I’m on the Shopify Plan and use ShopPay and the posted rates a 2.7% + .30 for credit cards; 3.4% + .30 for International/Amex, but, I have discovered that Shopify has been charging between 3.5% and 5.34% with an average around 4.56% on all my ShopPay transactions since last fall - I audited about 50 transactions from Canada and US customers and every one of them is in this range (attachment CSV), with the average being way too high.
I contacted Shopify and they say that the charges are for Foreign Exchange, which I understand if they charged me FX rates for Canada or the US, but not both ways. Because I am based in Canada my store address is Canada, but I switched my whole store to US$ last year, so the base store currency is in US$ (just like Shopify is in Canada, but charges in US$), and I switched my Bank Account to be a US$ Account with a US Bank, so, I get why Shopify charges FX for my Canadian customers now, although, I have suggestion requests in with Shopify since last summer that they allow merchants to hook up separate accounts for each Market Currency (i.e. If I sell in CAN$, US$ and Euro and I am able to get Bank Accounts properly denominated in each, why can’t Shopify let merchants hook up one Bank Accounts per Market/Currency in Shopify and pass the transactions from ShopPay to their Bank Account without charging FX?
Anyway, here is what Shopify is doing:
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Canadian Customer, buys in CAN$ on ShopPay, Shopify adds FX cost and posts to my US$ Bank Account (effective average cost of ShopPay about 4.9%)
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US Customer, buys in US$ on ShopPay, Shopify adds FX cost and posts to my US$ Bank Account (effective average cost of ShopPay about 3.8%)
I don’t understand why they feel justified in charging FX both ways - pick one or the other. Especially, the US transactions that are in US$ at all times. I pointed out to them that, even with the 1% charge for switching from ShopPay to another gateway, it would be cheaper for me than the rates they are charging. I am thinking about switching to PayPal as a gateway since they allow merchants to keep US$ in US$ and CAN$ in CAN$ in the account. Has anyone come up with better ideas to avoid the excessive FX charges? I can’t keep paying the higher amounts and, while Shopify reps keep agreeing it would be a good feature to allow me to hook up separate Bank Accounts for Canada$ and US$, I get no indication it’s a priority, so, I need to do something else. What gateways have people used that allow decent rates in both Canada and the US? All ideas welcome.