One thing I wish were available with many of these US-based services is billing in GBP.
Personally, I love being able to spin up Linode (and now DO) vms in London but pay USD prices.
Edit: The 4th paragraph here seems to settle it: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/vatpossmanual/vatposs14300.ht...
The reverse charge mechanism places the burden for accounting for VAT on the recipient if the supplier is outside the UK.
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/start/register/when-to-register.h...
I do get them from pingdom, and AWS. I do not get them from Mailchimp or hostgator.
If you were never in that situation, my experience is in paying less over time as both GBP/EUR have been getting stronger than USD.
Plus, pricing in the home currency is usually larger than the exchange rate (i.e. $10 = £5.83, so pricing would probably be something like $10, £6. Or even more - if not $10/£10 - you know who does that!...)
Is there a conversion charge that your credit card company levies on you for paying in US$?
At least, it's the case with my French and my Dutch bank.
That's one of the great benefit of the Euro when shopping in the EU (well, except for our British friends :) )
Edit: corrected a typo
I use the Halifax Clarity card and I believe The Nationwide and the Post Office do a good card too.
I'd never use a Debit Card for foreign currency transactions though, they always seem to have fees involved.
Nationwide used to have commission-free cash withdrawals on their debit cards abroad, but I think it was abused by people who had second homes in other countries so withdrawn a year or two ago. I believe they still offer a commission-free credit card though.
Their "Select credit card" still offers EUR and USD purchases with no surcharge and no vig.
CaxtonFX are also really good for foreign currency cards (2% markup, which is lower than I get with any of my British banks) and have really good customer service too.
Anyway, as others have said, there are charges and spreads on foreign currency banking. It also adds complications to my otherwise very simple accounting needs.
The CARD Act of 2009 mandated that credit card issuing companies clearly describe the fees associated with foreign transactions.
Visa/Mastercard charge a cross border origination fee of 0.80%. However many credit cards (all cards by Captial One for example) waive this fee, and do not charge any fee of their on on top of this.
About 90% of my company's expenses are in dollars, so I've had to become proficient at dealing with it, but I imagine it's more annoying for companies who only make the occasional USD transaction, especially as they may have smalltime accountants unfamiliar with or unwilling to deal with the exchange rate stuff properly.