Wish this was billed in the local currency :(

Sadly had to cancel my account last night :( I'm in Canada and it bills in USD which is $12.99 per month. Because of the poor exchange rate right now, when I renewed recently for another month, my credit card statement showed $17.41 in CAD for 30 days service. $12.99 I could live with, but now it's almost $20 per month which I don't think it's worth it for this game as that's half my cell phone bill!

Can you get a gametime card? Should be cheaper (not sure thou), also try ebay for cheaper CAD price. Beyond that I would not use their system (thou 20 CAD is less then 20 USD I go there to drink and I spend about the same amount of money even with exchange rate).

(regardless guys it is his money he is the final say on what it gets spent on) Try gamecards thou.

$17.41 CAD is still cheaper than a non-Tuesday ticket to the movies, a meal at a restaurant, a venue ticket, and basically anything else you can do. I'm Canadian too, and even with how bad our dollar is (worst it has ever been), the subscription is still tremendous value from an entertainment per hour point of view.

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Originally Posted by Eli85

$17.41 CAD is still cheaper than a non-Tuesday ticket to the movies, a meal at a restaurant, a venue ticket, and basically anything else you can do. I'm Canadian too, and even with how bad our dollar is (worst it has ever been), the subscription is still tremendous value from an entertainment per hour point of view.

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^^^ What he said. MMOs are the cheapest entertainment out there.

SE's billing methods are very odd. Don't they also charge the same number amount in USD and Euros, despite $X being very different from €X?

Not that weird a lot of video game companies do the same. (not that it makes complete sense)

It's not that it's unaffordable, I get that it's like going to the movies. It's more the fact that for years the exchange rate was pretty much parity, so been used to $12.99, then now it's been going down like crazy at the lowest it has been since 2004 which is why it's like that. It's just getting to be a large difference is all, so just not sure if I play enough anymore to warrant it.

atm its best to go with game time cards (29.99 cnd for 60 days) you can grab them at ebgames not as good as 12.99 but still a bit cheaper than paying through online billing

Edit: Best buy and walmart also sell them it seems so I would assume most chain stores that carry games/gift cards would

You should be complaining to your government/Canadian businesses/economy fairies/etc... about the weak economy. Square has nothing to do with exchange rates.

Also, 5 dollars a month? You must have some crazy tight budgeting skills for that to put you in the red.

Bah, $17 is nothing. I'm paying $26 for the game local currency and when I move to another island it's gonna be around $70 local currency after conversions...so I definitely won't be playing the game then. I live in the Caribbean btw.

$29.99 for 60 days is the same thing though as that's $33.89 with 13% tax or $16.94 per month. $5 isn't breaking the bank, it's the fact that when I signed up a year ago to play it was $12.99 which was literally the same thing, which I'm fine with. I play casually, few hours here or there not every day. So to see it on my statement and see it now be much higher is just a surprise. The issue isn't the exchange though, if it's off so be it. My issue is when companies only charge in USD, meaning each month it's a gamble, one month I might pay $13, next month exchange might be even worse and it be $18 now, it's the fact it changes I don't like. That and the fact the NA servers are in Montreal is also annoying since they are paying for their hosting in Canadian dollars lol.

I think most people in the US playing would agree that people in the states would be much more likely to sign up if the price was $12.99, vs "the price varies from $13 to $20 per month depending on how the dollar is doing." How many people actually want to sign up for a variable rate service? It's like having a cell phone bill where each month is different.

I enjoy this game and think it's fun and worth it at $12.99, but I just personally don't feel it's worth more than that.

12.99? I live in BC Canada and pay 14.99 + exchange rate [$19.55 by today's rate of 1 usd =1.30 CAD]. So either you've chosen to be limited to a single character or you pay in 6 months chunks?

As someone who pays the 6 month sub in Australian dollars...

Whats the problem?
Your currency is only 5c off mine right now ... I dunno how it is in Canada, But my average wage is higher than the average US worker in a comparable job. The flipside to that is that it costs me more for US stuff. So it actually evens out to the point where after currency conversions, I pay the same for my sub as my US friends.

How is your phone bill only $40?

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Originally Posted by m3eansean

How is your phone bill only $40?

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Before i replaced my old HTC with a new Galaxy S4, mine was $39 p/m. Only had 200mb of internet bandwidth and the phone was dirt cheap, but if you're only using it to make calls and send messages, its entirely possible to get crazy cheap phone plans.

Certain sites sell gametime codes even cheaper. (Google is your friend)
Or maybe some local gaming store has them too in your currency.

It's a little bit more effort than being charged directly from your credit card, but you should be able to get it cheaper from those.
Perhaps even cheaper than what you were paying before.

That is still less then what europeans pay so no, no compassion for me.
we pay 13 euro here.

The price doesn't bother me. I have ZERO knowledge about billing policies... or whatever. But it's kind of funny that they only allow us Canadians to pay in US dollars even when the servers are in Canada. lol

I'm canadian also and I am here to say, it's not that big of a deal, an hour worth of work a month.

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Originally Posted by 416to305

I think most people in the US playing would agree that people in the states would be much more likely to sign up if the price was $12.99, vs "the price varies from $13 to $20 per month depending on how the dollar is doing." How many people actually want to sign up for a variable rate service? It's like having a cell phone bill where each month is different.

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This is precisely why refusing to price their service at converted currency rates is utterly illogical.

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Originally Posted by Ranen

Bah, $17 is nothing. I'm paying $26 for the game local currency and when I move to another island it's gonna be around $70 local currency after conversions...so I definitely won't be playing the game then. I live in the Caribbean btw.

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Sweet holy Raptor Jesus...

What the hell island has that crappy a conversion rate? Moving to Cuba?

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Originally Posted by Sylve

Before i replaced my old HTC with a new Galaxy S4, mine was $39 p/m. Only had 200mb of internet bandwidth and the phone was dirt cheap, but if you're only using it to make calls and send messages, its entirely possible to get crazy cheap phone plans.

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Mine's $50. Unlimited talk/text/pictures/data.

/shrug

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That is still less then what europeans pay so no, no compassion for me.
we pay 13 euro here.

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Is all of EU being charged in Euros? I asked my Swedish friend about this before and he apparently doesn't pay enough attention because he didn't know and guessed for GBP.

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This is precisely why refusing to price their service at converted currency rates is utterly illogical.

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Exchange rates change hourly. There needs to be some kind of set standard.

Blizzard just had an ordeal with this and Brazil. The game and sub in their currency was ridiculously, insanely cheap after exchange and it ended up getting changed and the forums blew up. Like, stupid huge blowup.

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Originally Posted by Elim

The price doesn't bother me. I have ZERO knowledge about billing policies... or whatever. But it's kind of funny that they only allow us Canadians to pay in US dollars even when the servers are in Canada. lol

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it is about the SE account, not on which server you play.

NA account = US dollar
EU account = Euro (or GBP)
JP account = Yen

Just curious... have you priced it via Crysta? Just wonder if it is the equivalent of $1 USD for 100 Crysta or not, or if it would pick up the regional currency--saving you the exchange rate.

I had the same trouble years ago with ffxi; I was British, with a British account, I then moved to the USA and attempted to pay for my account in USD... It ended up costing me nearly $30/month for one character, no mules because of the poor exchange rate. I think they were going from USD > Euro, then to GBP.
When I moved to the states, I cancelled my British account and got an American one~

When I asked about paying in USD, they were like "Oh we can't." "But why?" "Because we can't." The sad thing was, that when I was living in England, I paid for my account in USD from a British account... paying in USD from an American account should have been possible :x