Internationalisation and Multi-Currency

Lets' take a look at multi-currency. At times multi-currency can be a little confusing for many people depending on what you are trying to achieve. 

(We'll try and answer you needs here. But please contact our customer service team if you require any further assistance.)

As you would may know, when a donor comes to a website and uses a credit card, the currency that is charged is based on the currency of the acquiring bank.  

So, in most cases with Generous users, it's AUD. The donor will get charged in AUD and money is received in AUD.  

If the donor is from a different country they will get their charge converted from their domestic currency into AUD, usually with a conversion fee attached to it. 

This is the standard way Generous manages currency. It means anyone can donate but the donation will be made in AU dollars.

Donor Conscious

If you are wanting to be more donor conscious there are two ways this could be tackled. For example,

1. You present to them a "suggested amount" but in USD equivalent. This would be converted from a base currency (in Generous' case AUD). So a suggested $100 gift AUD would now show $70 USD. 
   • This can be achieved in a couple of ways 
     1. A simple drop down that allows them to see their currency of choice - and it does a simple currency conversion based on publicly available data (an API call).  
        • However the charge will still be in AUD, but would represent as close as possible to the $70 intended donation. NB: There is uncertainty with how much their bank would charge for the conversion; 
        • or,
     2. A similar drop down to see currency of choice, but in this case the charge is made in that currency. 
        • Generous would charge them $70 - and whatever their Card currency default is (say USD) then there would be no conversion fee - but it's completely their choice to get charged in whichever currency.
   • In both cases above the assumption is that you are receiving the amount charged into your AUD account. 
     • Where you do option (2) you will get a conversion fee charged to your account. This is something we can do with the Generous payment gateway. However, it does have some consequences. 
       • Effectively you are taking on the conversion cost which in option (!) the donor is taking on. NB: If you were to do a refund - the charge will get converted again at the time of the refund (which may have changed), prior to being paid out.
     • The option above can have a variable where you present the currency you wish to charge in but you have a matching bank account. So again, if charging in USD you have a matching USD account we can deposit in the same currency. 
     • If the charge was to be sent to an overseas account, this would create a further complexity (due to international deposits) 

Questions to ask

Questions to ask yourself are,

1. Will generous sit on a single website or different websites in different countries? (Note: both are possible.)
2. If on a single website, will the deposits all be made... 
   • in Australia to an AUD account?
   • to other countries into various currency accounts?
   • if on multiple websites, same questions as above
3. How would you present your donation page to the user?
   1. on a single donation page where a user can select a currency?
   2. on different donation pages for different countries where the currency is already set?

To help our team provide you with the best possible solution please provide them with these answers and any further plans you may have.