Android Store charging me American prices

Lemmonds

Lemmonds

Lemmonds

Associate
Joined
30 Sep 2010
Posts
28
I recently got an android phone and I love it.
Except I bought my first app off of the store recently and all though when advertised the price was in GDP £0.69 when I got to the checkout the price came up as $0.99. At the time I didn't think anything of it but when I checked my statement it charged me in $0.99 instead of £0.69. This meant that I got charged an extra £1.50 by my bank. I have looked and I can't find any setting to change this which is obvious. It seemed strange to me.
has anyone else had this problem and if so is there a way to fix it? As it essentially means adding an extra £1.50 on to every app I buy.

(edit)
Phone is a Samsung Galaxy S on Vodafone running Android 2.1 currently.
 
If is has the ~ sign next to the price, the actual price is in another currency.

It used to be the case that the foreign price was shown, but google changed it to make it easier to compare prices.
 
mrochester said:
So its not possible to buy Android apps in any other currency than USD?
Click to expand...

The ones sold in £s will be charged in sterling. For example below "Album Art Grabber", "London Journey" and "Tasker" are in sterling.

snap20101105_204935.png
 
mrochester said:
I see. So why are there apps that are charged in a different currency? Why don't they just charge them all in sterling?
Click to expand...

The developers of the apps want the price in their own currency, since I imagine they want their accounts in the currency they use.

Google checkout, unlike paypal, doesn't do any currency exchanging and so your account is charged with the currency it is being sold in.

Having all of them charged in sterling might annoy the rest of the world as well.
 
ghost101 said:
The developers of the apps want the price in their own currency, since I imagine they want their accounts in the currency they use.

Google checkout, unlike paypal, doesn't do any currency exchanging and so your account is charged with the currency it is being sold in.

Having all of them charged in sterling might annoy the rest of the world as well.
Click to expand...

I had assumed the UK market would charge in £, the US market in $ and so on.
 
mrochester said:
I had assumed the UK market would charge in £, the US market in $ and so on.
Click to expand...
This is a combination of 2 things,
1) google checkout doesn't do currency conversion
2) your bank is rubbish, all the apps I've paid for have been in $ and I've not paid any more than a reasonable conversion rate for them

It wouldn't be an issue if either of those problems were resolved.
1) is going to be soon, and 2) is upto you.
 
Abraham said:
This is a combination of 2 things,
1) google checkout doesn't do currency conversion
2) your bank is rubbish, all the apps I've paid for have been in $ and I've not paid any more than a reasonable conversion rate for them

It wouldn't be an issue if either of those problems were resolved.
1) is going to be soon, and 2) is upto you.
Click to expand...

Don't look at me, I don't even own an Android phone! I was just asking as a curious iPhone owner :)
 
This is really quite annoying as When I first got my phone a few weeks back i paid for a couple of apps and I get charged £1 overseas for each app. it sucks :mad: It seems most of the market has this symbol ~ too so I will be charged £1 extra for 90% of all the apps which is most of the decent ones :(
 
Last edited:
daz87uk said:
This is really quite annoying as When I first got my phone a few weeks back i paid for a couple of apps and I get charged £1 overseas for each app. it sucks :mad: It seems most of the market has this symbol ~ too so I will be charged £1 extra for 90% of all the apps which is most of the decent ones :(
Click to expand...
It's to do with your bank, nothing to do with android market
 
Abraham said:
It's to do with your bank, nothing to do with android market
Click to expand...

I'd like to point out that Apple manage to sell everything in the app store in £ and P, so it seems the issue is Google aren't doing this. It's not like Tesco sell their products in different currencies so I don't really understand why Google are.
 
It's both. Google don't do regionalized financial operations, despite the fact they have all necessary mechanisms in their google checkout. Product in US, sold in UK instead of being "amazoned" or masquaraded as product sold as Google UK, is instead sold as product in US sold in US, then brought over to UK. is They don't do it, as far as I can see, to avoid very difficult tax and duty situations, where apps from US, could be sold to UK consumer, while he was roaming outside of EC zone, thus requiring special duties and potentially even licenses and permits for stuff like apps dealing with proprietary access modes or encryptions etc etc.
Obviously, what they overlooked was the fact that most UK banks charge for foreign digital transactions, like they were performed while being abroad. I understand some of you might still have bank accounts that don't charge levy on foreign transactions, but trust me - at this moment I think there is only one or two type of new accounts in the whole country that don't do this. That said however. This situation is quite unique, and affects almost only UK. Most banks in EC, with few exceptions among old school, backwards banking systems, like France or Eastern Europe, have unified regulations and do not charge extra fees on top of exchange rate for transactions abroad, and even if they do, they are prohibited to treat local, internet transactions, the same way as physical, over the counter transaction in states would be.

So in essence - it is both - google shouldn't be doing US to UK sales as US purchases and your bank shouldn't be treating digital transactions as cash till payments in US with £1.50 levy, because it doesn't cost them anything. There is also a scenario, which if true and tested, could be used as legal angle and should prohibit at least one party involved from performing this whole malarky in the future:
Imagine you bought an app for ~61p from android market. Just to discover you in fact purchased an item costing $0.99, which worked out to be £0.75 using banks own exchange rate plus £1.50 transaction levy. You then decide product would be a good deal for 62p but not worth £2.25 with transaction fee. Ask google market for refund on Monday, they refund $0.99, your bank now calculates it to be £0.70 by Monday exchange rate, plus, potentially additional £1.50 for another US transaction. And here we have a problem:

- Google advertised something for 62p, the product was in fact not available for 62p to you. ~ sign is not an excuse, as it gives false indication product is available in your local currency, which at the end of the day, it isn't. I'm sure this breaks quite a few regulations.

- Your bank just charged you between £1.50 in the best scenario to £3.05 in the worst scenario, for essentially now not having the product originally listed for 62p on your phone. Surely there are more than enough regulations to prevent them from doing so.
 
Last edited:
mrochester said:
I'd like to point out that Apple manage to sell everything in the app store in £ and P, so it seems the issue is Google aren't doing this. It's not like Tesco sell their products in different currencies so I don't really understand why Google are.
Click to expand...
Apple also massively restrict what goes on their app store, and who can put stuff on there.
The prices are listed in £, with ~ to indicate it's a conversion. The actual charging is done through google checkout, which charges in the home currency.
There is no issue with google checkout charging in home currency unless your bank charge you for paying in foreign currency, something which astonishes me. What if you were to buy something from a US store? they'd charge you £1.50 for that?
 
mrochester said:
I'd like to point out that Apple manage to sell everything in the app store in £ and P, so it seems the issue is Google aren't doing this. It's not like Tesco sell their products in different currencies so I don't really understand why Google are.
Click to expand...

Apple add their own fee's etc before you get the price and then take a cut from the developer.
Atleast Google is transparent and you pay what the developer asks :rolleyes:
It used to show what prices were is their respective currencies but then you had to keep checking on a currency converter site to what you were paying

People who are moaning should get a proper bank account and get over it.

Your Tesco analogy is rubbish as Tesco store is in the UK and have to sell as £'s
Android developers in the UK sell their Apps as £'s
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom