List every service your website depends on, with its renewal date and what it actually cost in Canadian dollars last time. Then decide which to keep in US dollars and which to move to Canadian billing.

A renewal that costs more than last year

The hosting renewal arrives at the same price as last year. The credit card statement shows a different number, because the price is in US dollars and the exchange rate has moved since.

A foreign transaction fee may sit on the line beneath it, since many Canadian cards add one to any purchase in another currency.

The same happens with the premium plugin licence, the email marketing service and the online form tool, each renewing in a different month. None is large on its own.

Together they make the website's real running cost hard to know in advance, and it moves whenever the dollar does.

Where US-dollar charges hide

Owners most often overlook the second. Premium plugins and themes sell a year of updates at a time, and when the licence lapses the updates stop, security fixes included, often without anyone noticing.

Why the price moves

A price set in US dollars is converted on the day of each charge, at the rate your card issuer uses that day, plus any foreign transaction fee.

With the Canadian dollar lower than it was a few years ago, services first bought when it was stronger now cost noticeably more in Canadian terms. And because most renew yearly, the whole change lands in a single charge.

Paying several years ahead fixes the US price but not the conversion, which happens on the day you pay.

The fees add up quietly as well. A small charge on each of a dozen monthly payments is easy to miss on a statement and real over a year.

List every service the site depends on

Start with one list. For each service: what it does, who holds the account, which card pays, the renewal date, the billing currency and the last amount charged in Canadian dollars.

Card statements are the best source, since they show what was actually paid, fees included. Go back twelve months to catch the yearly renewals.

Most businesses find something they had forgotten: a plugin nobody uses, a second email service, a subscription from a campaign that ended long ago.

The real yearly cost

Add up the Canadian amounts: monthly charges times twelve, plus the yearly ones. That is the figure to plan around, rather than the hosting plan's advertised price.

Then allow for movement. A currency that has shifted noticeably in recent years can shift again in either direction, and a little room in the figure prevents a surprise.

Write the total down with the date, and compare it next August. A figure checked once a year is enough to catch costs creeping up before they become normal.

What Canadian billing changes

A provider that bills in Canadian dollars charges the same amount every time. No conversion, no foreign transaction fee, and an invoice your bookkeeper can match to the statement without arithmetic.

Renewals arrive in the same currency as everything else in the books, so the yearly review becomes a matter of reading rather than converting.

Support usually keeps Canadian business hours in your time zone, which matters when something breaks at two in the afternoon.

Some businesses also prefer their site and its data on servers in Canada, for their own reasons or because customers ask.

A worked example

A scaffolding company with two yards rents and sells scaffolding to contractors and erects it for larger jobs. Its website takes quote requests and shows past projects.

Over five years the site had collected a hosting plan, a premium theme, a page builder licence, a forms plugin, a gallery plugin, an email marketing service and a stock photo subscription, all in US dollars, on three different cards.

The bookkeeper noticed that website costs had risen every year although nothing had been added. Nobody could say what the total was, and each charge had been small enough to approve without a second look.

The list turned up two subscriptions nobody used, and a forms plugin licence that had lapsed a year earlier. The plugin handling every quote request had missed a year of updates.

The company cancelled the unused services and moved hosting, licences and updates into one maintenance plan billed monthly in Canadian dollars. The email service stayed in US dollars, with its renewal date in the calendar.

One invoice instead of eight

Many of the small charges can be gathered into one. A web company that hosts and maintains the site can hold the hosting, the premium licences and the monitoring itself, and bill them together in Canadian dollars.

That makes the cost predictable, and it puts the licences with the people who apply the updates rather than on a card in a drawer.

Ask what is included, though, and get the list in writing. A combined price is only useful if you know what it covers.

When a charge fails

US-dollar services are usually tied to a card, and cards expire or get replaced. When a renewal fails, the service is suspended, sometimes after a single email to an address nobody checks.

A suspended hosting account takes the site down, and a lapsed domain can take email with it. Keep the card details current on every account, and the renewal dates where someone will see them.

Better still, pay every website service from one business card, held by the business rather than an employee, so a single expiry date covers them all.

The counter-case

Some services only exist in US dollars, and the best tool for a job is worth keeping whatever currency it bills in.

Moving hosting purely to save a few dollars a month carries its own costs and risks too, and should be planned rather than rushed.

The point is not to avoid American suppliers. It is to know the total in Canadian dollars, plan for it, and move what is easy to move.

This month

  1. Pull twelve months of card statements.
  2. List every service the website uses.
  3. Note each renewal date and billing currency.
  4. Convert each charge using what was actually paid.
  5. Cancel anything nobody uses.
  6. Check premium licences are still current.
  7. Ask for one Canadian-dollar invoice where possible.

Step six matters more than the money. A lapsed licence costs nothing on the statement, and that is the problem: the plugin keeps running without updates until something goes wrong.

Knowing who to call when one of these services does fail is covered in who answers when the website breaks on a Saturday.

Frequently asked questions

Why did my hosting renewal cost more?

If it is priced in US dollars, the amount in Canadian dollars depends on the exchange rate on the day of the charge, plus any foreign transaction fee.

Which website services are often billed in US dollars?

Hosting from foreign companies, premium themes and plugins, email marketing services, form and booking tools, stock photo subscriptions and domains held with foreign registrars.

How do I find the real cost?

Use twelve months of card statements, which show what was actually paid including fees. Add the monthly charges times twelve and the yearly renewals.

Does paying several years ahead help?

It fixes the price in US dollars, but the conversion still happens on the day you pay, at that day's rate.

What changes with Canadian-dollar billing?

The same amount every time, no conversion or foreign transaction fee, invoices that match the statement, and usually support during Canadian business hours.

Why do lapsed plugin licences matter?

Because updates, including security fixes, usually stop when the licence lapses, while the plugin keeps running. Nothing appears on the statement to warn you.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Website charges on three different cards?

Send us the list. We will work out the yearly cost in Canadian dollars and what could move.

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