Ot sort of paypal exchange rates

[Hilltopperny]

I recently purchased a frame that was gpd. I checked my paypal account to the exchange rate and realized that paypal charged me over $100 usd what the exchange rate was. Does paypal charge extra for converting currency from the buyer?

[velotrack]

same thing happened to me when i ordered from starbike.com. paid about $20 more than the conversion rate. curious as well.

[nmrt]

yep. although it has never happened to me, I always see that when I attempt to check out using paypal in one of those euro online bike shops, paypal charges 5-15% more than the current exchange rate between USD and GBP or USD and EUR. It sucks!

[Hilltopperny]

Yup I ordered t he frame on the 16th without really thinking about it. I was just looking through my paypal summary and realized that I was charged around $120 more than what ebay had listed as the price and I cross referenced it with exchange rate sites.

Pretty dissapointed that I purchased it off of the United States ebay site and they charged me extra for it. Going to call them tomorrow and try to get them to refund the $120. Figure it's worth a try.

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[monkeybanana86]

Hmm. I'm not getting dinged for Merlin or Chain Reaction.

[BdaGhisallo]

I am pretty sure that you always have the option to do the FX conversion with your card issuer when using PP. Of the top of my head, there's some kind of "conversion options" when it shows you the amount converted. Click on that and choose to convert with your card issuer.

[Hilltopperny]

I am pretty sure that you always have the option to do the FX conversion with your card issuer when using PP. Of the top of my head, there's some kind of "conversion options" when it shows you the amount converted. Click on that and choose to convert with your card issuer.I bought the frame on ebay. Ebay showed me what the cost was in usd. I paid immediately and didn't think anything of it until I was going through my paypal summary and noticed that they charged me more.

There was no reference or email from paypal that they'd be charging me more than what the ebay converted price would be. I find it pretty distasteful for them to charge undisclosed fees. Considering the amount of money I put through their system it has me wanting to just empty and close my account if they won't rectify the situation.

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[yinzerniner]

Ebay is notorious for underestimating conversion rates. That being said, as a previous poster mentioned it's almost always better to have the conversion done by your card issuer rather than pay the amount through a paypal balance or have paypal provide the foreign exchange service. Reason being - paypal automatically adds on a fee for the foreign exchange service if you select them as handling the currency exhange, but if you're also paying by credit card you might get the card exchange service fee tacked on as well, and depending on the recipient their bank or account can require a fee for receiving any foreign transaction, whether the denomination is in their currency or not.

Add the 3% and 4% up a few times on a purchase of hundreds or thousands and it begins to get onerous. While paypal is good for convenience their policies are less than user friendly.

[Hilltopperny]

I have paypal hooked up to an account. I checked the exchange rates before I purchased to make sure they were accurate on more than one site. Not the end of the world by any means, but dissapointed nonetheless.

Live and learn I guess.

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[tuscanyswe]

The exchange rates are so bad that i try to keep a little stock in USD and GBP from sales around to buy with. If i withdraw it, sooner or later its going to be a loss as i undoubtedly will buy from uk or us again and then need to convert with the poor rates from the swedish SEK.

[htwoopup]

Paypal has always been a ridiculous rip off on exchange rates. Don't use them to do the conversion. As someone who lives in two countries, I am forever using Transferwise and/or XE. That said, often hard to do with stores that you don't deal with regularly.

The best bet is to use an American credit card because the bank, by law, has to give you the current exchange rate without marking it up. Be careful though as some credit cards then tack on a "Foreign Exchange Fee" because it is their way to get around to some degree the regulation. However, I have never seen it amount to even close to the amount that PayPal screws the customer by. It is always good to have one credit card that doesn't charge FEF's for this reason if you buy stuff or travel. Some banks will give you a no FEF card if you have a "better" relationship with them...direct deposit/a loan in addition to a checking account etc.

[CNY rider]

Paypal has always been a ridiculous rip off on exchange rates. Don't use them to do the conversion. As someone who lives in two countries, I am forever using Transferwise and/or XE. That said, often hard to do with stores that you don't deal with regularly.

The best bet is to use an American credit card because the bank, by law, has to give you the current exchange rate without marking it up. Be careful though as some credit cards then tack on a "Foreign Exchange Fee" because it is their way to get around to some degree the regulation. However, I have never seen it amount to even close to the amount that PayPal screws the customer by. It is always good to have one credit card that doesn't charge FEF's for this reason if you buy stuff or travel. Some banks will give you a no FEF card if you have a "better" relationship with them...direct deposit/a loan in addition to a checking account etc.

We always keep a credit card from Capital One.
We make frequent trips to Canada and I got fed up with paying ripoff fees on Canadian dollar purchases on other banks Visa cards.
Capital One does not charge for those purchases.

[Hilltopperny]

Thanks for the info guys. Very informative.

[fa63]

Same thing happened to me recently. Live and learn indeed.

[spinarelli]

In Canada capital one charges us 2.5% on US transactions.

We always keep a credit card from Capital One.
We make frequent trips to Canada and I got fed up with paying ripoff fees on Canadian dollar purchases on other banks Visa cards.
Capital One does not charge for those purchases.

[slowpoke]

The best bet is to use an American credit card because the bank, by law, has to give you the current exchange rate without marking it up.

Just wanted to emphasize this part.

When paying using CC via PayPal (e.g. winning a foreign eBay auction), PayPal and eBay will offer to do the conversion for you. Do not choose that. Let your travel CC (the that doesn't haven't a foreign tx fee) do the conversion.

[CNY rider]

In Canada capital one charges us 2.5% on US transactions.


Total randomness it seems.
I guess you have to check with each card company.