Windows Phone 7 Marketplace Transaction Fees Doubling App Prices For Some Users

Bad news if you're in Australia, have jumped on board with Windows Phone 7 and have a taste for paid apps. According to istartedsomething, Microsoft's decision to process Windows Marketplace purchases through their Singaporean bank means that Australian users – and, we're guessing anyone else outside of Singapore, since Microsoft has apparently opted to simply use the bank where their head office is located – are getting charged international transaction fees that can more than double the cost of some apps.

The fees themselves are usually around 3-percent, but since banks round the fees up to the nearest dollar it can mean a $0.99 app actually ends up costing $1.99. That's a 101-percent surcharge. Adding to the confusion is the fact that titles are listed in local currency; it's the fact that the processing bank is abroad that has promised Australian banks to charge the international transaction fee.

It's not clear whether this information was buried in among the terms & conditions for the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, and has simply been ignored, or if Microsoft merely failed to realise this would be the case. The company is yet to comment on the situation.