I purchased Choice’s ‘recommended’ VPN, read the “?” , opened an account with IP Vanish, paid the 50% discount of $39 in AUS dollars. There was no $39US shown on their site. My PayPal has shown $64.98 instead.
I contacted IP with the only method available - instant chat and was advised that they only sell in US dollars! How confusing!
So their 50% discount is misleading. I figure that $64.98US should be $32.49. It looks like I was charged a conversion fee from IP of six or so dollars.
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I’ve always used Mullvad VPN . If you check this " link " you will see why . On the comparisons shown I would be staying away from IP Vanish . If you can get a refund try Mullvad as it easy to use and well priced .
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Thanks for the advice, vax2000.
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My pleasure . Anytime .
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Todays interbank xrate would be$USD39 = $AUD61.53. Paypal does not give the best rate of the day, but in balance it looks like you did not pay GST. (?) Since you are using $AUD to buy $USD for payment the reverse is not relevant. But $AUD64.98 would be $USD41.24 at interbank rates.
Our banks give poor xrates. Topday Westpac shows $AUD64.98 buys $USD39.13 in comparison (plus fees so you would get less).
In the world of once off forex by paypal or a credit card your experience does not look out of the norm.
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IPVanish has prices in $, and many countries around the world have $ as their currency. When shopping or buying online, unless it is sn Australian business (which IPVanish isn’t), one has to assume that the prices shown are in the currency where the company is based…such as USD for US based companies.
It is like buying from a UK company website where prices are in pounds.
Seeing a $ on an foreign website, one should not assume that it is in AUD. This applies unless prices are specified in a particular currency… such as AUD, USD etc
If you have paid by credit card, an international foreign exchange fee may be charged by the credit card issuer. The rates vary and some will display this fee separately on the statement showing the transaction.
Even PayPal has foreign exchange fees…Unfortunately they can’t be avoided unless your credit card provider specifically indicated such charges are not charged. There are some credit cards which don’t charge such fees, but one needs to check their applied exchange rates are competitive. … otherwise while they might hot charge fees, the exchange rate may be lousy.
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Thanks BBG! Also, they gave me an 1800 number to call the USA. Do I need the prefix 61+ . Also, will my call be free?
The 800 number shown is toll free in the USA. If you open the pulldown on their website you will see a Sydney number as well as numbers for a few other countries.
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I don’t think US 1800 numbers can be called from Oz. At least that was the case quite a few years ago, maybe it has changed.
61 is for Oz when calling from OS. To call US you generally need to put 011 first, if I recall correctly
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Our international calling prefix is 0011 and mobiles accept a + sign in lieu, so ringing the USA would be +1 followed by the US area code. The US country code is 1. Calling Australia from the US would start with +61 and area code. The 011 is the international prefix in the US. Very few USA 800 numbers are toll free internationally but will answer as a tolled call. There is usually a system warning. Some will not answer international origin calls.
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They have a local number… 02 5133 5555 which appears to be routed to their US call centre. Maybe try this one first to avoid international call rates.
See support numbers at the top of their homepage…https://www.ipvanish.com/
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Any goods or services advertised in Australia through Australian media outlets must quote the price of said item in AUSTRALIAN dollars. Quoting prices in foreign currencies should be illegal (and for some reason I thought it was).
That is a reasonable expectation, but if one discounts sources of advertising and recommendations, it is clearly a US business with a US web site that trades internationally. Clue 1 is the little US flag in front of the US toll free support number. There are many others. Although many Australian web sites have .com registrations it highlights the need for consumers to become aware of who and where they are doing business with.
Best practice businesses show the currency in use atop their pages, as well as currency options. Unfortunately many (most?) US companies reflect US sentiment that once the waters of the Atlantic or Pacific are reached there is nothing.
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is only applies to Australian companies based in Australia. With the world wide web, it is possible to open up purchasing options in other countries with different currencies and different advertising standards/requirements.
For a foreign company with a foreign located website to meet the advertising requirements in every country (on the globe) is a big ask and something which would be unreasonable (one couldn’t expect of such businesses) If this applied, then every business in Australia (no matter how big or small) which advertises any prices online would also be required to do the same at a significant cost…
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Many international sites I use/visit offer at least several currency types when advertising goods. They use a currency rate service or a stock market feed to offer currency conversion to the stated amount. These sometimes are quite small and selective good suppliers so I don’t think it is so much a difficult or costly thing to do but it does require a bit of coding to enable it, this coding may be what hinders some sites from providing this option. Language conversion I think would offer a bigger hurdle in terms of accuracy and cost of provision.
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Mullvad is part of the Fourteen Eyes consortium… what that means is that your data will not necessarily be safe if a government which is part of 14 Eyes asks for it. Australia is In 14 and 5 eyes. So when seeking a new VPN, you’d be wanting to look for something that says NO under that column and also under “enemy of the internet”. There are masses of other data as well and whatever is relevant to your particular circumstance is also visible in the chart referenced.
NordVPN used to be the best, but there have been some questions lately regarding its privacy… I think it was hacked. I can’t afford them anymore so not sure but I do know that when I was using Nord, everything was buttery smooth. However, I don’t do P2P so can’t speak for that.
I currently have a lifetime account with Ivacy, its pulled its socks up a lot since I first got the account and I feel quite safe using it. ProtonVPN is pretty good too, but is “co-operative” which I guess means they will surrender logs if they absolutely have to. Proton also breaks more websites than you’d expect, but this might well be a very good thing.
None are particularly good at geo-unblocking for Netflix.
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Yes, many I use also provide the same…but occasionally I do find some that ship/provide services internationally which only have their own local information (e.g. prices etc).
I always check before making a decision to what the currency is and approximately what its cost is in AUDs.
Usually checking is easy for non-$ currencies as they can easily be identified at the checkout, but it takes some more effort to check the currency when the quoted amount is in $…either is the local $ or AUDs. There are many countries which also use $ or the $ symbol for their pricing (even when the currency may not be a dollar).
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