When a storefront pays in USD only: receiving and holding USD without conversion losses

The largest PC game storefronts can pay developers in exactly one currency: US Dollars. On some of them there is no option to be paid in euros or sterling. For a studio based in the eurozone or the UK, that single design choice quietly taxes every payout you ever receive from such a storefront.

This guide explains why USD-only payouts create a conversion problem, what it costs over time, and how holding a USD balance lets you receive those wires like a local and convert on your own terms.

How a USD-only storefront actually pays you

Some leading PC game storefronts settle in US Dollars and send payment by USD SWIFT wire to studios outside the United States (or by ACH for US-based developers). The payout is commonly timed to around the end of the month following the sales month, above a payout minimum of around 100 USD.

Because the wire is denominated in US Dollars, the currency you ultimately spend depends entirely on the account that receives it. If that account only holds your home currency, a conversion happens whether you want it to or not.

The forced-conversion problem

When a USD wire lands in a euro or sterling current account, your bank converts it on arrival, at its rate, on its timing. You do not choose the moment, you do not see the margin clearly, and you have no opportunity to wait for a better rate or to spend the dollars directly.

This happens on every payout. Across a year of monthly settlements, the cumulative spread on forced conversions can become a meaningful line item, especially for a title earning steadily in USD while your costs sit in another currency.

Why holding USD changes the maths

If you can receive and hold US Dollars as a balance, the dynamic flips. The wire arrives as dollars and stays as dollars until you decide to do something with it. You convert only the amount you need, only when the timing or rate suits you, or you spend in USD directly against dollar-denominated costs such as cloud hosting or US contractors.

That turns an automatic, every-payout cost into a deliberate decision you control. It also makes reconciliation cleaner, because the amount that arrives matches the amount the storefront reported, with no conversion in between to unpick.

Receiving USD storefront wires like a local

The practical goal is to give the storefront US Dollar receiving details and have the wire settle into a USD balance you own, rather than routing through a home-currency account. From there, the dollars are yours to hold, convert in tranches, or deploy against USD spend.

This is especially valuable if a large share of your revenue comes through a USD-only storefront, because it removes the single most repetitive FX cost a PC studio faces and puts the conversion decision back in your hands.

How Altery fits

Altery provides multi-currency business accounts that can hold a USD balance alongside EUR and GBP, so a storefront's SWIFT wire can land in dollars and stay in dollars. You then convert on your own timeline rather than at the moment of receipt, and you can pay USD costs directly from that balance.

FX and conversion happen when you choose, real-time balances show exactly what cleared, and business cards with per-card limits let you spend dollars without an intermediate conversion. Altery is not a bank, and this is general information, not advice; confirm the current payout terms in each storefront's own developer settings.

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