UK Clickbank Users - Currency Conversions!

Is there anyway to have our primary account currency set to GBP?

My account is in USD, however I sell my product via GBP. I'm getting really fed up with the following:

A) - Getting a lame currency conversion from Clickbank (i.e if GBP/USD is 1.5777, clickbank typically give 1.5477 - 2 tenths lower).

B) - Having the funds sent to my bank account in USD and incurring not only an even worse conversion rate back to GBP from my bank, but incurring a foreign currency payment charge as well (usually about £10!)

Effectively I'm selling a product in GBP, it's being converted to USD for clickbank, then being converted back to GBP for my bank account, losing valuable currency conversion commission in each process.

See my below calculations for an example product that I sell for £50 on a 50%share basis:

Product Gross cost £50
Clickbank's 7.5% Commission - £3.75
Product's Net Cost - £46.25
50% Affiliate Fee - £23.125
Clickbank's £1 transaction fee - £1 (I know this is actually $1 USD, but I'll use GBP in this example as it's higher anyway)
Fee I should receive - £22.125 <- slightly higher than this as I've used £1 instead of $1 for Clickbank's transaction fee.

After the currency conversions, when the funds eventually hit my bank account (taking into account the money retained by Clickbank each paycheck on the same conversion rates), i'm actually only getting about £19.20 per sale!

Anyone else care to share views/experiences on this?

Thanks.

 

Well i have $400 in my clickbank account still waiting on a damn master card payment so i never thought about that until nowm would be very interested in an answer.

 

Aye - If the products you've sold to make that $400 were in GBP or EUR, I'm sure you will have lost out with Clickbank's "not so generous" currency conversions - I get the impression they are operating like a travel agent, as they must be making money out of their currency conversions as the rate is at least 2 tenths lower than the official ratess.

 

paypals just the same though but when i think about converting my money back to pounds... pff the cuts going to K'O me but hey least conversion rates for turning $ into £ is at its best in a while...

 

True - but when you sell your product in GBP to begin with it doesn't really matter too much

 

well my sales are about 50/50 so im not so hard hit as u i guess, email them, you never know

 

Any other UK Users know if it's possible to have your clickbank account default to GBP to save the two currency conversions?

 

Maybe you could ask Clickbank?

Mine's all in dollars. And while I miss out on about $10 thanks to CB's processing fees and currency conversions, that's waay better than the £12+ that my bank will charge me for paying in foreign cheques (£12 per cheque!!)

 

Why not change affiliate network?

Does clickbank bring you a lot of affiliates without effort? Or do you have to find them yourself?

If the latter than perhaps a change to a UK based affiliate network will help you. OR use an affiliate script, sell the product yourself and pay commissions yourself.

 

Tigerpublishing - I think you've missed the point - I am using clickbank already, however my bank charges me for the direct deposit they send me because it's in a foreign currency. Plus each transaction is costing me valuable £'s in currency conversions from GBP to USD.

Mcapodici - No other affiliate network, certainly UK based networks are as good as Clickbank or have the "turnkey" effect where affiliates find you. Using your own script is pretty pointless unless you already have a big reputation, as a lot of affiliates won't sign up to custom affiliate programs unless they know they will be paid. So called power affiliates definately wouldn't give you a second look if you were using a custom affiliate script, unless you were already known to them.

Anyone know if Clickbank account's can be defaulted to GBP?

 

no it can't

but what bank are you with? my bank does not charge for direct deposits only cheques

 

With Lloyds.

What bank are you with - I might have to open a new account with them just for Clickbank transactions.

I'm quite new to Clickbank, so was wondering what the tax implications are also - I assume you just have to register as self employed to sell affiliate products and make an income from it?

Or do you go one further and actually setup a business?

The only thing I do know is that you don't have to pay VAT, because clickbank automatically take care of that - I actually find this a bit annoying because the price you advertise products for aren't what the customer ends up paying because clickbank add taxes on etc...

 

No, I think you've misread my post. I know you're with Clickbank already... my suggestion was that you ask THEM what you're asking US, since they're much more likely to be able to give you an answer.

Or swap banks - HSBC doesn't charge a fee for direct deposits.

Although thinking about it now, I seem to remember setting what currency my bank account was in when I set up direct deposit, so I think it comes to me as GBP (so no conversion fee).

 

I'm with Lloyds and I definitely don't get charged for the direct deposits.

 

Thanks for your comments guys - d60eba, that's interesting that you're with Lloyds and you don't get charged for the deposits - going back to Tigerpublishing's comments, maybe I haven't set my currency to GBP and the deposits are coming in as USD.

I've already asked Clickbank this question at least 4 times, but getting an answer from them is like trying to get blood from a stone!