American Express and paypal charges

micksom

Hi.

Can anyone tell me more about using an american express credit card to buy things through paypal.

On one hand, I have heard that there will be a 2.75% conversion fee, however on the other hand I have heard that paypal refund this fee, therefore there are no real charges.

Can anyone confirm what is true?

hippey

micksom wrote: »

Hi.

Can anyone tell me more about using an american express credit card to buy things through paypal.

On one hand, I have heard that there will be a 2.75% conversion fee, however on the other hand I have heard that paypal refund this fee, therefore there are no real charges.

Can anyone confirm what is true?

It used to be the case that AMEX was charged in US Dollars. So it was a double conversion for people in the UK.

JohalaReewi

Paypal will charge your Amex in USD so if you are buying in GBP, you will pay paypal commission for converting GBP to USD. Amex then convert USD to GBP and charge 2.73% commission. Amex used to refund this (or a similar amount) but I did read that they had stopped doing this so not sure what the current postion is.

Gareth83

I have linked my AMEX to my PayPal in order to take advantage of the 5% cashback I have with my Platinum Card.

I have made several purchases (high value items) and I'm not sure if I'm being ripped off or not....

Recent example:

Mattress Purchase - £358 via PayPal
Conversion via PayPal - $571.91

AMEX Charge $571.91 - £384.59
AMEX Refund $34.31 - £22.72

So the £358 item has actually cost me £361.87

Not really a problem as I've earned 5% cashback on this transaction (is that correct even with PayPal??) as opposed to my Egg Card which pays 1%.

So do I just switch back to my Egg Card once the 5% period is over?

Can goods actually become cheaper doing things this way via PayPal if the exchange rate is in our favor?

8ball8

According to the amex guy I just spoke to on the phone that refund is not a standard practice refund but probably due to a large change in the exchange rate at the time the purchase was made. Considering amex's 2.73% commission, plus paypal's rubbish exchange rate, even with the 5% cashback on the card I don't think you're making any cashback profit, just breaking even after the fees have been applied. Bit annoying really.

hippey

PayPal have always charged Amex in US$, I'm sure there must be a reason, I can only assume that the agreement is held in the US for the Amex trade.

So you would be charged effectively twice for the commission, to be honest I would not bother using it and use your egg card instead.