Paying Off Your Game Purchases

[Sir Gnomag]

I think it would be a good idea to add ZipPay and AfterPay to payment options for the countries that have it (Australia). What do others think?

[Supafly]

Valve isn't a credit company. If you want to pay in instalments get a credit card or other payment method. Plenty out there to choose from. Or do the smart thingg save a buy using money you have instead of letting another company created money out of thin air in the process of charging interest.

[Sir Gnomag]

You obviously have no idea what I am speaking about. If you are in Australia you probably would know how ZipPay works and it has nothing to do with Valve giving credit.

[Supafly]

Ok I got my assumption wrong. my bad. Assumed it was the purchaser that paid extra to cover the cost and risks. Technically, someone is still creating money out of thin air. In this case instead of interest you and other purchasers would ZipPay. Valve would have to pay it.

Still money out of thin air. How else do you expect a company to provide a 100% risk for credit without any sort of profit. They need money to support the company but they also need it to cover costs when someone doesn't uphold their contract to pay what they owe.

https://zip.co/uk/finance/help/

What does it cost to run Zip on my website and/or instore?

We charge a Business Fee, which is a small percentage of each successful transaction, very similar to your card processing fees. Our Business Manager can discuss specific fee structures with each individual Business. Zip scales with you, the more transaction volume you process the better the deal.

Only way I see Valve even considering this would be by adding a fee to cover their lose for each transaction. Pretty sure most wouldn't be happy with having to pay an extra x if they choose that method.

[Sir Gnomag]

Valve would sell a hell of a lot more games (this is one way they would make the fee back). I don't know how many times I have missed out on a good deal because I just didn't have the money on that day. They would sell more games that have a higher dollar value as well. Yes they would have to pay some type of fee to ZipPay for using it but, I am sure it is not that much as most of Australian sites have it now. It is big over here and so is Afterpay. Without knowing the fee it would be just speculation but, if the fee was 4% transaction, on a $50 game that would only push the price up by $2 and of course, not everyone would use ZipPay so spread right across their sales it may only equate to 20 cents a transaction. Their transaction volume would probably be a million transactions a week.

[B l u e b e r r y P o p t a r t]

I'm kinda meh about it. It would just be easier to add money "when you have it" to your Steam wallet and not spend it until something you want is on sale.

[Crazy Tiger]

I don't think it matters what us users think. It matters what Valve thinks and they won't respond here. They'll add it if they think it's worthwhile.

Personally I'm not a fan of payment methods which pay after the fact, but it's not my business.

Originally posted by Gnomag:

Valve would sell a hell of a lot more games (this is one way they would make the fee back).

Do you have actual figures to back this up? Or is it the general "I think, it's probably" to attempt to make the proposal more interesting?

[Sir Gnomag]

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

I don't think it matters what us users think. It matters what Valve thinks and they won't respond here. They'll add it if they think it's worthwhile.

Personally I'm not a fan of payment methods which pay after the fact, but it's not my business.

Originally posted by Gnomag:

Valve would sell a hell of a lot more games (this is one way they would make the fee back).

Do you have actual figures to back this up? Or is it the general "I think, it's probably" to attempt to make the proposal more interesting?

I have actual figures but cannot share them, sorry. Several companies I know have increased sales for 2 reasons. Making it easier for the consumer to buy and also attracting people from competitive sites who don't have ZipPay options. Like you said, they may not respond but, now they have the idea and will see if it is a valid option and then add it. Their marketing people wouldn't be very good if they didn't listen to there customers. I just spent $230 on Supercheap for a 4wd battery that I can now pay off over 4 months. I will have the money in a couple of days so I will just pay them outright with no cost to me. It got me out of trouble. There are plenty of $80 and over games that I may buy if ZipPay was the option as I budget myself to $25 a month for games.

[Sir Gnomag]

Originally posted by B l u e b e r r y P o p t a r t:

I'm kinda meh about it. It would just be easier to add money "when you have it" to your Steam wallet and not spend it until something you want is on sale.

