UO Billing Rip-off for Europeans?

[hawkeye_pike]

Maybe I shouldn't call it a "rip-off", more an irregularity:

My account runs with credit card billing, and my billing covers 6 months. As I am European, the charges are EUR 68 for 6 months.

I just discovered the Game Time Card billing method (which I never used before). Game Time Code cost $39 for 3 months, i.e. with the current exchange rate, EUR 52 for 6 months.

So I pay EUR 32 per year more for having chosen credit card billing. FYI, that's $48 a year! How can that be? This is a serious miscalculation. Not only will I switch to Game Time Code immediately (and I recommend all Europeans to do the same, as they can be bought with credit card), I will also request a refund for the past 2 years.

Am I the only one who has been wondering about that?

 

[yorky]

Same for the British, that game card is £24 for 3 months, by credit card its £30.
I already found this out a couple of weeks ago and decided my next billing period will be via that game card.

 

[Thunderz]

I think you'll find its not actually EA's Falt... Its due to the exchange rates that fluctuate constantly. To the americans they pay the same $ every month and have for years, us Europeans have an advantage as sometimes we pay LESS than them but right now [due to the economic situation] we are paying more

 

[Old Man of UO]

I think you'll find its not actually EA's Falt... Its due to the exchange rates that fluctuate constantly. ...

Thunderz is right, it's due to a surcharge that the credit card companies charge on international exchanges. Call your credit card company to see what exchange rate they charge to go from Euro to Dollars and compare that to the "official" exchange rate. UO gets the same amount of dollars whether by time card or credit card.

 

[Maplestone]

Over the past year, the exchange rate between (US) dollars and euros has fluxuated between 0.6722 and 0.8110, which would be a difference between 68 euro could 56 euros based on just this alone.

Expect more turbulence in the year ahead.

 

[maroite]

On another note, it seems you're buying the time cards from only stores in the US? Whats the international shipping cost? 10$? lol

 

[R Traveler]

They have hard coded exchange rate for credit card billing. Its 1.0

edit: oops, 6 months should be 59.99 USD, so its hard coded at 1.1 EUR for 1 USD

 

[Chrille]

EU has some fun taxes added when you buy electronic products, like a online game. Thats included aswell in our lovely higher price in europe.

Some years ago they sat the rate to 1€ = 1$ then we have some extra tax in europe that makes it go up to 68.

You can claim you moved form Germany though mr Pike and lets say to Iceland, then you will be able to pay 59,99$ for 6 months instead and using your cc.

 

[hawkeye_pike]

Hmmm... I still don't quite understand.

The EA site tells me that I have to pay EUR 68 for 6 months, credit card billing. Does that include some kind of hidden fee/tax (I wasn't aware there were any taxes on online games)?

The UOGamecodes site tells me I have to pay $39 for 3 months for Game Time Code. If I pay with credit card, no tax will be added. Does that mean I can circumvene the fee by doing that?

I assumed that the EUR price on the EA site was calculated with an outdated exchange rate, thus the difference...

 

[Chrille]

Yes its 13% tax if I remember right.

 

[Old Man of UO]

Hmmm... I still don't quite understand.

The EA site tells me that I have to pay EUR 68 for 6 months, credit card billing. Does that include some kind of hidden fee/tax (I wasn't aware there were any taxes on online games)?

The UOGamecodes site tells me I have to pay $39 for 3 months for Game Time Code. If I pay with credit card, no tax will be added. Does that mean I can circumvene the fee by doing that?

I assumed that the EUR price on the EA site was calculated with an outdated exchange rate, thus the difference...

My credit card company adds an "exchange fee" after the transaction, and only shows on my billing, not the original charge and receipt. So be careful of that.

As far as taxing, in the US online sales follow a somewhat strange and hard to understand rule about taxing. Our IRS really messed up the tax code with currently about 42,000 pages to interpret. So yes, UO does collect a tax.

 

[Xenobia]

I wish I could pay for a whole year at a time on my accounts and get it over with.

 

[Magdalene]

Once upon a time we paid, with credit card, exactly the same amount in USD as American players, banks did the conversion at current exchange rates.
For some reason ever since they started billing us in Euro we have always paid more as we pay in numbers more Euro than USD and the exchange rate has been fluctuating between 1.2 and 1.6 USD per Euro and we're told EA has to collect VAT tax too. So, in all we are charged more on at least three accounts.
Which sucks.

 

[Chrille]

I live in sweden and we dont use euros here we have our own currency sek.
If i paid in euros my 6 month cost would be 68*10,48=713 sek
Since I still uses dollars Im paying 59,99*7,11=426 sek.

Im saving 713-426= 287 sek = 27€ per 6 months.

And if someone in a euro country did the same thing they end up pay 59,99/1,49=40€ for 6 months. Where 1,49 is EUR/USD rate.

 

[Piotr]

I live in sweden and we dont use euros here we have our own currency sek.
If i paid in euros my 6 month cost would be 68*10,48=713 sek
Since I still uses dollars Im paying 59,99*7,11=426 sek.

Im saving 713-426= 287 sek = 27€ per 6 months.

And if someone in a euro country did the same thing they end up pay 59,99/1,49=40€ for 6 months. Where 1,49 is EUR/USD rate.

You don't pay in Euros?!? Do you use Game Time Codes then?

As a dane I pay in Euros and we don't have those here either - thanks God.

$59.99 = 300,08 DKK

€67.99 = 506,10 DKK

Paying in Euros costs me 206,02 DKK = $41,19 more for 6 months, than if I could pay i Dollars!

Oh, and you can multiply that with 10!

 

[Tay M'real]

it costs money for business' to be able to use credit cards - so they pass the cost on to you.

they are charges for services by the credit card company

 

[JPDefault]

I have already switched to game cards.
Those "funny" exchange rates are very common, anyway. Take Micro$oft, for example... Visual Studio Std is 279$ in USA, 299€ in Europe.

 

[Kelline]

for me in the US its cheaper with a credit card...

$ 59.99 for 6 months ($ 63.74 with tax)

or 3 months (90 days) time card for $ 38.99
$ 38.99 * 2 = $ 77.98

 

[FishinFool]

Paying in Euros costs me 206,02 DKK = $41,19 more for 6 months, than if I could pay i Dollars!

Oh, and you can multiply that with 10!

Always check with the bank issuer of your credit card, some are pretty horrid.

Some will charge you an outright fee for a foreign transaction, some will tack on a percentage of the total charge and some will do both.

Not that I make regular foreign purchases, but as an example - my primary CC has a flat $2 foreign transaction fee. I've heard as some going as high as $10 + 10% .

It's not exactly a hidden fee, if you look through your T&C it's in there but most people do not consider it at all. If you ever have the opportunity - you can always try applying for a foreign issued CC, it's the only way of bypassing this.

Yet another reason Traveller's Checks are still used.