You agreed to a price. Two days later a slightly different number is sitting on your statement. Not dramatically different — a few percent, maybe — but not the number you agreed to either.
That gap is one of the most common sources of low-level distrust in an online purchase, and almost all of it is misplaced. The two figures are produced by different organisations, on different days, using different inputs. They were never going to be identical, and the useful question is not whether they match but whether the difference is the right size.
Two numbers, two authors
Be precise about what each figure is, because the confusion starts by treating them as the same thing.
The agreed price is set by the seller, in the seller’s currency, and it is what the transaction was for. It is a commercial fact and it does not change.
The authorised amount is what your card issuer reserves against your account. It is the agreed price after currency conversion, plus anything your own bank adds for handling a foreign transaction, rounded according to rules neither you nor the seller wrote.
The settled amount is what finally posts, which can differ from the authorised figure again, because conversion is normally applied at settlement rather than at authorisation. Three numbers, then, and only the first one belongs to the seller.
The seller controls the price. Your bank controls the amount. Confusing the two produces complaints aimed at the party who did not do the thing being complained about.
Five reasons the figures diverge
Currency conversion. The largest single factor. The rate applied is the one live at settlement, not the one you might have looked up when you decided to buy. Over a couple of days that moves, in both directions.
A foreign transaction fee. Added by your issuer, not by the seller, usually as a small percentage of the converted amount. It is in your card agreement, and most people have never read that part. Foreign transaction fees on a yearly subscription goes through how much it typically comes to on an annual charge.
Conversion done at the point of sale. Where a payment page offers to bill you in your home currency, the conversion happens there instead, at a rate set by whoever provides that service. This is the one that produces the biggest gaps, and it is covered below.
Rounding. Small, but real. A converted figure has to become a number of whole units in your currency, and the direction of rounding is not always in your favour.
A local price that is a set figure, not a conversion. Many sellers publish fixed local prices rather than live conversions of a base price, so the local figure is deliberately a round number rather than an exchange-rate calculation. If you compare the local price to a converted base price, they will not match, and neither is wrong.
The conversion choice that costs the most
At some checkouts you are offered a choice: pay in the seller’s currency, or pay in yours. It is presented as a convenience. It is worth understanding what you are choosing.
Choosing your own currency means the conversion is performed at the point of sale, by the payment provider, at a rate they set. You see an exact figure before confirming, which feels reassuring. Choosing the seller’s currency means your own card issuer converts it later, at their rate.
Almost universally, the second is cheaper. The rate offered at checkout has a margin built into it, and that margin is frequently larger than the foreign transaction fee you were trying to avoid. You pay for certainty, and on a yearly purchase the amount you pay for it is not trivial.
The counter-argument is real but narrow: if you genuinely need to know the exact figure in advance — an expense claim, a shared household budget, a tight balance — then paying a small premium for a fixed number can be worth it. Just make the choice deliberately rather than by tapping whichever button is highlighted. The wider currency picture is in paying for a subscription in a currency that is not your own.
How big a gap is normal
A rough calibration, so you know whether to shrug or to ask.
| Gap from the agreed price | Most likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Under 1% | Rounding, or a small rate movement | Nothing |
| 1–3% | A foreign transaction fee | Check your own card terms |
| 3–6% | Conversion plus a fee, or a rate that moved | Reasonable, but worth understanding |
| 6–12% | Conversion done at the point of sale | Choose the seller’s currency next time |
| Over 12% | Something other than currency | Ask both parties what they charged |
| A different figure entirely | Wrong plan, wrong term, or not your transaction | Treat it as a payment problem, not a pricing one |
Percentages are the right unit here, not absolute amounts. Two dollars on a sixty-nine dollar purchase is a fee. Two dollars on a ten dollar purchase is something else.
One qualifier on the top row. A gap of under one percent is worth nothing on a single annual purchase, but the same fraction on a card you use abroad every week adds up to a figure you would notice if it appeared as one line. That is an argument about which card to hold rather than about this transaction, and it is not a reason to query a seller. Judge a single yearly charge on its own terms; judge the card on a year of statements.
The other calibration people miss is direction. Exchange rates move both ways, so roughly half the time the settled figure should come in slightly below the price you expected. If every purchase you make is a little higher than the quoted amount and never lower, the cause is not the market — it is a fixed cost being applied somewhere, and it is worth finding out where.
Why the pending figure moves
People check their app within a minute of paying, note the number, and then feel misled when a different one posts later. The pending figure is not a promise.
An authorisation reserves an amount so the funds cannot be spent twice. For a cross-currency purchase, that reservation is often an estimate, converted at whatever rate was available at that instant. Settlement, later, applies the real rate. The two rarely land on exactly the same number.
So: judge the charge on what settles. A pending figure that differs by a small amount from the posted one is the system working, not a discrepancy. The full mechanics of that gap, including the case where a pending charge never settles at all, are in a payment that is authorised but never settles.
Checking it in three minutes
A short procedure that resolves nearly every version of this question.
Find the agreed price. From your confirmation, your chat history, or a screenshot. Note the currency it was quoted in, which is the part people forget.
Find the settled amount. Not the pending one. Open the transaction detail view rather than the account summary — it usually shows the original currency and amount alongside the converted figure, which is exactly what you need.
Do the division. Settled divided by agreed, minus one. That percentage is your gap. Compare it to the table above.
Check your card’s foreign transaction fee. One line in your card terms. Subtract it from the gap and see whether what remains is a plausible exchange rate movement. If it is, you are finished.
While you are in that screen, note the descriptor too. It will not match the brand you bought from, and that is normal — what the descriptor on your statement is telling you explains why. Recording it now saves confusion when you look back at this in six months.
When the gap is not legitimate
Most gaps are dull. A few are not, and these are the shapes worth reacting to.
The currency is wrong entirely. The amount is right but billed in a currency neither of you discussed. That is a configuration problem rather than a rate problem, and it has its own fix in what to do when the amount taken is right but the currency is not.
A second, smaller charge appears. Sometimes a legitimate verification amount that reverses within days. Sometimes not. Watch it rather than ignore it, and check whether it disappears.
A fee appears that was never mentioned. A processing charge, a handling charge, a setup charge that first became visible after payment. Fees must be visible before you commit. What should have been stated up front is part of reading a subscription’s terms before the money moves.
The seller cannot tell you what they submitted. This is the real warning. Any seller can state the exact amount and currency they charged, because it is on their own screen. Vagueness there is a different problem from a rate you do not like, and it is the one that should change how you feel about the arrangement.
What you should see here
Concretely, so you can check your own statement against it.
The base prices are $69, $97 and $137 a year for one, two or three simultaneous screens, against struck comparison figures of $89, $129 and $169. Everything is on the pricing page with nothing added at the end.
Local prices are set figures rather than live conversions, which is deliberate: a rounded local price you can recognise beats a converted one that lands on an awkward number and changes weekly. It does mean that if you convert the base price yourself you will get a slightly different answer, and neither figure is a mistake.
One annual charge, no card kept on file, nothing renewing on its own — so there is no second amount to reconcile later, which removes the most common cause of a figure nobody can explain. Why that is deliberate is in why we do not keep your card on file.
If a settled figure does not look right, send the amount, the currency and the date to WhatsApp, Telegram or support@pay-iptv.com. We will tell you exactly what was submitted and in which currency, and the difference between that and what you were charged belongs to your own bank.
