Hi,

I'm just wondering whether there is a place that allows you to get the conversion rate for currencies through your website.

For example, say you sell something for $20 AUD on your website and you want to show the exact USD amount beside it. Is there a place that allows you to contact them real-time and get the current conversion rate between the AUD and USD through your website? Then once you have the conversion rate you'd create code to evaluate the USD price given the conversion rate and then display it on your website.

I know OANDA.com seem to have an commerce thing that would probably allow something like this, but they also charge $40/month. So I'm wondering whether there are any free or lower cost places out there?

- K.

Try this site Scott: http://www.xe.com/ucc/

Thanks, but I've checked them out and they don't send you the results or conversion rate, but take you back to their site to see the results. I would like to retrieve a value that I am able to use on my own website.

this tool can be integrated :

http://www.xe.com/ecc/shoppers/

It doesn't give me any value I can use though.

That simply allows you to use the conversion tool that's located off-site at http://www.xe.net/ecc/input.cgi from within your website using frames.

No values are actually returned which you are then able to use.

- K.

Originally posted by Kurieuo
No values are actually returned which you are then able to use.

You can embed this nicely into a site:

http://cconv.textor.com/

But as far as returning something that you can "use", that would need to be provided by your card processor I'd say. Because it would need to be on their terms (the conversion) that an amount be reached. The tools like that one above, really only tell someone roughly how much the sale will cost in their currency...when they are going to be charged in say US$ anyway.

Or am I misunderstanding your point altogether? :-)

Regards

Gary

So get the daily email from xe which lists the days rates, have that sent to an email address which pipes the message to a perl or php script (wouldn't be too difficult to write/get written) which extracts whatever result you want.

I agree with Editor also. This will only be a "guide" for the user. Also, the charge gets converted into whatever currency at the time it is processed by the bank. This is very rarely at the time the sale actually takes place (quite often it can be a couple of days), so the information you give to the potential customer will very likely not be accurate.

Tell them you charge in whatever currency, and give them a pointer to xe as a "guide". Most people who buy stuff online are used to dealing in different currencies anyway.

Thanks Editor and joshp. I was going to look into getting the details from an email today, but now I'm not too sure as I didn't realise it might be different to what would actually get charged.

The reason why I would like to convert it is because I'd really love to trade in Australian dollars simply because I think it would be more appealing to Australian customers. However seeing as there's no good cost effective Aussie payment system I know about (such as PayPal, Revecom), then others generally require payments to be made in US dollars. So I was wanting to actually convert before making the payment, which I guess isn't viable.

I notice Editor and some other Aussies just lists their prices in US dollars. This is probably the way to go. I've seen one other Australians list two seperate prices, one for USD and also one for AUD. I'm not sure which way I'll go...?

- K.

Originally posted by Kurieuo
However seeing as there's no good cost effective Aussie payment system I know about (such as PayPal, Revecom)

There is an Australian Paypal clone at www.paymate.com.au which although it's a very manual process (you can't integrate it into your site at all yet) is doesn't require user registration like Paypal.

Other than that, there are many payment gateways available but they generally all require a merchant facility. We're going with www.eway.com.au sometime soon.

Regards

Gary

I'm thinking you want a live conversion of the price at the current rate of exchange on your website. I would advise against it as most ppl dont buy on the 1st visit. So if they came back the next day or week and the exchange rates dropped thus increasing the amount, they may get annoyed and leave. Best bet is to post a price in USD and AUD.

;)