Why are there Price Differences in my Final Payment?
Quick Answer: Foreign Exchange movements between now and when you pay the final amount.
When you pay for your Nomad Stays booking, you'll be paying at 2 separate times:
- Immediately, to lock in your booking, and
- At Check-In (usually), sometime later
Each Stay usually publishes their prices in their local currency.
But you may not be familiar with that currency so, for your convenience, Nomad Stays shows you the equivalent price in your preferred currency.
The equivalent price in your preferred currency is calculated based on the daily foreign exchange rate, plus includes a 1% bank fee, which a typical neo-bank will charge you.
Prices Published on Today's Foreign Exchange Rate
When a Stay publishes their prices they typically set their rates in their own local currency.
To make it easier for you to equate to a currency you probably know better we give you an approximate equivlaent of the local price in your chosen currency, based on the foreign exchange rate today, plus a typical fee your bank will charge you for using a different currency.
You choose your preferred display currency with the selector on the bottom of each page.
What are FX Rates and Fees?
When you want to pay in a different currency you need 'buy' some of the needed currency.
Your bank will help you out here, usually automatically, by allowing you to pay in your own currency while they send the local currency to the Stay. To do this your bank basically goes to the open market around the world, and buys the needed currency from another bank, at a rate the 2 banks agree to at the time. This rate is called the 'foreign exchange' rate.
Interesting Fact: There is not 1 market for currency exchange around the world.
Each FX transaction is done bank-to-bank at slight different rates around the world, even if done at the same time.
Reported FX rates are an average of major FX transactions done by different recently.
Your bank will also charge you a fee for providing this service - this is called a FX Fee, and is usually calculated as a percentage of the transaction amount.
When estimating the final price in a foreign currency we take into account the FX rate on the day, and we then allow for a 1% bank FX Fee.
1% is the typical FX fee a neoBank will charge you for transacting in a different currency. This is because most members tend to pay with their debit cards from neo banks.
NB: A traditional credit card company is more likely to charge you a 2-4% FX fee on top of the FX rate they buy the foreign currency for.
We display the estimated final price estimate to you based on the rate at the time to you make your booking.
Final Payment at Check-In (usually)
Your second (final) payment is usually made when you check-in, which is some time in the future. It might be months in the future.
As most FX rates change every second it is quite normal for different prices to develop over a few weeks or months since you made your booking. The final payment could be cheaper than you expected, or it could be more expensive.
When you check-in your Stay will most likely be expecting you to pay in the local currency. If you don't have any local currency, then you'll need to effectively 'buy' some local currency with your own funds. This is what banks and credit cards etc. do for you.
The banks go to the market and buy your currency for you at the prevailing price at that time.
An international credit or debit card will do this for you automatically, and you may not have even been aware of it in the past.
The end result is that the price to buy that currency in 2 months' time is probably a bit different to buying it today.
Which is why your final price in your preferred currency might be different that the estimate done at the time of booking.
Prices Published with 1% FX Bank Fee Included
To try to show you the most accurate costs possible we do add a 1% allowance for the bank fee your bank might charge you for doing a transaction in a currency other than your own.
Most neo-banks (Wise, Revolut etc.) charge around a 1% FX fee. As many digital nomads use neo-bank, we use these typical fees.
Be mindful that your own bank may charge even higher fees for foreign currency transactions.
Credit cards can often charge 3.5% fees for instance, which can add a lot to your travel costs over time.