GAE costs more than 10 times than expected.

[Sylvain]

Hi,

Here is the background : I've a "small" app that needs more than 1Go,
currently : 1.27 GB.
So each week, I'm charged by GAE/Chekout : $0.08 (0.056€)

But at the end I pay to my bank : $1.00 (0.71€). So, it is more than
10 times than expected.

I know about taxes (http://code.google.com/intl/fr/appengine/docs/
billing.html#A_Note_About_Taxes), but here the gap between the "GAE
price" and the "Bank price" is too big : 92% is only taxes.

I think billing needs to be changed/adapted asap in several ways to
reduce the taxes "part" :

1 - add new currencies (Euro, etc,...)

2 - do not charge weekly but monthly. About this, I think it is not
really logical to charge weekly. Most services charge weekly and for
example, if you use "Google Adsense" to "pay" you GAE site : Adsense
will pay monthly. Else add an option (weekly/monthly)

3 - Do not charge under a certain amount ($1 or more)

4 - Add a "credit system". For example, I credit my account with 50€,
then GAE/Chekout use this money

I know that banks need money ;), but here, I think this is "very" bad
for users and GAE if it doesn't change and particularly for small
project from non US users.

I want too give my money to Google, not to banks :)

Regards.

[Rodrigo Moraes]

On Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 11:49 AM, Sylvain wrote:
> 4 - Add a "credit system". For example, I credit my account with 50€,
> then GAE/Chekout use this money

this is a sweet idea!

same thing happened to me for a while. i also think app engine should
not charge below a certain amount, or allow us to buy "credits".

-- rodrigo

[Juraj Vitko]

Hi Sylvain, would it be possible for you to pay for App Engine hosting
from a PayPal account (instead of the bank account), which you would
be filling up monthly?
Sorry if this is a stupid question, I haven't used App Engine billing
yet.
J.

[Sylvain]

No you can't use Paypal.

You have to use Google Checkout.
So currently there is no alternative.

[Juraj Vitko]

Yeah Paypal is actually in direct competition with Google Checkout, I
don't know what was I thinking:)

It looks like for tiny payments it will be 10 times more.. I hope with
bigger payments these bank fees will be diminished - if not then maybe
it's time to open an US bank account (with a Delaware LLC).

[Sylvain]

I've opened an issue to add new billing options (monthly,
currency,...)

http://code.google.com/p/googleappengine/issues/detail?id=1999

Regards.