U.S. Customer Getting Billed From U.K.

I just bought land at the Land Store. The U.S-based Credit Card company is all upset because the charge is coming in from a U.K. bank.
Another U.S. friend bought a few Lindens with his debit card over the weekend, and got hit with a US$3 charge for "Currency Conversion".

Ummm...I know SL is world wide, and in the past, the non-U.S. players have had to figure out how to get US dollars to Linden Labs here in the U.S. But are all First Life / Second Life transactions now being done as U.K. pounds?

http://www.thefinancials.com/currencies/WorldCurrencyValues.html

*giggles*

Morwen.

There was a similar thread a few weeks back and the question was asked but it coveniently went unanswered. If this is the case fine. JUST LET US KNOW!

I agree ... its not fair, but is it fair for ANY other country to have to pay a conversion charge to anybody is this day and age.

The biggest users of SL are apprently europeans and with LL now moving offices to Brighton UK who certainly dont have as many "hangups" over gambling ...etc.

Bottom line .... is there shouldnt be ANY charge .. BUT if there is then fairs fair.

Cest le vie

p.s I see your argument though that US company .... US users ???

Indeed, although at least they are dealing with some online gambling issues. According to the Financial Times 80% of UK gambling websites use age verification through "Aristotle".... oh... hang on a minute... that name sounds familiar......

Well, I am no premium but once everywhile I buy L$ on the LindeX.

Last time was on April, 25. I have a VISA credit card and I was billed by:

SECOND LIFE 1 800 8606990 for an amount in USD. That amount was automatically converted into Euros at a 1 Euro/1,3464 USD. I didn't check if the exchange rate was correct, but there's no sign of charging me for currency conversion.

any idea which UK gambling sites use Integrity? i wouldn't mind going through the signup process to see what kind of ID is required.

There are two ways that credit card companies can get you when you make foreign purchases. First, there is the currency conversion; there is ALWAYS some "rake" for the house, though the exchange rates given by credit card companies are often better than those available for small transactions through other channels. Second, many credit card companies here in the US (and perhaps in other places) have added extra fees for foreign charges, either a percentage fee (1-2%, on top of the exchange rate thing) or a fixed fee (US$0.50 - $1 per charge). So if LL is using a non-US bank to handle billing, it would result in higher costs for many US customers.

My best guess: if any US customers got hit with such fees, it was because of an error on the part of LL or the company that is handling billing for them. I would expect that their real intent was to add non-US billing capability to reduce costs and hassle for EU-based residents, but some US residents were incorrectly billed through a non-US bank. And just to confuse matters more, there are some non-US banks with substantial presence in the US now, such as ING (originally Dutch, now thoroughly multinational) and the Royal Bank of Scotland.