Depends on the bank and payment processor really. Visa seems to have better exchange rates for USD for example in my case why mastercard can have better rates for euros. But some banks charge extra fees (1-2%) for conversion which is a lot. The only advice I can give is to choose your banks/cards wisely.

Sorry dude. You have to take some responsibility for your own actions. The info is here, you cannot assume in 2013 that every company on the net is seppo, my tip is, unless you know that the company is American, use an option that you know doesn't charge a foreign currency fee.

How come they don't warn about it on the checkout page unless GOG knows this might deter people from buying games?
Instead it is hidden in some POS TaC fine print.

Douchebags can say what they want but this stinks as a business practice.
The attitude around here ... makes me consider cancelling my orders.

Maybe because it´s a thing between you and your bank?
If your bank charge you with those fees it must be stated somewhere in their Tos,in the contract you signed with them or something like that...it´s not GOG responsibility or fault, it´s up to you to read that things before you sign them. GOG doesn´t have to state it anywhere, just because you are to lazy to read all those little papers and letters your bank gave you when were opening your account there.

Oh man, so if I had been using my Paypal account the past few years instead of my credit card, I would have avoided that 3% hit? I guess I'll be using Paypal from now on!

Yeah, you're right. GOG should have warned me that they're not a spanish company!

What an egocentric expectation. GOG are based where they're based.

As a customer (and especially as one who is aware that your bank charges you a foreign transaction fee), it's up to you to check where the place you're buying from is based. To assume that companies are based in the US unless they warn you is just ridiculous.

Considering the problem is your bank tacking on charges, no I don't think they do have any responsibility. The fact that they include it in the FAQ is very nice of them, but that's still going above and beyond what I'd expect (which in this situation is nothing, they have nothing to do with your bank's policies).

My bank also charges me for "foreign transaction fees" which is really just another BS way to milk money from customers. Rape is a daily thing with US banks. I wouldn't know about the rest of the world. The first time I got hit with this, I wondered what it was. The charge is very small in my case, one percent. So even on a larger purchase it doesn't come to much. In any event, I place the blame for this entirely where it belongs - with my bank, the second one I've had now which does this to me. Anyway, I accept it as a small added cost of doing business internationally and I am not changing banks again as that is more trouble than it is worth (and the bastards know it) and I am not using PayPal which is a personal preference I will not get into here.

The thing is, I am pretty sure I knew GOG was in Poland but like very many people I'm sure, I do not read multiple pages of tiny print legalese denying me of any rights anymore because I already know that is the default agreement. It's a waste of my valuable time. I respect anyone else's right to differ and read them but I am very sure a whole lot of us do not spend our time on doing this. So, even knowing GOG was in Poland I didn't expect the fees. And then I found out the transactions are run in Cyprus is it, to avoid taxes in Poland if I understand correctly. I have an opinion about this as you might imagine but I will keep it to myself rather than derail the thread over it. I will say however that the first bank to charge me fees blamed it on the transactions being out of Cyprus where apparently there is higher risk of problems on their end for some reason which I never did fully understand. I didn't even bother asking the second bank what their problem with International transactions or Cyprus in particular might be. For one percent, I just don't care.

Honestly, I don't blame GOG for not putting a disclaimer on each game page or in the checkout process perhaps because it would be perceived negatively and create confusion for many customers to whom this does not even apply, namely those customers who's banks do not rape them at every opportunity as so often happens in America. I also agree that customers from the US do not have any special treatment coming to them in this regard because surely in other lands there are bad banks doing bad things too. It isn't just us.

I think in this day and age of the world in some ways becoming a smaller place and International trade actually occurring at the personal level, it is up to us to deal with the attendant issues and hold those responsible who actually are the responsible party, again in this case my own bank, not GOG. It isn't GOG's fault my bank screws me. It is their fault entirely. End of story. If GOG wants to put up a little warning somewhere, that is nice of them but it doesn't belong in the checkout or on game pages in my opinion.

It is always true, "Let the buyer beware." I know it sucks but that is some people running some businesses for you. Take it to them when they screw you if it is worth it. They are devious though. They know with our busy lives that if they keep the pain low enough we will tolerate it rather than deal with it. This is how in America, wealth has for some time now been floating up to the one percent but that's also another topic for another time. ;-)

Well, I really don't care what some douchebags on some forum think.
Other, more ";respectable" webstores have no problem warning out of state customers about potential fees.

Guess I will just be cancelling my orders with GOG.
It's not that hard to get these games elsewhere without scammer tactics like this.


PS: any half-decent programmer would also be able to add the warning on a country by country basis.

May I ask for an example please? Don't recall ever seeing it to be honest, so curious as to where you've seen it before.

GOG cannot know whether you are going to be charged a foreign transaction fee, even if they know where you live. I live in the US and if I use my BofA Visa to buy from GOG, I get charged a 3% fee, whereas if I use my Citibank Mastercard, I don't. I'm sure it varies not only from bank to bank but even among the different types of cards offered by the same bank.

How can they be scammer tactics on GOG's part when they gain nothing? If anyone is a scammer in this situation, it's your bank. But who cares what a douchebag on a forum thinks, right? Don't let the door hit you on your way out.