---
title: 'I Tested Every Shopify Payment Gateway (Stop Getting Robbed)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=w58G1a6_3mU'
video_id: 'w58G1a6_3mU'
date: 2026-07-31
duration_sec: 948
---

# I Tested Every Shopify Payment Gateway (Stop Getting Robbed)

> Source: [I Tested Every Shopify Payment Gateway (Stop Getting Robbed)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=w58G1a6_3mU)

## Summary

This video explains how international e-commerce sellers lose money to hidden currency conversion fees when customers pay in foreign currencies. The host introduces Airwallex as a multi-currency wallet solution that avoids forced conversions, reduces FX costs, and offers local payment options to boost conversion. A live demo walks through setup and Shopify integration, with guidance on which payment gateway to choose based on your Shopify plan.

### Key Points

- **International sellers face a hidden FX tax** [00:01] — DTC e-commerce brands selling outside the USA via Facebook or TikTok ads are hit with extra currency conversion fees, often without realizing it.
- **Airport currency exchange analogy** [00:29] — Like swapping USD to EUR at an airport kiosk and back again, payment gateways charge FX fees twice: when the customer pays in a foreign currency and when you need to pay suppliers/bills in another currency.
- **Double conversion on typical payment gateways** [01:49] — A customer pays in euros, the gateway forces conversion to USD, and if you have bills in other currencies, you pay another conversion fee. This is a total waste of money.
- **2-4% leak on revenue** [02:48] — FX fees take 2-4% of your bottom line. On a conservative $10,000 in international sales, that means $400 gone—enough to lease a car, test a product, or fund ad spend.
- **Airwallex multi-currency wallet as solution** [03:30] — Airwallex eliminates forced conversions by settling payments into your wallet in the customer's native currency, regardless of whether they pay in USD, GBP, EUR, SGD, or HKD.
- **Currency volatility example: USD dropped 14%** [05:19] — The US dollar dropped over 14% in 14 months. If you hold funds through a forced conversion, you lose value; with a multi-currency wallet, you choose when to convert based on market strength.
- **Fund ad accounts in USD to save money** [06:55] — Facebook and TikTok treat USD, GBP, and EUR like-for-like for reach. Spending 10,000 EUR/month on ads equals $11,000 USD—so funding in EUR costs about $1,860 extra per month.
- **Local payment methods increase conversion** [09:30] — Customers trust and prefer paying with local methods, like iDEAL in the Netherlands. Airwallex supports 160+ payment options (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Klarna, etc.), which reduces cart abandonment and boosts conversion.
- **Setup: KYC takes 20 minutes, approval in 24-72 hours** [11:18] — You need a registered company (LTD/LLC). After submitting KYC, your Airwallex account is typically approved within 24-72 hours.
- **Gateway comparison and plan recommendations** [13:37] — Shopify Payments is best for single-country sellers; Stripe has powerful features but messy FX fees. Airwallex is the winner for international. For Shopify Plus/Advanced, route international payments through Airwallex; for Basic, combine Shopify Payments with Airwallex local methods like Klarna.

### Conclusion

Airwallex solves the double conversion trap with multi-currency wallets, better FX control, and broader payment options. For any e-commerce brand selling internationally, switching to Airwallex—or combining it with Shopify Payments—can save thousands and improve conversion.