It won't be for everyone but it does give people choice and opens up a potential increase of sales scenario for Valve.

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by Gnomag:

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

I don't think it matters what us users think. It matters what Valve thinks and they won't respond here. They'll add it if they think it's worthwhile.

Personally I'm not a fan of payment methods which pay after the fact, but it's not my business.


Do you have actual figures to back this up? Or is it the general "I think, it's probably" to attempt to make the proposal more interesting?

I have actual figures but cannot share them, sorry. Several companies I know have increased sales for 2 reasons. Making it easier for the consumer to buy and also attracting people from competitive sites who don't have ZipPay options. Like you said, they may not respond but, now they have the idea and will see if it is a valid option and then add it. Their marketing people wouldn't be very good if they didn't listen to there customers. I just spent $230 on Supercheap for a 4wd battery that I can now pay off over 4 months. I will have the money in a couple of days so I will just pay them outright with no cost to me. It got me out of trouble. There are plenty of $80 and over games that I may buy if ZipPay was the option as I budget myself to $25 a month for games.

Well those figuires would be useless as they are in totally different markets....

If you can budget $25 a month you can easily put that money aside and buy the game every 3 months if needed without such a service.

[Gwarsbane]

Games are not a necessity, you don't have to have them right away. Save money, put a bit of money away each month. Go and buy Steam cards and hold onto them for a couple of months or just put they money in your steam account each month and sit on it.

We know generally when each big sale is. Till then you save up enough money you buy the games you want, you can play all the other games you have.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/1631916406856652332/

[Sir Gnomag]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/1631916406856652332/

:qr:

Thank you. I see it has already been discussed with some good arguments put forward by yourself.

[Sir Gnomag]

Originally posted by brian9824:

Originally posted by Gnomag:

I have actual figures but cannot share them, sorry. Several companies I know have increased sales for 2 reasons. Making it easier for the consumer to buy and also attracting people from competitive sites who don't have ZipPay options. Like you said, they may not respond but, now they have the idea and will see if it is a valid option and then add it. Their marketing people wouldn't be very good if they didn't listen to there customers. I just spent $230 on Supercheap for a 4wd battery that I can now pay off over 4 months. I will have the money in a couple of days so I will just pay them outright with no cost to me. It got me out of trouble. There are plenty of $80 and over games that I may buy if ZipPay was the option as I budget myself to $25 a month for games.

Well those figuires would be useless as they are in totally different markets....

If you can budget $25 a month you can easily put that money aside and buy the game every 3 months if needed without such a service.

You are quite right, every business is unique and so are people. Because you seem to be against it for your own reasons it does not mean others are. As an example, sometimes all your friends are getting a game to play against each other and you can't afford it for a while, this allows you to still get the game so you can still be part of your friend group. Like I said, we will all have different reasons for and against but, this post is more about those people that can see a benefit in it rather than against it.

[Sir Gnomag]

Originally posted by Gwarsbane:

Games are not a necessity, you don't have to have them right away. Save money, put a bit of money away each month. Go and buy Steam cards and hold onto them for a couple of months or just put they money in your steam account each month and sit on it.

We know generally when each big sale is. Till then you save up enough money you buy the games you want, you can play all the other games you have.

Some people are just hopeless at saving so these types of things that don't cost you any interest is ideal for them.

[Supafly]

Originally posted by Gnomag:

Originally posted by Gwarsbane:

Games are not a necessity, you don't have to have them right away. Save money, put a bit of money away each month. Go and buy Steam cards and hold onto them for a couple of months or just put they money in your steam account each month and sit on it.

We know generally when each big sale is. Till then you save up enough money you buy the games you want, you can play all the other games you have.

Some people are just hopeless at saving so these types of things that don't cost you any interest is ideal for them.

Yes but as mentioned it would cost Valve and that means Valve could pass that along to the customer if they choose that payment method. That purchase would be costing those more and that means you'd be paying that interest.

EDIT: And those people that have terrible money management skills need to improve them not facilitate ways to charge interest because they lack basic money management. Better to learn with games than other more important things like Rent or food for example.