What is this playstation wallet bs?

quinnd6

I'm trying to buy Murdered Soul Suspect.
The game is 3.99 at the moment.
When I go to pay for it using my PayPal account every time it says it will take 5 euros out of my PayPal account
That is stupid.
What is this crap?
Is there anyway I can pay for the game directly with my money and avoid putting 5 euros into Sony's wallet?

Doodah7

Sony's minimum top-up is €5. Are you that badly stuck for €1.01?

You need to calm down.

I think it's something stupid like if it's under €5 it will add €5 to your wallet but if it's over that then they will charge you the exact amount. Need someone to confirm that though.

Grayditch

Jayney Mac.

Mossy Monk

That euro left over can go towards your next game. If spending the fiver does make you go hungry then don't spend beyond your means.

Deleted User wrote: »

if it's under €5 it will add €5 to your wallet but if it's over that then they will charge you the exact amount.

That is correct.

quinnd6

I'm calm but I think it's stupid.
I bought the game.
Now I have a wallet with 3 euros and nothing any good to buy.
The new sale they have now is rubbish unless you have PS plus.
I don't buy digital games very often.
I prefer discs to downloads so I don't know if I'll get to use it.
With Xbox you don't have to bother with a frigging wallet you can just pay the amount for the game out of your PayPal account.
I don't know of any other company that does that.
I think Sony's practices are very anti consumer lately

Grayditch

quinnd6 wrote: »

I don't know of any other company that does that.

Leap Card and lots of others. It's €1.01 leftover. It's gonna be ok.

Penn

quinnd6 wrote: »

I'm calm but I think it's stupid.
I bought the game.
Now I have a wallet with 3 euros and nothing any good to buy.
The new sale they have now is rubbish unless you have PS plus.
I don't buy digital games very often.
I prefer discs to downloads so I don't know if I'll get to use it.
With Xbox you don't have to bother with a frigging wallet you can just pay the amount for the game out of your PayPal account.
I don't know of any other company that does that.
I think Sony's practices are very anti consumer lately

Chances are you'll be buying another game or DLC for any of the disk games you already have or get in the future. For example if you have €1.01 in your wallet now and some DLC costs €9.99, I think you can add €8.98 to your wallet (as it's above the minimum €5) and get the DLC.

It all balances out.

You are correct, it's an anti-consumer practice. I don't know why anybody would defend Sony.

It's not the money; it's the principle. They are forcing you to spend more than you want and they are giving you the change in store credit - to encourage another transaction. It's anti-consumer and they get away with it because of attitudes like the ones above. You must be 'poor' if you complain about being fleeced by a few euros.

If a newsagent did that - set a minimum transaction of €5 and gave you change in vouchers - people would be up in arms.

coolisin

Deleted User wrote: »

You are correct, it's an anti-consumer practice. I don't know why anybody would defend Sony.

It's not the money; it's the principle. They are forcing you to spend more than you want and they are giving you the change in store credit - to encourage another transaction. It's anti-consumer and they get away with it because of attitudes like the ones above. You must be 'poor' if you complain about being fleeced by a few euros.

If a newsagent did that - set a minimum transaction of €5 and gave you change in vouchers - people would be up in arms.

Ehhh Newsagents where making you spend a min of €5 to use a card to purchase stuff.
So this meant you made sure you got your moneys worth of junk you didnt want to buy!

johnny_ultimate

[Deleted User] wrote: »

If a newsagent did that - set a minimum transaction of €5 and gave you change in vouchers - people would be up in arms.

This is by no means defending it, but minimum charges are - or at least were until very recently - actually pretty common, particularly in small businesses such as newsagents. You’d often have to throw in a chocolate bar or something if you wanted to use a credit / debit card (or just go somewhere else) just to hit the fiver or tenner.

I’m not sure how common the practice still is, and there’s recent EU rules and Irish budget changes around transaction charges to discourage it. But definitely a €5 minimum charge for card users is not beyond the pale.

masterluke3

Its normal for businesses to be charged fees to process cards. Lots of very small transactions means lots of fees. Thats the reason.

johnny_ultimate

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

This is by no means defending it, but minimum charges are - or at least were until very recently - actually pretty common, particularly in small businesses such as newsagents. You’d often have to throw in a chocolate bar or something if you wanted to use a credit / debit card (or just go somewhere else) just to hit the fiver or tenner.

I’m not sure how common the practice still is, and there’s recent EU rules and Irish budget changes around transaction charges to discourage it. But definitely a €5 minimum charge for card users is not beyond the pale.

The difference is that you can pay cash in a newsagent. If you use your CC for a pack of gum then yeah, you're being a bit awkward for the store. But Playstation Store is an online store, that's their business, accepting paypal or CC or whatever is par for the course. They are big enough, and they are selling enough €70 games (often €30 in stores) that they should stomach the transaction fees themselves.

I'm not foaming at the mouth, i'm not going overboard with criticism. I'm just calling it for what it is : anti-consumer.

