Regional Support: Payments (UK)

[Victor]

Learn more about managing your payments while running your Shopify store in the UK.

This thread is part of the Regional Support threads offered for merchants in the United Kingdom. To see which other topics are available, you can visit the UK hub here.

Shopify Payments is available for businesses that operate in the United Kingdom and can be used to accept payments made by customers with Visa, Mastercard, and American Express debit and credit cards.

The cost of using Shopify Payments is dependent on which subscription plan you have chosen, with higher plans offering lower credit card processing rates. A full breakdown of these fees can be found on our pricing page.

To receive payouts, merchants will need to connect an account that:

• Accepts payments in GBP currency
• Is provided by a physical bank in the United Kingdom
• Is eligible for FPS transfers

Some types of businesses and services are not permitted to use Shopify Payments. Prior to signing up, review our list of prohibited businesses to confirm whether your business is eligible.

If you do not believe your business is eligible, or if you want to check alternative options, you can view the full list of integrated payment gateways for merchants in the United Kingdom. Orders processed via third-party payment gateways are subject to transaction fees, unless you have these gateways activated alongside Shopify Payments as your primary gateway.

If you have a question or comment to make about processing payments on Shopify in the United Kingdom, please post it below.

[stylishaffitco]

Hello,

Where can I ask specific support related questions about Shopify Payments? I have a customer who has provided proof that her bank account has been charged. However, my Shopify account is showing the card transaction (powered by Shopify Pay) failed. I am unable to do anything because it does not appear the sale went through and I really don't want a chargeback.

How can this specific issue be investigated?

[Victor]

Hi @stylishaffitco,

Thank you for reaching out with your question. This thread has been created to offer a place for UK-based merchants to ask any payment-related questions, including those for those related to Shopify Payments.

In terms of this issue, however, I will need to authenticate you on the account and take a closer look at this. It's possible that a charge is appearing on the customer's account and that it will soon be removed - this can sometimes happen when a card payment is authorized but the funds are not captured. In order to authenticate you, I will send an email to the email address linked to your Forums account, and then I can take a look at this situation for you in more detail.

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[Overcooked]

Hi Victor, Is it possible to get payments in USD? I also have a Transferwise account and since I'll be receiving shopify payments from US customers AND paying US suppliers, it makes no sense to have payments made to me in GBP. No doubt shopify will charge a fee for changing it to GBP and then I'll have to pay another fee to change it back to pay my suppliers. If I can't use Transferwise could I have payments in USD made to my USD HSBC account instead? Thanks

[Oceanpayment]

Hi, 
My name is Lynn from Oceanpayment - Shopify official payment providers 
Have you integrated with Shopify payment already? 
Normally payment will require an actual bank account in your registered country. and as long as you have pre-agreement with your payment providers, you can settle the money in any supported currency. 

Hope this may helps 

[Victor]

Hi @Overcooked,

If you are based in the United Kingdom and don't have a presence in the United States - such as having a Social Security Number and a full checking account with a US banking institution - then you would not be able to receive payouts in USD. This is the case for the vast majority of countries where Shopify Payments is available, and works both ways (e.g. a merchant in the United States with no presence in the UK could not receive payouts in GBP).

As you've alluded to, you can charge customers in USD before then having the funds converted to GBP before they are paid out to you. For merchants in the UK, a conversion fee of 1.75% would apply for each transaction processed in a different currency to the one you are receiving payouts in. You can read more on this process here.

This does mean that for paying suppliers in USD, for example, you would need to convert the funds received from orders from GBP to USD if you're using this money for this purpose. I'm not familiar with all the different methods and services that can be used for currency conversion but, from personal experience, Transferwise is certainly one of the most popular and best-valued options when it comes to this.

I hope this clarifies things but please let me know if you have further questions.

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[Overcooked]

Hi Victor,

No unfortunately I'm even more confused.

You say, "This does mean that for paying suppliers in USD, for example, you would need to convert the funds received from orders from GBP to USD if you're using this money for this purpose."

I'm getting customer payments in USD, so does that mean I can hold those funds with shopify in USD and then pay suppliers directly from my shopify account in USD? If not, and the only option is to remove funds to a UK bank account (in GBP) then there is no way I can avoid conversion fees both ways.

Also are there any plans to allow payments in USD to say a transferwise account? It is after all 2020 and we live in a global economy. Amazon have been doing this for me for the last several years so I wonder when shopify intends to catch up?

Thanks

[PJay]

What is the best Shopify Payments setup for UK stores selling to the US?

I have a UK bank account but my store currency is in USD, as most of my customers are in the US. I am therefore charged currency conversion fees on my payouts to my GBP bank account.

Now that Shopify accepts payments in multiple currencies, would it be better to enable this feature and switch my store currency to GBP?

As I understand it, my US customers would still be able to pay in USD at checkout, but the fees would be added to the price they pay?

Thanks,

Peter

[Victor]

Hi @Overcooked,

There is no "Shopify account" which can be used to pay suppliers with; this would be handled externally from Shopify. The option I recommended would involve you charging your customers in USD, but when it comes to you receiving the funds, they would be paid out in GBP. The currency conversion from GBP to USD, which it seems you are doing as you say you pay your suppliers in USD, would happen outside of Shopify (and as mentioned Transferwise could be used for this purpose, as I'm sure you're aware).

I appreciate why this is disappointing given that you are having to convert the funds twice in this scenario, which of course incurs fees. However, it is not currently possible for us to allow merchants in the UK to accept payouts through Shopify Payments in a currency other than GBP. I do not know if this is something that can be changed in future, although I will submit your feedback to our development team incase it's something that might be feasible down the line. We have expanded the functionalities of Shopify Payments in recent years in numerous ways, such as offering multi-currency checkouts as an option, so hopefully this is something that may be possible.

