force a currency

[rikdc]

Hi,
I've had an unusual request for a cart which basically allows the user to browse the website under the currency of their choice, however when it comes to the checkout phase it will be automatically switched to the store owners currency (sterling).

Couldn't see any where obvious in the config on how to do this, does any one have any idea?

Cheers,

[kuroi]

I suspect that your client thinks that this will result in his receiving the amount that he quotes on the site without being affected by exchange rates. In practice he risks frequently receiving less than his quoted price.

Example: your client's site and merchant account is denominated in say $s. Their customer uses euros. If the customer buys in euros, the retailer receives dollars at the euro-dollar market rate less a small spread taken by the (for example visa).

However, if the customer is forced to execute in dollars, the credit card system will first convert transaction into euros - the customer's currency, and then back into dollars for application to the retailer's merchant account. So the retailer still gets dollars, but this time there are two spreads taken out.

This may still be what your client wants as although he will on average receive slightly less than allowing any currency, he will not be subject to currency fluctuations, just a double spread.

OK, I'm a bit off-topic here, and apologise if you already knew this, but felt the background might be helpful. Hopefully somebody else can answer the question you actually asked

[rikdc]

thanks for some feedback anyway :)

Apparently the checkout bombs when purchasing and the currency is anything but sterling. Doing some research the merchant provider requires a new account per currency which isn't ideal. There seems to be an update to the ProtX Direct module posted here recently so I'll investigate that.

If that doesn't work though, I will still have to force a the cart to revert to sterling at checkout.