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curiousphilomath 14 Dec @ 7:58pm
Different currency in my own country
I live in Canada. But I occasionally do projects and get paid in USD via PayPal. I leave the funds there as a PayPal Balance so that I don't get charged for converting to CAD, and then converting *back* to USD when I want to buy a product in USD. Not much, just a few bucks here and there.

So, I want to buy a game from Steam for the US price, because I am certain (but I can't check) that their CAD price is more than the USD price converted, if only because that's just how foreign exchange works: whenever you exchange money, everyone makes a profit except the person who owns the money, who loses. So it makes sense to do as few conversions as possible.

Not converting it also protects me from the volatile changes in the exchange rates.

But Steam won't let me choose the currency to buy in. I want to pay the US price, in USD, not the inflated (USD-converted-to-CAD) price with deflated (USD-converted to-CAD) currency.

Why should it matter that I live in Canada?

Do I really have to somehow lie about where I live in order to spend my money the way I want?

Does anyone know a (relatively easy) solution to this?
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Showing 1-6 of 6 comments
peppermint hollows 14 Dec @ 8:04pm 
No, there is no solution to this. This is by design so that people don't abuse regional pricing, and especially because there are people who make a business out of creating & selling accounts that have their store set to the cheapest regions - Valve has made a lot of changes over time to how user's pricing region is assigned and detected in order to reduce the amount of abuse.

And attempting to circumvent this can result in your Steam account being banned or locked. It's against the ToS, so I wouldn't advise trying it, and I also wouldn't advise publicly broadcasting your intention to do so.
#1
rawWwRrr 14 Dec @ 8:05pm 
Originally posted by curiousphilomath:
.Why should it matter that I live in Canada?
Because that's where you live. And you are billed the price in your region.

Originally posted by curiousphilomath:
anyone know a (relatively easy) solution to this?
Yes. Pay in CAD.
Last edited by rawWwRrr; 22 hours ago
#2
Chompman 14 Dec @ 8:08pm 
The only solution would be to move to the region you want to pay in.

Anything else violates steams tos and you can try charging more for the projects in other regions to cover these fee's or have them pay in your currency instead and let them pay for the conversion fee's.
#3
blunus 14 Dec @ 8:31pm 
Originally posted by curiousphilomath:
Not converting it also protects me from the volatile changes in the exchange rates.
Sorry, but when did Canada "volatile changes"? That border with US?

Originally posted by curiousphilomath:
But Steam won't let me choose the currency to buy in. I want to pay the US price, in USD, not the inflated (USD-converted-to-CAD) price with deflated (USD-converted to-CAD) currency.
And what's wrong about? Are you a region hopper?

Originally posted by curiousphilomath:
Why should it matter that I live in Canada?
Because region hoppers?

Originally posted by curiousphilomath:
Do I really have to somehow lie about where I live in order to spend my money the way I want?
If you want your account to be locked for this reason, then you surely have to do.

Originally posted by curiousphilomath:
Does anyone know a (relatively easy) solution to this?
I know a relatively easy solution: Contact the Canadian bank to make your payment method with particular billing address, so you can buy games legitimately.
Last edited by blunus; 14 Dec @ 8:33pm
#4
nullable 14 Dec @ 9:15pm 
While I understand your rationale, each country's store only accepts their currency own currency. Or in the case of LATM or MENA (and the like) regions, USD but separate from U.S. prices.

And simply there's not a lot of need to support USD for Canadians simply because you happen to maintain a supply of both currencies. I don't think most digital stores with regional price let you use arbitrary currencies. If any PC game stores do, you should shop from them.
Last edited by nullable; 22 hours ago
#5
Chika Ogiue 23 hours ago 
Originally posted by curiousphilomath:
I am certain (but I can't check) that their CAD price is more than the USD price

Steam DB. Search the game and check the price history.

But as others have said, you cannot change your currency to one other than that specified for your Steam store region.
#6
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Date Posted: 14 Dec @ 7:58pm
Posts: 6
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