AFAIK, UK Maestro is a domestic debit card. It can be used to make retail purchases in USD, but is not allowed for Internet purchases. The items that you have bought online are probably priced in GBP at the time of the sale (I suspect that they show up as GBP purchases on your credit-card statements).
When you buy a USD good on Android market, the purchase is carried out in USD, and hence it gets disallowed by Maestro. I agree that it would have been better if Android Market converted it to GBP behind the scenes, but that is not how it is at the moment. Changing it is also hard since Google Checkout fixes a currency for a merchant and the merchant is not allowed to post carts in a different currency. Inder On Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 7:09 AM, Sean Hodges <[email protected]> wrote: > > An update on the UK market payment problems: > > It's not looking good, so far Google's stance can be paraphrased as > "UK Maestro debit cards cannot be used for transactions in US dollars, > we'll look at making the error message clearer." > http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Android+Market/thread?tid=57912f7eefae2e5f&hl=en&fid=57912f7eefae2e5f0004668f33a2ba91 > > Now I'm pretty sure Switch/Maestro is able to handle U.S. > transactions. I've personally bought imported books and DVD's using > the same card that I am trying to use with Google checkout for U.S. > purchases. Paypal allow me to buy U.K. and U.S. products, and direct > debit work for both as well (as long as Switch/Maestro is listed in > the first place). Google Checkout lets me use my card for U.K. > payments, but not U.S. ones. So the blame has to be placed on either > the Google Checkout service or the Android Market software. > > I'm getting numerous people emailing me for updates on this situation, > and I don't have any answers. I'm sure this issue will eventually be > addressed, but I've had nothing to even suggest this might happen > until other countries start complaining. I'm just not sure where to go > from here; perhaps I should tell these people not to worry because > Google will make the error message more obvious soon? > > In the meantime, there are still developers on this list arguing that > poor sales are due to customers being fickle and tight-fisted... NO! > IT'S BECAUSE WE CAN'T BUY YOUR APPS!!! > > > > On Sat, Mar 21, 2009 at 9:56 AM, Sean Hodges > <[email protected]> wrote: >> You're right, SlideME supports statistically more payment methods than the >> android market. I was really just venting my frustration because when I >> initially scanned that payment page I saw the Maestro card symbol and >> assumed that meant it was supported. My mistake. For the record, I'm >> planning to keep an eye on SlideME in the future, it looks very promising. >> >> I've since received an email from the Klaxon developer stating that his app >> is only available on the Android market, so looks like I may have to wait >> out on google for this one, or just develop my own clone when I get a few >> spare hours. >> >> Some good news is that the debit issue bug reports are being investigated, >> so hopefully we will be able to buy apps on the Android market soon! >> >> On Mar 20, 2009 6:21 PM, "george_c" <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> >> >> On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 6:56 PM, Sean Hodges <[email protected]> >> wrote: > > > I shouldn't ... >> >> That is not true. https://slideme.org/payments >> These are what are *switched on* at the moment: >> MasterCard >> Visa >> Delta >> Visa Electron >> Amex >> Discover >> JCB >> Diners >> Bank Debit >> Amazon Balance >> (Don't see how SlideME offers less payment methods than the Android Market >> as you mentioned >> : http://www.google.com/support/androidmarket/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=105916) >> The whole list of payment methods tagged as pending indeed is not available. >> Start stocking up the content and ask us what you want enabled and it will >> be done. No point paying service fees for such payment options if they are >> not in use. >> So you know running such a huge list of payment methods is not free for >> SlideME. We are offering it all to developers at cost, hence the high >> payouts reaching even 98% to the developers along with managing the taxes >> and sales/invoicing globally. One stop shop(managed from SlideME) and you >> earn the lot. >> Put simply, earn while you can! >> George >> >> >> > > Even > the Amazon payment scheme only works with >> Visa/Mastercard/Delta. VERY > frustrating! >... >> >> > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
