Credits?!

timtadams

Landscape Designer
Joined
Sep 9, 2008
Messages
2,260
Location
Australia
Ok, i thought i might buy the blueprints. So i bought some BCs. Now from what i understand they cost £1 each, right? Or 5 for £5.

Now when i plug this into a currency calculator it comes to 10.6189 AUD

well, for me to use sms it cost me $4.50 per credit! Or $22.50 for 5! What the hell?

Someone please explain, did i miss something, because if i did it should be made clearer
 

Alcibiades

Plant Geneticist
Joined
Dec 13, 2007
Messages
4,267
Location
Canada
Ok, i thought i might buy the blueprints. So i bought some BCs. Now from what i understand they cost £1 each, right? Or 5 for £5.

Now when i plug this into a currency calculator it comes to 10.6189 AUD

Yup we call that a 'conversion rate'. Countries currencies are valued differently, currently the AUD appears to be worth half the value of the pound. Thus 5pounds is 10 AUD. Credits are the same for me and i'm Canadian, they are 5 pounds, converted to canadian dollars. I don't understand your confusion here other than a basic misunderstanding of currency conversion. If you have a bank account with British funds, then yes i'd be surprised if you were being charged in AUD, but if you have AUD, it shouldn't be a shock that 5pounds might not necessarily be 5AUD.

As for purchase via SMS i'm not qualified to answer that as I haven't done it.
 

Souls

Official Helper
Joined
Dec 14, 2007
Messages
837
5.00 EUR

=

9.83633 AUD


source: www.xe.com/ucc

Plus the fees from the SMS service, so that's about right. SMS credits cost more simply because of the rates the service charges, I believe. Azzer knows more about it.
 

timtadams

Landscape Designer
Joined
Sep 9, 2008
Messages
2,260
Location
Australia
Yer Alci, i know what im talkin about. The point is 5 GBP is just over 10 AUD, yet i paid more than double that (22.5 AUD). If using sms incurs extra fees as i would expect, it should be outlined somewhere. But those fees are excessive

disappointed :(
 

Souls

Official Helper
Joined
Dec 14, 2007
Messages
837
It is outlined, when you click on the "Purchase via SMS!" link and the popup windows comes up. It displays the fees right then and there, for me it's $3.00 a credit. ;)
 

timtadams

Landscape Designer
Joined
Sep 9, 2008
Messages
2,260
Location
Australia
This time i looked a bit harder. The window automatically resizes as it opens up. The cost is outlined at the bottom of the window under everything else

You can not see this as the window is just too short so that it cant be seen. There is also no scroll bar on the side of the window, or anything to suspect you are missing something.

The only way you can see this is if you expand the window so that it shows.

This was because a note appeared at the top of my window telling me a popup was blocked and it pushed everything down

It was what i paid, but i still think these fees are excessive. They more than double the cost
 

Alcibiades

Plant Geneticist
Joined
Dec 13, 2007
Messages
4,267
Location
Canada
Yes the window resizes automatically when it opens up, however i find that at 1280x800 i get a good view of the charges as they are listed, sure you have to look a bit harder, but now more than usual for 'small print' or 'bottom line' prices. *shrug* Consider it a lesson learned in online buying, double, triple and quadruple check everything before you click OK. If you expand the Purchase option in my view, you simply get a bunch of blank/white space where the extra text is. it's resized to look cleaner rather than for any nefarious purpose.

33cuq13.jpg
 

Azzer

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
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Messages
1,215
The fees are decided by your country/phone operator, not by me or SMS Kambi.

Basically 1 credit costs "1 premium rate SMS", which is different per country. It does tell you the exact price in the popup window, but it's a price that is decided by your own country/your own phone operator.

Credits by SMS are much more expensive and I encourage anybody that can buy them via PayPal/Credit Card, to do so - SMS purchases have very high overheads. They are just there incase you cannot purchase via any other means!
 

Azzer

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Moneybookers ftw!
Only site (for me) that allows you to directly transfer money from your bank account to your online account, instead of going through visa or other credit cards.

You do know that that's a loooooot less secure, both for you and for the merchant? :p
 

Hobbezak

Garden Designer
Joined
Dec 14, 2007
Messages
894
Location
Antwerp, Belgium
Moneybookers ftw!
Only site (for me) that allows you to directly transfer money from your bank account to your online account, instead of going through visa or other credit cards.

You do know that that's a loooooot less secure, both for you and for the merchant? :p

Why would it be less secure for the merchant? I'd pay through moneybookers, so the money would already be on there?
I only use it for very small amounts (5 dollars to a poker account once), so it was a risk I was prepared to take (It uses wiring money from your bank account to that of moneybookers, so apart from the money you wire, there's no risk of them getting details such as your debit card pincode or something).
 

Azzer

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Chargeback risks are much higher on MB! They're a lot more "lenient" in where they allow payments from... and chargebacks are not good for merchants :p As for the end-user, you have no insurances on debit cards/bank transfers, as opposed to credit cards which are automatically insured to protect you from fraud. Anyway, I'm not meaning to lecture anyone... I'd just personally much rather avoid it :p
 

Scorpio

Head Gardener
Joined
Jan 1, 2008
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373
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NZ
Both me & Hobbe are from Belgium, and I have no problem at all remitting money from my bank account into my PayPal account ;)
 
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