Airwallex’s automatic currency conversion feature allows shoppers on hosted payment pages to access their preferred local payment methods when making a payment. In many countries, cards are not the primary method of payment and many shoppers rely on local payment methods. However, local payment methods are often unavailable if the payment currency is not in the shopper’s local currency. With this feature, shoppers will see a price in their local currency converted based on their location and access the corresponding local payment methods. Your customers can also switch to another currency or back to the original currency set by you. Upon updating the currency, shoppers will benefit from viewing a currency that they are familiar with and more importantly, access local payment methods that were not previously available before the currency switch.
The automatic currency conversion will benefit merchants by improving your checkout success rate as your customers get increased access to familiar payment methods and result in increased revenue for you. You will receive the payment in your default settlement currency.
Please note that this feature is available for businesses registered with Airwallex in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, UK, and Europe and will support over 20 currencies for shoppers to choose from. You will be able to turn the feature on and off from the 'Payments' > 'Settings' page on the webapp.
We have additional comprehensive information available in our product documentation.
What are the fees?
For transactions that are converted through automatic currency conversion, we will still continue to apply our other standard transaction fees, such as:
- Gateway fee
- Payment method fee
- Interchange fee
- Scheme fee
- FX conversion fee for instances where the shopper transaction currency is different from the merchant settlement currency
See our pricing page for more details about these fees.
What exchange rate is used for the checkout?
For display to your customers: Airwallex will use the mid-market exchange rate from Airwallex’s FX service and apply a margin to guarantee the rate for the length of the checkout session.
What exchange rate is applied for refunds and chargebacks?
Refunds or chargebacks are processed in the currency of the customer's original payment. The preferred currency switcher feature does not ensure that the same exchange rate will be applied for refunds or chargebacks as was used at the time of payment. As the most recent exchange rate is utilized when issuing refunds or chargebacks, there is a possibility of gaining or losing revenue based on fluctuations in exchange rates.
Will my customers be charged a fee?
The exchange rate used to convert pricing for customers includes a margin to guarantee the rate. Your customer's bank may charge additional fees and you may want to disclose this to your customers.