking UK pounds payments but had a US merchant bank account and US gateway.

Do you think that it would all be equivalent?

Secondly, I was looking at UK merchant fees for UK credit cards - the ones I found were quoting 3.5%, this is very high by US standards. Do you have any recommendations? ( I have both a UK and US address).

Thanks

Posted By: katharina
Date Posted: 02-May-2008 at 8:40pm

It all depends on the gateway you are using. I use VirtualMerchant from Nova in the USA. They ask you in what currency you like to operate. Then your site will transfer the information in your currency to them and they will process it in that currency. They also have some conversion thing for customers from other countries. It will show the customer the total in their own currency. We don't use it so I can't give you to much info on that part. So overall this is not a PC question, but rather a question of what gateway you plan to use.
Katharina

Posted By: geoff
Date Posted: 02-May-2008 at 8:45pm

Hi Katharina
I have recent switched to Nova also. I think the conversion thing is the Direct Currency Conversion (DCC) - but hopefully a customer never needs to "see" into the gateway.

Unless anyone has any other comments on this - I agree it is a question for my merchant bank.

Thank you both

Posted By: Hamish
Date Posted: 02-May-2008 at 8:46pm

Geoff, Just out of interest - what;s the typical rates for merchants in the USA?

Posted By: geoff
Date Posted: 02-May-2008 at 9:59pm

There are different tiers for different "risks".

I recently renegotiated my rates by changing vendor. I previously was using LinkPoint as gateway and merchant and my total costs were 4-4.5% . With my new account they are 2.25-2.5% for the same mix of international, verified and non-verified. The percentage includes all monthly gateway and other fees. The extra few percentage points are significant given my unfortunate low overall gross margins ;-). Rates that merchants receive in the US depend on risk, volume and who you contact. Also the quality of service if you go too far.

My specific rate for a unverified non-US bank card is 3.75% plus 22cent.

By the way - I am much happier with Authorize.net than my previous gateway. I had a spate of fraudulent charge backs which caused a significant loss. I also now have fewer incomplete transactions.

Posted By: angel
Date Posted: 22-August-2008 at 7:23am

Hi geoff/Katharina,

I'm having similar problem. I'm using ProductCart v3.11 & Authorize.Net as payment gateway. ProductCart doesn't convert BDT (Local Currency) to USD and Authorize.Net accepts/process USD only. I'm confused about your Nova/DCC service & integration with my current scenario. Can you help me with this?

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Sultan Arefin
www.chorka.com

Posted By: geoff
Date Posted: 22-August-2008 at 7:40am

HI Angel
I abandoned setting up a UK site with UK pound configuration. My US site only displays US$. All customers see only US$ on the PC site. The only thing I try to help with is offering a pop-up for currency conversion calculation for non-US customers.

Katharina maybe more help.

Posted By: Hamish
Date Posted: 22-August-2008 at 7:40am

Hi Angel,
ProductCart does NO currency conversion AFAIK - it's a function that should be provided by the payment gateway, so perhaps you should choose a different payment gateway?

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Editing ProductCart Code?

See http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/developers/editcode" rel="nofollow - WIKI Guidelines for Editing ProductCart's ASP Source Code

Posted By: katharina
Date Posted: 22-August-2008 at 11:19am

I know some gateways do convert it for the customers. Never used this feature at all. I'm in the US and all prices are in US dollars on my site. I don't have a pop up with an exchange rate, because that one may vary from card issuing company to another. They all have their little build in fees. I worry that if we show a converted rate that it may not be what later shows on the customers statement. That can open a whole new can of worms. Sometimes customers ask up front and I tell them to check www.xe.com to get an idea, but warn them that bank/conversion charges may apply. As a customer I would always figure out what the exchange rate it by myself, if I order from another country. I have done so in the past and expect a site to run in their own currency. Most international customers on our site use paypal, because paypal shows them the converted price. Never had a problem at all.
Katharina

Posted By: angel
Date Posted: 23-August-2008 at 7:48am

I've done following changes in /pc/gwAuthorizeAIM.asp file:

Line: 117
Old: stext=stext & "&x_Amount=" & pcBillingTotal
New: stext=stext & "&x_Amount=" & pcBillingTotal / 70

Line: 478
Old: <%=money(pcBillingTotal)%>
New: <%=money(pcBillingTotal / 70)%>

(Assuming 1 USD = 70 BDT)

Tell me what do you think.

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Sultan Arefin
www.chorka.com