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Comment by nagvx | Hacker News Reader

Note that Scaleway bills in euros, not dollars, pounds, etc. They also have no pre-paid policy, so you cannot pay a lump sum upfront to get many months usage. This means that you could be hit by significant monthly fees if you are paying via another currency. But of course, different banks have different policies, and YMMV.

My €3/mo was (IIRC) more like €5/mo once conversion fees were taken into account. This €2 flat fee would not have been a problem had I been paying for 12 months at a time, but Scaleway do not offer this, in contrast to many other hosting providers on the market. After inquiring, I was told there was no current plan to change this policy.

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...so it's the exact same problem as when the rest of the world has to pay for US services in USD.

The issue isn't with the currency, but the lack of pre-paid plans and how that interacts with flat conversion fees.

It's also easy to overlook the euro issue when the majority of popular hosting providers charge in dollars - and I can already see people making this mistake in the thread.

US Dollars and Euros are the national currency for roughly the same number of people.

340 million people live in a Eurozone country.

320 million people live in the USA, plus there's Ecuador and El Salvador.

(516 million people live within the Single Euro Payments Area, where international bank transfers in Euros must cost no more than a national bank transfer. My employer in Denmark has a Euro-denominated bank account; this is presumably typical for businesses in the non-Euro countries in Europe.)

I don't understand why you would be hit by significant monthly fees just because you can't prepay.

You mean that you can't prepay when you think currency exchange would benefit you? Well, if you think you're in a currency exchange sweet spot, go ahead and exchange. Then just leave the money in your bank account for next month's bills.

What's that? Your bank won't let you hold a balance in another currency? That sounds like a problem with you bank, not you hosting service.

While your point isn't invalid, having to contact my bank and work through the process of setting this up is another layer of hassle that I don't have to deal with on another, more flexible provider.

In what country is a bank account in another currency free, or available at no additional cost beyond the local currency account?

As in the UK, I use a Monzo card. One for business transactions and one for personal overseas purchase.

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