It's not the 90's anymore, still it seems like most of the better known software stores online still refuse to display the US currency price. Fine. But, when I expect to purchase an item that costs for example, 29 euros then the current market exchange rate should be used (right?).

 

So today I went onto a site to purchase the product, which is priced at 29 euros and change. I pull up a popular currency calculator and convert the exchange, which puts the price at around $37 US dollars. Sounds like a good deal, so I go back to purchase the plane, put it in the cart and then proceed to make the actual sale. The website goes and fetches the credit card processing page where the price is now suddenly $44-ish. That probably doesn't even contain the extra credit card processing "surcharges" I always get for a dollar or two after the transaction.

 

What the heck gives? So am I missing something in the whole "euro to dollar" conversion process, or are people being taken advantage of with false pricing?

I sometimes have the same problem from dollar to euro, though not so much as you say. If you read the little lines below the transaction there might written why the fee is applied and how...

Does the product deserve 44$ price at least?

 

Cheers

A lot(?) of Euro nations implement a value added tax (VAT) and that gets figured into a price. The VAT should not be applicable to U.S. based transactions, I *think*. There should be a method to show a non-VAT price? And then again, depending upon the seller, it might be too big of a hassle to make the site/store differentiate, so everyone ends up paying the same price.

Very few (if any) sellers of flight sim add-ons process their iown credt card transactions, They rely on credit card merchants to do it for them and they charge commercial rates appropriate to small transactions. .

 

You were told trhe diollar price before completing the transactions so why whine. If it's too expensive for you then don't buy it.

You were told trhe diollar price before completing the transactions so why whine. If it's too expensive for you then don't buy it.

It's not a matter of "whining" about the price. It's a matter of paying what the price of the item is-- and not foolishly paying an extra $7.00 for no reason. In this case, a 29 euro product that converts to $37.00 then trying to be charged $44.00. As far as credit card processing fees, thats not my problem. As the consumer they can either figure in the amount or not. So if it's going to cost $44.00 then they should advertise it for $44.00.

That does seem a bit steep! Can you pay in Euros and just have your credit card or paypal do the conversion for you?

The $7 extra is about 19% of $37 and that matches the 19% VAT rate.

Stores will sometimes display the price with VAT less prominently or not at all to make it more appealing.

 

If not then I don't think that anyone here can say much about it without knowing which store and which product.

You should get some sort of overview before finishing the purchase that shows you all the costs.

It's a matter of paying what the price of the item is--

 

The price is the $44 at which it was offered to you.

Hi.

 

There's death, and there's taxes... and taxes are worse because you only die once.

 

Who actually pays the VAT (to the treasury I mean)? If VAT is charged on exports I assume it's the vendor, and that the purchaser is simply obliged to cover the vendor's costs.

 

I do feel there's some immorality about the whole 'inc. VAT / exc. VAT' advertising ploy. It obviously pays to look carefully.

 

Regards,

D

So if it's going to cost $44.00 then they should advertise it for $44.00.

 

+++1

So if it's going to cost $44.00 then they should advertise it for $44.00.

 

So should the site advertise the price in every currency in the world?

 

Only the naive expect to get a published exchange rate. Try transferring 29 euros directly yourself. The best rate I can find on the internet is Xoom which offers a rate of 0,7463 euros/$ and a $4,99 fee so $44 gets 29.12 euros. The next best, Bank of America, has an exchange rate of 0.7348 euros/S and a $30 charge. $44 gets only 10.28 euros.

I just did a bit of shopping at a favorite european flight sim store, simmarket. First off, on their home page they do have an option to show all prices in US dollars. So sitting here in CA, USA, I set the price to US and found the RealAir Lancair, which is listed at $46.46 (35.64 euros w/o VAT). So I run an external euro to dollars calculator which shows that, at this moment 35.64 euros is $46.46. Seems pretty fair to me. Seems that site is most likely, as mentioned, charging you the VAT (for which they should not).

VAT is not charged to purchasers of goods outside of the EEC. VAT is a internal EEC membership charge only.