How to Read a Game Key Price: Currency, Fees and VAT

Look at a game on any keyshop or foreign store and the price is almost always in euros or US dollars — while your card or account may be in something else entirely. Between the number on the listing and the amount on your statement, a few things happen that decide what you really pay. Some of those costs are normal and unavoidable. Others are traps you can sidestep with one click. Here’s how to tell them apart.

Why the price is in euros or dollars

Key stores — marketplaces like Kinguin or G2A, and official stores like Steam or GOG — sell internationally and price in one or a few big currencies. Even when a site shows you an approximate amount in your local currency, that figure is usually just a conversion for orientation: the transaction itself still runs in the original currency, and your bank or card provider turns it into your money.

So the first rule is: a local-currency figure on a website is an estimate, not the amount you’ll be charged. The real amount depends on your bank’s rate on the day the transaction is actually processed, which can be a day or two after you clicked “buy”.

How your bank converts the amount

Conversion runs through an exchange rate. The fair reference is the central bank’s mid rate for the day — but you don’t get the mid rate. Your bank and the card network add a margin, so the rate you’re charged is always a little worse.

That’s why, if you convert €19.99 yourself at the mid rate and compare it with your statement, the statement is slightly higher. You haven’t made a mistake; the difference is the conversion margin. It’s a normal cost of paying in a foreign currency with a domestic card — nothing specific to games. How big the margin is varies by bank and is rarely printed anywhere prominent, so don’t chase an exact percentage; just expect it.

The DCC trap: “pay in your own currency?”

This is where money gets lost for no reason at all. At checkout some sites — and many card terminals and ATMs abroad — offer to charge you in your home currency instead of euros or dollars. It looks like a convenience: you see the exact amount in your money right away.

It’s called dynamic currency conversion (DCC), and it’s almost always the worse option. If you accept, the conversion isn’t done by your bank at its rate but by the merchant’s payment processor at theirs — which is nearly always less favourable, because there’s room for an extra margin in it. You’re paying to see a familiar number on the screen.

The rule has no exceptions that work in your favour: always pay in the original currency, EUR or USD, and let your own bank convert. You won’t see the exact local amount on the spot, but you’ll pay a better rate.

Other costs that raise the total

On top of the conversion margin, a few items can push the final amount up:

• Foreign transaction fees. Some cards charge a separate fee for paying in a foreign currency or at a foreign merchant, regardless of the rate. Not every card has one, but it’s worth checking your card’s terms — it’s a fixed cost you won’t see on the store page.
• PayPal’s own conversion. If you pay through PayPal and let PayPal convert into your currency, it’s essentially the same story as DCC — its rate can be worse than your bank’s. Where possible, have PayPal charge in the original currency and leave the conversion to your bank.
• Keyshop fees by payment method. Some stores add a small fee depending on how you pay — card, PayPal, crypto — and it often appears only on the last checkout step, not on the product page. Optional add-ons such as a paid “buyer protection” can also be pre-selected.
• VAT or sales tax. Depending on the store and your country, tax may already be included in the listed price or added at checkout. The same game can show different stickers in two countries purely because of how tax is displayed and collected — more on that in why regional prices differ.

None of these is large on its own, but they add up — which is why the product-page price is never the final word.

How to compare two offers fairly

When comparing offers, compare prices in the original currency, because that’s what the transaction runs in. Two offers at €19.99 are equal regardless of your bank — the conversion margin hits both the same way. As soon as you compare converted local amounts from two different sources, you risk being fooled by different rates or different moments of conversion.

In practice: use a local-currency figure as a rough sense of scale, make the actual decision on the euro or dollar price, then check the final checkout total with all fees — and decline DCC if it pops up. A low price on a region-locked key is also not a saving if the key won’t activate on your account, so read the region too; see game key regions explained.

How ulov.gg shows prices

Because of all this, ulov.gg compares offers in euros internally while keeping the seller’s original currency. Any local-currency figure we show is for orientation only, converted at the central bank’s mid rate on the day the page was built — your bank will apply its own rate at checkout, so your statement will usually be slightly higher. We use the mid rate precisely because it’s the one neutral, publicly checkable reference; anything “more realistic” would mean guessing your bank’s terms.

We also don’t bake payment fees into the prices you see, because they depend on the payment method you choose — the price next to each offer is the seller’s listed price. The details are on our methodology page.

So: pick the cheapest offer by its euro price, treat local amounts as a guide, always pay in the original currency, and look at the final total before you confirm. You can try it on a real game page — Elden Ring, for example — or compare offers across the game catalog. Which stores we read prices from, and how each one sells, is on stores compared; for which payment method to use, see how to pay for game keys.