The Internet has opened a new channel to market for many businesses aspiring to sell internationally but it also entails the need to price and manage foreign currencies.
Realex Payments offers the following currency services, which help in greatly reducing the administration involved in selling in multiple currencies:
Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC)
Dynamic currency conversion (or DCC) allows you to price in your own currency while giving your customers the choice to pay in the currency of their card, in full compliance with Visa and MasterCard regulations.
How does DCC work?
- The system will automatically detect a foreign issued card and offer the cardholder the option to pay in the currency of the country the card was issued in (e.g. USD)
- If the cardholder agrees, Realex Payments submits the transaction to the Currency Conversion Provider for foreign currency exchange (e.g. Euro into USD). The cardholder is then given the price in their currency (based on daily rates) and this is what they pay.
- You only have one base account and the transaction is settled to your account in your base currency (e.g. Euro).
- The cost to the cardholder is the same – the currency exchange is just being shifted from the card issuing bank to your acquiring bank.
What are the benefits of DCC?
- Simplicity: You just have one base currency account, there’s no need for multiple accounts in different currencies.
- Ease of integration: You don’t need to change how your prices are displayed on your website, the automated currency conversion occurs just before card authorisation.
- Transparency: the customer knows in advance the exact amount that will be charged to their card.
- A revenue opportunity: As part of the currency conversion process you will be in a position to receive commission from the Currency Conversion Provider.
- Choice: Your customer can either pay in the currency of their card or in your base currency.
- Versatility: The dynamic currency conversion service is available in a call centre or on a website environment.
Multi Currency Processing
If you wish to price products or services in multiple currencies to enhance competitiveness but don’t have the resources or the desire to manage bank accounts in various currencies, then our multi-currency processing could solve your problems.
Multi-currency pricing allows access to rates on a daily basis and to effect the appropriate price in each currency.
- Cardholders will be able to choose the currency they wish to see the product priced in.
- Authorisation will go through as normal but Realex Payments will apply that day’s rate to the foreign amount and settle the base amount back to the merchant’s account.
- There is a single base currency account. The amount of base currency received by the merchant will change on each occasion but cardholders will know exactly what is going to appear on their statements at the point of sale.