Payment in foreign currency without conversion
Payment in foreign currencies without conversion allows Merchants wishing to expand their business to countries outside the euro zone to offer a price catalog in the Buyer’s currency.
The Buyer no longer has to worry about paying potential exchange fees.
To offer payment in a foreign currencies without conversion, the Merchant must sign an acceptance agreement in the desired currency.
- The Acquirer is able to make an authorization request in this currency and send it to the card issuer.
- Once captured, the transaction will be presented to the cardholder’s account in the payment currency.
- The Merchant manages their finances in the payment currency.
Here is a list of acquirers that support foreign currencies:
- In Europe: Concardis, Six, Elavon, Evo.
- In France: BNPP (available only for some currencies), CIC via CIC Luxembourg.
Payment in foreign currency with conversion
When the gateway receives the amount in a currency not managed by your MIDs, it makes a conversion to the company’s currency based on the daily exchange rate provided by Visa.
The buyer is informed of the indicative rate at the time of payment, but does not really know the final amount of the transaction.
The capture at the bank does not necessarily occur on the day of the authorization and the rate may therefore vary between the date of authorization and the date of capture.
For this reason, the counter-value displayed at the time of payment is provided as an indication.
- The authorization request is sent in the currency of the contract to the card issuer.
- The capture is performed exclusively in the currency of the contract.
- The buyer is debited in the contract currency with exchange fees applied by their bank, without managing the exchange rate.
- vads_amount: the currency amount,
- vads_currency: the currency,
- Vads_effective_amount: the actual amount in the currency of their contract, calculated using the exchange rate in force at the time of the authorization,
- vads_effective_currency: the currency that will be used for the capture,
- vads_change_rate: the exchange rate applied for converting the amount in the currency of the contract to the buyer’s currency.
Payment in foreign currency with Planet DCC
Planet Payment offers a Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) service which gives Visa and MasterCard cardholders coming from abroad the choice to pay in their own currency or in euro.
This service is particularly useful in the tourism sector because it allows foreign buyers to know the exact amount of the transaction right away.
If the card is eligible for DCC, the amount to be paid is displayed in euro and in the buyer’s currency.
The exchange rate, obtained in real time, is indicated as well as the amount of the conversion fee, included in the amount payable.
If the buyer chooses to pay in their own currency, the transaction is carried out in the Planet network, with 3D Secure.
If the buyer decides to pay in euro, then the payment takes place as a classic transaction, via the CB network for example.
Regardless of the buyer’s choice, the Merchant is credited in euros.
Part of the conversion fee is returned to the Merchant.
To offer DCC, the Merchant must sign an acceptance agreement with Planet Payment and have it recorded by the payment gateway.
The Merchant must also have another acceptance agreement in place to process payments that will not go through the DCC network.