Hi,
Previously, based on Paypal's website, I had assumed they charged 4.4% for receiving money from overseas senders, plus a small fee (which was just under $1)

So, if I sent say USD1000 for a watch, the seller would receive roughly 4.4% less, which means he got USD956. (which seemed to be the case for prior watch sales to different countries in the past few years), which means they got about 95.6% of the amt sent.

However this month, the 4.4% seems to have increased. In 2 separate transactions this month, when I sent GBP and SEK (Swedish Kronor), the sellers received 94.56% of the actual amount sent, which seems a bit lower than before.

To provide more info, I'm in Singapore. The money was sent via Paypal, paid by credit card, and I opted to have the credit card company convert the GBP and SEK, rather than use Paypal's expensive rates.

So have I gotten the math wrong, and for every X dollars/pounds/kronor I've sent in the past, the recipient always got 94.56% of X? Or was it 95.6% in the past, but has now dropped to 94.56% ? Help, the math is too confusing for me! If anyone could shed light on this, it would help tremendously, thanks!

 

Is that the amount quoted when you pay or the amount actually received? Are currency fluctuations, while the transaction is processed, to blame?

I can't directly answer your question as I haven't received an overseas paypal payment for some months.

 

There was an "update to policy" email a few weeks / months back from PayPal. Who actually reads those? It was probably mentioned somewhere in that scroll of legaleze.

 

If it's not PayPal it's the bank. They are all screwing us.

Don't know how many times I think it would be easier to just stick $100 notes in a few pages and send a friggen book

 

Sorry if I wasn't clear - as an example, I sent USD100 from Singapore, knowing that with the 4.4% fee, the seller should get USD 95.60.

But the seller instead gets USD94.56 which is less than expected.

Hope this makes sense.

 

At this point I'm all - Transferwise for international transactions, it's wayyyy better. If only they supported domestic transactions as well!

 

For International fees, figure about 5%. For domestic (meaning U.S.) about 4% in my experience. Maybe not “spot on” but close for estimating purposes.

 

I believe there is an additional charge if a credit card is used. I had an issue where I calculated what I needed to pay for me to pick up the fees, but the seller ended up with less than expected.
I called Paypal and they explained there was an additional fee as I used a credit card.
I managed to get the fee wiped as it wasn’t really clear to me at the time there would be an additional charge.
I’m not certain this is the case in your situation however I would advise calling Paypal.

 

Use transfertwise , they charge a low fee to transfert and also they use the interbank exchange rate, or course bigger amount makes a huge difference with PayPal just on the exchange rate , also sending 20k was charge 100$.

Of course if you don’t know the seller or buyer etc.... this is not for you.

 

I use Transferwise for all international payments.You guys in the states can also try Revolut which is not available in Australia at the moment.The banks and Paypal have had the game to themselves for far to long.

 

I believe the fees charged by Paypal for commercial payments are governed by the recipients terms and conditions, so you would have to look at the terms for their country. When I look at Sweden [here], it says the transaction fee is 3.4% + 3.25 kr, but if you dig into the legal agreement here, you'll see that there's an additional 2% cross-border fee for receiving payments from most of the world (everyplace outside of Europe, the US, and Canada). So 5.4% + 3.25 kr, which aligns with your experience.

 

Same here, had a US friend gift me 100 bucks to my Korean PP account, he paid 5 for the fee. So we figured, wow, either the rate went up to around 5% or it's 4-point-something % + somethingelse = 5.
But then a few days ago I got around 2k transferred to my account via gift again (different guy), and for some reason he only also paid $5 and I wondered how was this possible. Turns out he used his bank account as funding source. So maybe it's the credit card fee rates that are changing.

 

If you read the terms, there are entirely different rate structures for "Commercial Transaction" vs "Personal Transaction" payments. For commercial payments, the recipient pays the fees (and their user agreement controls the rate); the rate is the same regardless of funding source. For personal transactions, the sender pays the fees, and the rate varies depending on the funding source. And then there can be additional fees for currency conversion with either method, etc.

 

I suspect you'll find very different fees depending on how you fund it into PayPal. I have PP linked to my US bank account and I either keep money in PP account (via transfer from bank account) or I select my account and have it withdrawn by PP. I recently sent EUR to a member in Germany via F&F and other than a non-favourable FX rate, the fee was very small (I don't remember exact amount but was around $5 US maybe).

 

Thanks everyone for your inputs. It looks like the fees vary depending on country, but also based on how you fund it.

Transferwise helps cut down fees, but there are always risks of direct wire. Looks like 4.4 - 5.5% fees is the price we pay for the relatively safer option of sending money to another paypal a/c (without using Friends/family) and using credit cards

But yeah, for a trusted seller, I'd go with wire or Transferwise.