Looking for a way to avoid PayPal’s conversion fees!

PayPal is pretty smart and they do not leave fee money on the table.

One possible solution might be to open a U.S. based bank account to hold US dollar transfers outside of PayPal. Assuming that PayPal will even open a US account for you, you could transfer money by ACH for free to a U.S. bank account, then transfer those funds to Wise.

Unless you are already a customer of a U.S. bank overseas, or with a non-US bank with an extensive presence here, you will likely find it extremely difficult to set up a U.S. bank account. Banks here have to comply with very strict “know your customer” laws and most banks will charge large fees to transfer funds via SWIFT.

So I’m afraid that it will be quite difficult to do what you are proposing via bank transfers.

I do not know whether if you are successful setting up a U.S. PayPal account if you could get a PayPal US dollar based credit or debit card to which you can transfer funds. Even so, I suspect there will be fees for transfers out to Wise.

Trying to beat a bank out of fees is like trying to beat the house edge at a casino.

Good luck,
gatorcpa

Maybe you can just gradually spend it down. Or buy something for a friend, and have them reimburse you by Wise.

Have you asked Wise? Seems like if there was a way around it they'd know. They have that debit card, but it's still tied to your account. No ideas here but definitely curious to learn if this is possible.