In terms of the type of bank account that deposits can be paid into, there are certain requirements that apply for each country where Shopify Payments can be used - for example, merchants in the UK must connect a valid current account held with a UK-based banking institution. Virtual bank accounts, such as the ones offered by Transferwise, could not be used in place of an account held with a physical bank in the UK.

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[Victor]

Hi @PJay,

Thank you for reaching out with your questions. You are correct in saying that conversion fees when multi-currency checkout is enabled would be added to the total cost of the customer's order, as opposed to them being an additional cost on the merchant's end. There is no right or wrong way to approach this, but from a consumer's perspective, offering multiple currencies on a storefront is a good way of encouraging sales from different regions from around the world.

If, for example, you are focusing on bringing in customers from the USA, UK and Europe, there would be a significant benefit in offering at least USD, GBP and EUR as supported currencies on your site. If you were to go down this route, you could indeed then look to switch your store's currency from USD to GBP (as the fee for the USD to GBP conversion would be passed onto your customers). Be aware though that as this change would see customers paying in USD pay slightly more, this could have a potentially adverse affect on sales coming in from the USA.

If you're open to accepting multiple currencies via Shopify Payments, I'd recommend checking out our documentation on enabling your store to sell in multiple currencies, as well as the potential risks and consequences you will want to consider.

If you have any further questions on this topic, please let me know.

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[Oceanpayment]

Hi Peter @PJay 

My name is Lynn from Oceanpayment - Shopify official payment services providers 
There is very simple logic here, as your settlement currency is different from your customer's currency. So it a decision you need to make between either you will be responsible for the loss caused by conversation or your customer will be the one who responsible for it. 

Hope this will help! 

[Harts]

Hi there, the problem i'm having is that I want customers to pay offline only due to the nature of the business but "Payment gateway This payment method isn’t available on the store right now" appears when I try to complete a test order. I do not have a final price until I have completed the order so I only provide Approximate prices so I cannot charge people when they first make an order. Only when I have fulfilled the order.

so my question is how can I get a customer to place an order without making payment and when I do make payment it would be offline only such as Cash On Delivery.

[Victor]

Hey @Harts,

Thank you for getting in touch with your question. To clarify, are you wanting customers to be able to checkout and place an order without paying at the time, or knowing the final price? Would this apply to all products on the store?

This may be possible but would require a few things to be done. First, you'd need your messaging to be clear—customers would need to know that whilst they are placing an order with you, they are not paying at the time of checkout, and that they will be receiving an invoice from you in future where they will be required to pay for the order (which may include products with different pricing levels than what is advertised on the site). You could accept orders by enabling a manual payment method on the store, meaning customers can complete checkout without having to enter in a credit card or pay with any other viable method of payment. You could then email them an invoice for a draft order you create with the revised prices.

The issue with this is that you would then need a different gateway to accept actual payments from customers, unless this was done outside of Shopify. An easier option here may be to offer some sort of contact option where customers can reach out and inform you of their desired order, as opposed to having them checkout to do this—was this something you had considered? If you could also explain a little more what sort of products you are selling and why revising prices is vital, I'd be happy to offer more tailored advice if possible.

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[Harts]

Hi Victor,

Sorry I have only just seen your message.

I have done everything you have mentioned and works perfectly with a couple of tweaks. The business is butchery so they cannot cut everything to the exact gram for their customers and weights will vary a little thus approximate pricing. 

Thank you for your help:)

[Victor]

Hi @Harts,

Fantastic, I'm glad to hear you've worked something out. If you've any further questions please let me know!

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[Gartmor]

Hi. I'm new to Shopify. I've just set up Shopify Payments which has been embedded into my existing website using the Buy Button. Everything appears to be working fine. My question is around payments. I've just put through a small Visa payment to test that everything is working before putting the webpage out live. I can see in my own personal bank account that the amount has gone out (£0.80) on Friday 24th April. I've been looking at the business bank account to see if an amount has been deposited but nothing has appeared yet (Thursday 30th April). In the View Payouts section of Shopify Payments I can see the transaction I made on the 23rd. It says the Payout Status is 'Pending' and in the Payout Date column April 28th. Should the payment I made have gone through into my business bank account by now? If so, is there something in the Shopify Payments setup that I haven't done correctly? Any help much appreciated.

[Victor]

Hi @Gartmor,

First of all, welcome to Shopify! Thank you for reaching out with your question.

The pay period for Shopify Payments in the UK is 3 business days, meaning this is when the payments should have been processed on Shopify's end and sent to your bank. There can sometimes then be a slight delay on the bank's end of depositing the funds in your account, although usually this is less than a day or two. Given that you processed this order last Friday, that business day wait period would have only begun this week, and I would presume you'd see the funds in your account sometime today or tomorrow. The "pending" status should change to "paid" when the payout has been processed on Shopify's end, and if the set up was incorrect, the payout's status would likely be "failed" rather than "pending".

I would say it's likely that you'll see the money in your account by tomorrow, but if you still haven't please let me know here or contact our support team. If there has been an issue we'll be able to take a look at it and investigate in more detail.

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[Gartmor]

Hi Victor

Thanks for your reply. I'm afraid the payment still hasn't made it to our business bank account. Payout Status is still Pending. Could you look into it please? Thanks.

[Victor]

Hi @Gartmor,

Sure thing. I'll be sending you an email shortly to the email address linked to your Forums profile—please look out for that and get back to me there.

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[NomanSaeed]

Dear Sir

I have owned a UK Limited Company and have a store which sells in Different currencies.

Currently, I have configured Shopify Payment with Transferwise bank. I would like to know in this case Can Shopify Payment transfer money to my Tansferwise account or I need some other bank to be integrated with Shopify Payment?