## Transcript

e-commerce brand in the DTC [music] space and you're spending money on Facebook ads or TikTok ads and you're targeting internationally outside of the USA, whether it be Europe, whether it be the Middle East, outside of the USA in
general, then you need to be aware of this. And I know that 90% of you guys sell internationally. Even I do it because that's where the money is. So, if you're selling internationally, you must be aware of this extra tax I'm
about to show you. First thing that I want to do is explain how this conversion trap works and how it makes you lose money. To make [music] things simple and fun to explain, let me give you an analogy. Now, I want you to
imagine that you go on a nice vacation to Europe. Now, the next thing is you land at the airport and the first thing you're going to want to do is swap your US dollars for euros, which is the new native currency
to buy lunch, dinner with the currency that they allow. Because if you go into dollars. Now, that airport kiosk that allows you to do a currency conversion will take a fee. That's conversion number one done. So, you've paid one FX
fee just to change USD to euro when you land at the airport. Now, I want you to imagine that your vacation in Europe has come to an end after 5 days and you're now at the airport in Europe and you're going to want to switch those spare
euros that you've had left over, let's say 500 euros, back to US dollars, cuz >> [music] >> the USA. It's your native home. There's euros. So, you're going to go back to that kiosk again and swap those euros
that you've got left over back to US dollars and guess what? There's conversion number two. So, you've paid two lots of FX fees. [music] But, this is exactly what happens with standard payment gateways on your Shopify store
or your e-commerce platform. Let's say on your Shopify store, you're selling in Europe, let's say Germany, that customer then pays in euros, but then your payment gateway when they pay for it in euros, then forces it into US dollars.
So, that's the first fee that you pay as an e-commerce seller on Shopify. Then, let's say that your supplier accepts their payment in euro or not US dollar. Remember, you got given US dollar from the forced conversion. Or, let's say you
got to pay other bills that aren't in US dollar. So, what I'm trying to explain guys is you've been forced to take US dollar back. And now, if you've got bills in other currencies, you've then got to pay again to change that US
to pay with. [music] So, that's what we call fee number two. It's a total waste of money. Now, you might be thinking, "Who cares? It's a small percent. Does it really matter?" You should because a 2 to 4% leak on the bottom line of your
revenue is massive. Let's say hypothetically, you're doing $10,000 internationally. I'm not talking about $100,000. I'm giving you a conservative figure of just $10,000 internationally. So, let's say you're selling in euro,
which a lot of you guys already are. That's $400 already gone. Now, if you look what you could do with that $400, that's a car lease. That's for you to test another product or spend towards ad spend on
Facebook. That $400, you could do a lot with, but you're there paying it in FX happening. Now, you might be wondering, "Well, what is the solution, smart ass, what I'm about to show you guys. So, you can see I'm on Airwallex's website, and
they've given you a really good example of how this works. So, you can see here, this is a customer. They're on your e-commerce platform, and let's say they pay with [music] US dollar or Australian dollar or Great British pound or SGD,
which is Singapore dollar or Hong Kong dollar. You can see the accepted payments. You can do cards, wallets, BNPL, cash, or bank transfer. Now, a lot these. Now, essentially, what's going to happen is regardless of what currency
they pay in, it gets settled into your account in the native wallet and currency. So, instead of let's say somebody paying in Singapore dollar on your website, let's say you're selling to Singapore, which by the way is a
massive market, especially when you scale a brand, instead of the payment gateway forcing it back into US dollar, they just pay it out into your wallet in the native currency. So, there's no forced conversion because Airwallex
allows a multi-currency wallet, which means regardless if they pay in Hong Kong dollar, GBP, Australian dollar, or euro, it will get settled in that same currency. [music]
Shopify. The customer still pays in their native currency, but you also receive it in that native [music] currency, and you decide on when you want to change that currency, let's say from euro back to US dollar. Now, if
you're doing some seriously big numbers with e-com, you would rather make the decision when to change the currency because the pound versus the dollar or the dollar versus the euro, the FX market is a massive industry, and these
market is a massive industry, and these currencies can fluctuate 1 to 5% every single year. And if you're doing over $100,000 a year, do the percentage, guys. If you can choose when to change the FX based on the rates, then you're
going to save a lot of money just by doing that. Now, here's a crazy example. doing that. Now, here's a crazy example. The US dollar has dropped over 14% in The US dollar has dropped over 14% in the last 14 months. Guys, 14%
that is crazy. If you had a hundred thousand dollars in a bank account, you have now lost $14,000. Now, if that was a forced conversion, if you had the choice to decide when you want to change the currencies over, you
could have said, "You know what? Instead of me being in a weak US dollar, I'd rather be in euro." So, it gives you full control when you want to change the FX based on the strength of the market. So, when we go to manage funds, you can
see here that your multi-currency wallet, you can have all of these at >> [music] >> at any time. And talking about paying suppliers, usually a lot of you guys will pay suppliers in China, they
usually prefer their Hong Kong dollar or the US dollar. So, you'll have a multi-currency wallet. You can use your virtual card, you can use ACH, you can use NPP. So, you can use all the payment methods that a lot
of companies will prefer. So, these are the most popular payment methods in the And Airwallex allows you to use every single one of them. You're not forced to use one, which means you're then forced to convert it to that one native way.
You have all options in your account. Remember, but Airwallex allows you to settle like-for-like currencies over 20 plus. So, they have over 20 plus [music] currencies that you can settle in. And these are the major currencies that are
used every single day. If you're spending money on ads, Facebook ads, TikTok ads, [music] you can top up the account in US dollar. You don't need to use your strong pound because remember, a lot of people spend their pounds to
spend on their ad accounts. And the thing [music] is, a pound and a dollar accounts. So, Facebook treats a dollar and a pound the same [music] way. They treat a euro the same way. But, the crazy thing is the euro and the pound is
essentially, you're getting less for your money by spending it in pounds. That's why I spend on my ad accounts US dollars because the dollar is looked at the same way as pounds and euros. So, for me, I'd rather top up my ad accounts
in [music] US dollar because it's cheaper than using my pounds. And by using Airwallex, you have that privilege. Now, just to show you how crazy this literally is, let's say you're spending 10,000 euros a month on