Mostly I just don't understand why a community of gamers would jump down the guys throat and side with a billion dollar company who have a history of anti-consumer practices. Making smart comments about how he shouldn't worry about a couple of euro.

Kingp35

masterluke3 wrote: »

Its normal for businesses to be charged fees to process cards. Lots of very small transactions means lots of fees. Thats the reason.

Debit card processing fees are no longer done on a flat fee basis, they are now done on a pro rata basis. It's capped at 0.1% in Ireland.

In the past it made sense to have a minimum transaction amount as fees were €0.40 (I think) per transaction. It no longer makes sense to have a minimum spend amount and is exremely anti-consumer.

johnny_ultimate

[Deleted User] wrote: »

The difference is that you can pay cash in a newsagent. If you use your CC for a pack of gum then yeah, you're being a bit awkward for the store. But Playstation Store is an online store, that's their business, accepting paypal or CC or whatever is par for the course. They are big enough, and they are selling enough €70 games (often €30 in stores) that they should stomach the transaction fees themselves.

Sure, but cards come with fees that don’t apply to cash, regardless of whether cash is an option in the transaction in the first place. The card charge is similar regardless of whether you’re a local newsagent or billion dollar company That’s not to say it isn’t a ‘convenient’ excuse for a company, big or small, to charge more than they have to.

Again, I don’t agree with minimum charges and would absolutely like to see them removed - I’ve encountered it on both PS and Nintendo stores over the years, and it’s a genuine pain (Nintendo have allowed ‘exact amount’ purchases more recently). But sadly they’re far from alone. Pop on to something like Just Eat, and you’ll see most restaurants with a minimum delivery amount on top of the extra delivery fee - a pain if you were ever feeling particularly lazy and just wanted a starter or side delivered

Penn

Deleted User wrote: »

The difference is that you can pay cash in a newsagent. If you use your CC for a pack of gum then yeah, you're being a bit awkward for the store. But Playstation Store is an online store, that's their business, accepting paypal or CC or whatever is par for the course. They are big enough, and they are selling enough €70 games (often €30 in stores) that they should stomach the transaction fees themselves.

I'm not foaming at the mouth, i'm not going overboard with criticism. I'm just calling it for what it is : anti-consumer.

Mostly I just don't understand why a community of gamers would jump down the guys throat and side with a billion dollar company who have a history of anti-consumer practices. Making smart comments about how he shouldn't worry about a couple of euro.

Sony do stomach the transaction fees themselves. But hence why there's a minimum spend of €5, because if they had to do it for all transactions, given the amount of items on the store which are under €5 (particularly with the rise of microtransactions and lootboxes), those fees would add up and add up to a lot of money. Whereas if you add €5 in one top-up, Sony still swallow the transaction fee, but it means you add more to your wallet which chances are, you're still going to spend in the store in the future anyway. The money isn't gone, it's still in your account, and you can still use it, and likely will in the future.

quinnd6

I know it's only a euro and all and something will probably come up to spend it on
but it's the hassle of having to have a Sony wallet and it's the principle.
Microsoft used to have Microsoft points but they dropped them years ago and there's minimum spend.
I don't know what Nintendo do.
This is a big corporation, it's Sony not a small news agent.
Leap card can be argued is for convenience I suppose.
This Sony wallet with 5 euro minimum spend is not convenient.
It's a nuisance.
Anyway thanks for answering my question folks.
You now know what I think of Sony's wallet.

Icepick

Deleted User wrote: »

You are correct, it's an anti-consumer practice. I don't know why anybody would defend Sony.

It's not the money; it's the principle. They are forcing you to spend more than you want and they are giving you the change in store credit - to encourage another transaction. It's anti-consumer and they get away with it because of attitudes like the ones above. You must be 'poor' if you complain about being fleeced by a few euros.

If a newsagent did that - set a minimum transaction of €5 and gave you change in vouchers - people would be up in arms.

You don't have to be their customer. Vote with your wallet and they will change if it makes commercial sense.

Kingp35

Penn wrote: »

Sony do stomach the transaction fees themselves. But hence why there's a minimum spend of €5, because if they had to do it for all transactions, given the amount of items on the store which are under €5 (particularly with the rise of microtransactions and lootboxes), those fees would add up and add up to a lot of money.

It makes absolutely no difference at all if something costs €3 or €3,000. The transaction fees are capped at 0.1%. The amount of transactions is completely irrelavant as flat fee charges per transaction do not exist anymore.

Shiminay

Icepick wrote: »

You don't have to be their customer. Vote with your wallet and they will change if it makes commercial sense.

But you do, it's a walled garden and you have no choice but to buy things from their store. That in and of itself is pretty horribly anti-consumer, but it's their game, they can change the rules to suit themselves any time. I think you'd have to be mad to give Sony any financial details after the way they lied about the credit card data being stolen years ago and the company's general attitude towards data security across the board.

Grayditch

On the plus side, it's a really low minimum charge and really the distress can only happen really once.

I'm sure Sony would have very competitive rates from the big players in the payments industry vs a small online retailer or b&m newsagent. So no way is it justified imo.

EoinHef

#ForthePlayers




:P