I just bought an item from eBay and discovered later that the total price I paid was much higher than the product.
So, I logged into PayPal and noticed that the currency conversion rate was totally different than what for example Google or my bank showed for that day.

The EUR to GBP rate in PayPal was 0.823 but Google showed 1.16 for that day.
So, I lost a lot in 3000 GBP purchase!

How one can avoid this when buying from eBay?
Perhaps it's a newbie question but I've never noticed this before.
I feel robbed!

 

Erm... I think you’ve got confused... it happens to me on Monday’s too

One of those will be currency A-to-B, and the other will be currency B-to-A.

So inverse one of them, say 1/1.16, and you get around 0.86. This is what will compare against 0.83. So PayPal are screwing you over a bit on currency but only by about 3-4% against the spot price. Of course that 3-4% on a £3k purchase is going to be about £100.

 

You are right.
It wasn't so crazy then, but still I guess PP needs to make money anywhere.
I just think if I could transfer EUR to my PayPal first, converse to GBP, could I've then avoided this?

 

I sometimes sell stuff here on OF, and when I do I ask people to pay in their own currency when it’s either USD, GBP, or EUR. That way I have a spending fund in those three main currencies and it’s helps avoid these “hidden” transaction fees.

 

Maybe that helps.
https://www.maketecheasier.com/prevent-paypal-overcharge-for-currency-exchanges/

 

Yes, PayPal's exchange rates are a rip-off, and they have a captive market on eBay. It's especially obvious when buying on eBay, because eBay calculates the approximate price using a more reasonable exchange rate, but then you are generally required to pay using PP, which charges much more. It does feel like a bait-and-switch, even though eBay doesn't own PP anymore.

 

Perhaps when paying on eBay with a card instead of PP, it's cheaper then?

 

Probably true, but I haven't tried it.

 

Hence why I created this thread more than 2 years ago...

I try and avoid using banks and paypal at all costs.
Unfortunately, the majority of people are not savvy or too lazy to read, and couldn't be bothered to try something new.

Last time I used paypal was to do a $2k transfer to the US (the exchange rate on google was 1:1 to the CHF).
Using paypal they charged me 2135CHF (edit : the paypal fee was 75CHF, and the balance (135-75), currency conversion fee).
Same transfer, had the recipient given me their US bank details, via transferwise, would have cost 2008CHF.

That's quite exorbitant don't you think?

 

Absolutely. I just made a payment in Euros, and I paid an extra 4% because of PP's poor exchange rate. I do like Transferwise, but not everyone will take it.

 

The best bet is the have a card like Revolut linked to your PayPal. You have to go into PayPal and make sure Revolut is doing the currency conversion not PayPal. I saved £25 this morning by paying in this way

 

But you still cant skip the paypal fee this way (even though this is better...thanks for the tip!).

 

Paypal still nails you if you use a credit card anyway. Only real answer is F2F in local currency....

 

You have to make sure your card is set up to be charged in the currency you want to pay so they are doing the conversion not PayPal. It should look like this.

 

There is an option before you pay so you can ask your credit card bank issuer to do any currency conversion if needed

 

I don't think there is a way to avoid this.

If you pay with paypal in a different currency, they will nail you.

 

As said above, get a card that has low cost exchange fees. Then tie this to your PayPal account to always have the payment done in the invoice currency and have your card issuer do the conversion (not PayPal). Will save a bundle compared to PayPals fx rate

 

Don’t use PayPal at all if you can get around it. I’m in the US and only use a CCard on ebay and just turn around and pay that off immediately so there’s no finance fees. PayPal are theives.

 

Credit cards and PayPal are constantly searching for ways to make money. Part of this is due to all the 'free' rewards programs they run.....people score a lot of reward points and then pay in full. This costs the banks money, and I'm sure many on here work these reward programs hard to pick up points, so they look elsewhere in their operations to make money. It used to be credit cards gave a very competitive exchange rate on foreign transactions, then 8-10 years ago many of them started to tack on a 1, 2 or 3% foreign transaction fee and the exchange rates weren't quite as neutral. You just have to be smart when using credit cards, use ones that don't charge transaction fees, and research what plan they use for the foreign exchange fee. Never believe the convenience of buying with plastic is free.....someone has to pay the costs for all this magic to happen. You can always use PayPal's platform and use your linked credit cards as the payment mechanism. I have my bank checking account, two Visa cards, and an AMEX card linked and I choose which one I want to use to fund the purchase. No PayPal fees involved to the user in doing this.

 

Absolutely, I get hit with the 1% fee for foreign transactions when I order cigars. But we’re only talking about 1% of $3-400 total too, not several grand. Big difference.