WWW is $ You Live in £ E Y land

Hi Andrew,
USD is generally the online default currency that most people expect. However I'd always advise you to test other currencies yourself so you know what converts best for your customers. As to taking USD, it depends how you take payment? Most merchant accounts can transfer funds in another currency or you can pay usd currency into GBP account but charges will probably be incurred. Obviously you can open a USD account as you say.

Rich

If you use a payment processor like PayPal they can do the conversion for you.

I'm working on a project now that uses Geo Coding to determine the users location and display prices in their native currency. The price will be set differently for each market, but the payments will be converted by the payment processor before they hit the bank.

Bill

You can convert the money you make in $$$ to pounds or euros or whatever. I know it's kinda like something that one wouldn't wanna do but there are not many choices.

I'm in the UK and sell in USD.. because most of my market is based in the USA..

Most payment gateways will do the conversion for you.. Paypal, as others have suggested, is very good at this.

Just use your credit card and the banks will do the conversion for you.

Been in foreign countries, and all I had to do was just pay with a credit card. No hassles whatsoever.

Also ClickBank process orders in the local currency.

Will

Thanks All.

It seems I'm doing all that I can. The conversion currently happens with my payment processing house.

A

Im a Brit living in the Eurozone, so I get paid from buyers in USD, (with Paypal), covert it into Euros, then draw it onto my Cyproit bank card.

A pain, but what can you do!

One trouble with PayPal doing the currency conversion is that they sting you for 3% each time you convert to another currency. PayPal typically only allows you to withdraw in your local currency, forcing you to exchange through them.

My solution was to set up a US LLC (Limited Liability Company), open a bank account in the name of the company and then open a US PayPal account in the company name.

Whilst a bit of a pain to set up, it is much cheaper and more convenient to operate this way. For example, you have the advantage of being able to use Website Payments Pro, which is a great credibility boost for your site and can put a US address on your mailings which adds trust (v.s. an overseas address) if you are market is mainly US based.

I used incorp.com to set up my company in Delaware (cost me $139 all in), and HSBC to open a bank account (I just had to visit a local HSBC, they opened the account from my home country and I got all the docs via DHL in about 10 days).

Don't be fooled by myuscompany.com, their $99 charge is just for an ebook of how to do it and some template documents but it does not include the $99 state registration fee.

If you live outside of the US and have no US employees then you and your company are not liable for any US taxes, and you don't even need to file an annual return. The only ongoing costs are a registered agent ($99/year) and a state filing fee, which in Delaware is $250.

If your business is doing over $30k a year through PayPal, then you may want to consider this option.

I think this is a misconception. Much of the 'downloadable stuff' market seems to be priced in dollars, but even that is changing with the likes of Clickbank (and probably others) automatically converting stuff to local currencies before you purchase.

However, 'downloadable stuff' is only a tiny fraction of the Internet (really, it is; we in the IM world like to think otherwise but we're wrong).

Otherwise, if you're selling stuff to a particular population - Spain, for example - and insist on pricing in dollars, then, all other things being equal, Spanish customers WILL choose the guy pricing his stuff in euros instead.

Do you mean receiving payments (as a vendor) from Clickbank, for example? If so, have it lodged into your bank account by direct debit or, if paid by cheque, lodge it in the same way you would using any other cheque.