ad spend, Facebook, TikTok. Now, remember these ad platforms look at them like-for-like, so they treat a dollar and a euro the same way in terms of reach. Now, if we do 10,000 euros, look what it comes out to in US dollars. So,
that's worth 11,000 US dollars. [music] So, essentially you're losing an extra 1,860 dollars in ad spend. Because remember, they look the dollar. So, if you're topping your ad accounts up in euros, when you could
be doing it in dollars, you're missing out again on that fee. And a lot of people don't know about this, and this is where they're losing money. And they can't do this cuz they simply don't have the infrastructure. Now, you guys might
want the lazy version. I don't want to think about managing my own FX rates and that I'm not into, which I totally understand. So, I'm calling this the lazy option. Airwallex has the option to for auto conversion. So, like the
traditional style of payment gateways, they will settle it on auto conversion for you. So, if somebody pays in euro, they'll convert it into US dollars for you based on what your native currency is [music] that you want it to be. But,
the bonus of using Airwallex for auto conversion over the other alternatives [music] rate than the bank. So, instead of you paying a higher premium, Airwallex [music] offers the most competitive rate
on auto conversions. So, you're still going to save money if you were to use Airwallex for auto conversion over the other payment gateways for international didn't mention is the trust factor. Customers like to pay in their own
native currencies, but more importantly, their own native ways of [music] paying. So, we call these local payment methods. So let's say for example you're selling Netherlands is such a hot market for the
likely going to want to use their native payment method and that's called iDEAL. At the end of the day consumers like to use what they're already used to using. something online, it's going to lose trust and it's going to put them off.
Airwallex has all the major payment methods, Visa, MasterCard, and Amex and over 160 other payment options. Remember it's simple math guys, the more payment
solutions or options that you have, the higher the conversion rate. Because abandon the cart. Now this is where things actually get crazy. Don't look at Airwallex as just a payment gateway. It's actually an all-in-one financial
stack. Now check this out guys, I'm going to show you a live demo of how Airwallex's full financial stack works. So you can see here you set up your organization. Now to use Airwallex guys, you do need to have a company, whether
it be an LTD, an LLC, you do need a company corporation for being allowed to Now as long as you do have a company set up guys, you can use my link in the pin comment and in the description to sign up to Airwallex and get the best
experience. Now if you haven't already got a company set up, then I'm going to what to tell you in 2026 [music] if you're trying to run an e-com or a drop because you're going to get access to all the best payment options, all the
best banking solutions, you need to have a company. Ad platforms really prioritize companies these days over sole practitioners or sole traders. So if you haven't already, go and get yourself a company because it is a must
I'll also leave a link in the pin comment and in the description below. Airwallex account, you've done that KYC, you've submitted the information, honestly, it literally took me me about 20 minutes to do it. Within 24 to 72
hours, you'll get your account back and it will look like this. And check this out, guys. In my dashboard, I've got top currency. So, I've got all these currencies that I'm allowed to use. So, you can see I've got my GBP, my
Australian dollars, my euros, my USD. I can click edit currency display. I can Look at all of these different currencies that I can add into my account. Then you've got the spend option, so you can create virtual cards.
as you want. That way you protect yourself from online fraud. They have easy way to do expenses. So, if you want to use these guys for your full solution when it comes to banking, now Airwallex isn't a bank, but they can help [music]
you with full banking services. For example, you can pay expenses, you can upload your bills and pay them, you can request payments, you can do purchase [music] e-commerce business can be managed in Airwallex. You've got your
your billing, your monthly recurring revenue, your active customers. You can view everything within this window. You've got all your reports, so you've account statements, your balance snapshot report, transaction. You've got
really important, so it shows you how much you're paying in fees. And then at you're going to want to pay attention to. You can see payments in the bottom left. This is where you can start accepting payments globally from your
customers. So, all you got to do to do this, guys, is head over to get started. Go to your Shopify store, go to the app section, and you can see I've downloaded Airwallex. Now, as soon as you've done that, you can go back to your payments
option, click get started, and you can connect your Shopify store to Airwallex. settings, you're going to see under checkout or in your payments column that
Airwallex for your international customers. So, for all orders outside of the USA, you can settle them all with Airwallex as checkout. So, the next thing that I want to talk about is the comparison. Shopify Payments
>> is the easiest solution and setup, and it is the default option. It's great if you only sell in one country like the USA. Then you got things like Stripe, very powerful, but the FX [music] fees get messy and expensive. Then you've got
Airwallex guys, the winner for me globally. So, anything outside of the USA, it is the winner by far, and there's really no arguments. You can go online, look at the comparisons, [music] do your own math and calculation. It's
they have like-for-like settlement. You pay in euro, you get euro. You pay in dollars. You pay in Canadian dollars, you get Canadian dollars. You're not that are watching this that are doing some good numbers with their e-commerce
saying, "Well, it really depends on the Shopify plan you're on because they So, if you're watching this and you're a big DTC brand or a big dropshipper and you're on Shopify Plus, which is their biggest tier, Airwallex is a no-brainer.
Your third-party fees are low on Airwallex. So, you should route everything internationally through Airwallex instead of Shopify Payments. math and calculate how much you would save. If you're on Shopify's advanced
plan, do the math again. Usually it's the best to use Airwallex for local payments. And you get access to international cards. Now, if you're on Shopify Basic, stick with Shopify Payments for credit cards to avoid extra
transaction costs, but add Airwallex for local payment options. For example, Klarna to boost your conversion rates. So, you're basically using a combined of Airwallex and Shopify Payments. Remember to check out the link in the description
can sign up [music] to Airwallex with your business and start by using them straight away. And I'll be leaving a link to the sheet going over when and how to use them for your e-commerce brand. Because it doesn't matter where
using them. So with that being said guys, I hope this has helped you and I hope it saves you on those double conversions and you make more money. you on the next video and I'll be interested to see what your comments
interested to see what your comments are.