Paypal/exchange rate fees

[LUDELVR]

Just wondering if anyone knows how it works with paypal and their exchange rates. I just bought something for 499.99 USD and it read that the conversion was 661 or something like that but when I look on my paypal statement, it reads 685. Is there a separate fee or do they use a different conversion rate? It's not a big difference but I'm just curious.

[My_name_is_Rob]

They were on average about 2% higher than my mastercard fees, so around 4 - 4.5%. Whenever possible it seemed cheaper to just use the conversion rate for the credit card. If you can get a credit card that doesn't charge normal fees above the exchange rate, and add that to your paypal account, then even better. The only one I am currently aware of right now is the Amazon Visa, which is what I use.

[D'z Nutz]

Yeah Paypal has a ridiculous exchange rate, higher than any credit card.

If you want to get around this, you can set your Paypal preference to charge your card in the purchase's currency and let your credit card handle the exchange instead of Paypal. The setting is annoying to find and not exactly where you think it'd be, but I'm pretty sure Paypal does this on purpose so they can make extra money on the exchange.

Like Rob said, the Amazon Visa doesn't charge an additional fee on top of the exchange rate so I do the above and make my Amazon Visa my default card. The Roger's Mastercard and Marriott Visa do the same thing too.

[LUDELVR]

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Yeah Paypal has a ridiculous exchange rate, higher than any credit card.

If you want to get around this, you can set your Paypal preference to charge your card in the purchase's currency and let your credit card handle the exchange instead of Paypal. The setting is annoying to find and not exactly where you think it'd be, but I'm pretty sure Paypal does this on purpose so they can make extra money on the exchange.

Like Rob said, the Amazon Visa doesn't charge an additional fee on top of the exchange rate so I do the above and make my Amazon Visa my default card. The Roger's Mastercard and Marriott Visa do the same thing too.

Alright, this makes sense and yeah...of course Paypal won't make it easy. If thousands of people are doing this, it's extra money in their pocket. I get it! Sucks but I get it!

Cheers lads.

[Xtrema]

My Paypal account is in USD and have a healthy balance most of the time.

When I pay for something in $CAD, it's always around 2 cents less than official rate, which doesn't seem that bad.

Like today's rate is $1.30, Paypal pays $1.28. May be going the other way is much worse or are they factoring in the credit fee as well?

[G-ZUS]

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Yeah Paypal has a ridiculous exchange rate, higher than any credit card.

If you want to get around this, you can set your Paypal preference to charge your card in the purchase's currency and let your credit card handle the exchange instead of Paypal. The setting is annoying to find and not exactly where you think it'd be, but I'm pretty sure Paypal does this on purpose so they can make extra money on the exchange.

Like Rob said, the Amazon Visa doesn't charge an additional fee on top of the exchange rate so I do the above and make my Amazon Visa my default card. The Roger's Mastercard and Marriott Visa do the same thing too.

Where can one find this setting?

[My_name_is_Rob]

I tried to actually find it on my account, and no luck. So it might be an option only when sending money. I did find a link that might help though.

https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/...language=en-gb

[D'z Nutz]

Try:

- Wallet
- Details (next to Paypal Balance)
- Manage Currencies

then select U.S. Dollar and make it your primary. If it's not there, add it.

[Badiha]

I work as a freelancer and paid in USD. Their exchange rate is ridiculous. Higher than your bank. If you have a USD account based in the US, I would advise you to use TransferWise. Their rate is probably the best one. If you don't, well you are a bit stuck I think because you can't use any other service. Paypal would typically give you 2cts less than your bank on every dollar. So in comparison to mid market, you are always looking at 7cts less. Your bank would give you 3.5 cts less if you have signed up with a preferred rate. If not, 5 cts less. With TransferWise, probbaly 1.5 cts less.

[Thaco]

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I tried to actually find it on my account, and no luck. So it might be an option only when sending money. I did find a link that might help though.

https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/...language=en-gb

you set it during a transaction, it normally sticks for a while, until they do some update or something, so you have to verify it each time... pisses me off that it always defaults to pay with my bank account, only way to fix that is to remove my bank account and then i have to go through a bunch of hoops to re-add it if i ever need to W/D