Capital One Classic and currency exchange and paypal?

antispam246

Looking for abit of help on understanding how my credit card works with foreign currency purchases under various circumstances.

I have a Capital One Classic card paying 1% cashback, from what I can find it charges 2.75% for Foreign currency conversion.

1) If I purchase from any online shop that charges in a foreign currency e.g U.S dollars etc.. will I then be charged 2.75% off the total cost of my purchase? (This is if using my capital one card to pay directly).

2) Who decides the rate of conversion? Where do capital one classic base their rate from, so i can follow it prior to making any purchases. Usually I'd use XE but I'd like to get a more accurate result.

3) Now, like above but with paypal? If I add my capital one classic credit card to paypal for payments, then pay online for something in a foreign currency who does the exchange and who charges what? As I recall you can change the who does the exchange option under paypal.

4) Do currency exchange charges even apply to purchasing good online or only when you purchase something being physically abroad?

I've made one purchase with my credit card online that was in euros. The rate it was exchanged at by capital one was 1.14. From what I can see, there were no further charges. So again, are online purchases using my credit card exempt from currency conversion charges?

Same again with paypal but using my debit card, never been charged a exchange fee.

Would appreciate it if anyone could help me understand exactly how this works with each form of payment under each circumstance.

Basically, where and when you will be charged extra and where and when you won't.

dazza.mk

antispam246 wrote: »

Looking for abit of help on understanding how my credit card works with foreign currency purchases under various circumstances.

I have a Capital One Classic card paying 1% cashback, from what I can find it charges 2.75% for Foreign currency conversion.

1) If I purchase from any online shop that charges in a foreign currency e.g U.S dollars etc.. will I then be charged 2.75% off the total cost of my purchase? (This is if using my capital one card to pay directly).
The charge isn't visible, but it is built into the exchange rate. So if the purchase would have come to £100, it is actually £102.75 that appears on the statement.

2) Who decides the rate of conversion? Where do capital one classic base their rate from, so i can follow it prior to making any purchases. Usually I'd use XE but I'd like to get a more accurate result.
Rates would be Mastercard exchange rate, or VISA for VISA cards. + 2.75% as you've mentioned.

3) Now, like above but with paypal? If I add my capital one classic credit card to paypal for payments, then pay online for something in a foreign currency who does the exchange and who charges what? As I recall you can change the who does the exchange option under paypal.
The default is Paypal, but you can change so that the payment is made in foreign currency and then Capital One do the exchange.

4) Do currency exchange charges even apply to purchasing good online or only when you purchase something being physically abroad?
All purchases whether online or in person if in foreign currency.

I've made one purchase with my credit card online that was in euros. The rate it was exchanged at by capital one was 1.14. From what I can see, there were no further charges. So again, are online purchases using my credit card exempt from currency conversion charges?
the 1.14 Fx Rate will have included the 2.75% uplift.

Same again with paypal but using my debit card, never been charged a exchange fee.
Again any fees will be included in the exchange rate spread.

Would appreciate it if anyone could help me understand exactly how this works with each form of payment under each circumstance.

Basically, where and when you will be charged extra and where and when you won't.

Answers are above,

antispam246

Thanks for that, pretty much clears it up for me.

I found the Visa card checker which is really handy, you can check previous dates to, also handy for checking any transactions to intend to make.

http://www.visaeurope.com/en/cardholders/exchange_rates.aspx

There's also a Visa one for corporate but I assume the above link is the correct one for most people.

I was checking past transactions for Barclays (2.99%) and Capital One Classic (2.75%) seems to work out pretty much accurately, not spot on as it states but near enough.

Also found this paypal calculator which seems handy

http://www.rolbe.com/ppcalc.htm

I can't find the paypal charge though. I found this

https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-receiving-fees-outside

but I'm not sure if it's what I'm looking for as it states for receiving purchase payments not purchasing goods.


One last question, this link http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/overseas-card-charges

Are those the fees I should apply when purchasing online in different currencies? I want to double check because everywhere referes to it as purchasing when you are physically overseas and not just online. Im assuming it's one in the same as you stated above but want to double check, thanks.

dazza.mk

The Paypal load is 2.5%

https://www.paypal.com/helpcenter/main.jsp;jsessionid=4TzXNK9KQm7qTLGzF2f8pGs9DLxJ7z93nGwBwzyhnWRT0L6Nwymy!-254379827?locale=en_GB&_dyncharset=UTF-8&countrycode=GB&cmd=_help&serverInstance=9008&t=solutionTab&ft=browseTab&ps=solutionPanels&solutionId=163394&isSrch=Yes

But the 'base' exchange rate used is likely to be worse than the VISA / Mastercard rate, they effectively say in the description that there's is more like 2.5% on the tourist Fx rate, rather than the VISA/Mastercard rates.

Re: Your link to MSE Debit/Credit card fees, the 'load' is the percentage by which the the bank will move the Visa/Mastercard rate in their favour for making transactions (Natwest/RBS use their own rate), the fees for credit cards are for cash withdrawals only:- however if you look at the debit cards line you will see there are a few debit cards that also charge a fee!

antispam246

3) Now, like above but with paypal? If I add my capital one classic credit card to paypal for payments, then pay online for something in a foreign currency who does the exchange and who charges what? As I recall you can change the who does the exchange option under paypal.
The default is Paypal, but you can change so that the payment is made in foreign currency and then Capital One do the exchange.

In regards to the answered question I now have a further query that's been doing my nutt.

HOW do you do this? I've looked and looked and can not find the answer anywhere. How do I choose so my credit card linked to paypal used the CC conversion (mastercard) and not paypal?

To clarify. I now have a Halifax Clarity Card. Which has 0% on foreign transactions conversion (yay no fees). I've added the card to my paypal account. I can not see anywhere how I can opt for any payments made on paypal using this credit card are converted by the card and not paypal???

The only thing I can think it is is that it works on a case by case basis, meaning you are only given the option when you actually buy something. Is that the case? I'd rather have it setup so any paypal transaction made using my halifax card, the conversion process is done through the card and not paypal.

Same applies to eBay when using paypal and then using the halifax card.

antispam246

Ok, I went ahead with a transaction from a foreign site that accepted paypal. This allowed me to change the payment method from my bank account to my credit card, once this had changed it then gave me the option to choose the conversion method, which prompted this screen

Conversion Options

PayPal offers two ways to convert currency when you purchase from a seller who uses a different currency than yours.

• The PayPal currency conversion process
• The MasterCard and Visa currency conversion process

Please select your option below:
Use PayPal's conversion process to complete my transaction using my card's currency.
Both the original transaction currency and the converted amount that I will be charged are disclosed for my convenience. I understand that MasterCard and Visa have a currency conversion process. I have chosen not to use the MasterCard and Visa currency conversion process, and I will have no recourse against MasterCard and Visa with respect to any matter related to this conversion. Bill me in the currency listed on the seller's invoice.
I will not know which foreign exchange rate has been applied to this transaction until I receive my card statement from my card issuer. I acknowledge that by choosing this option, my card issuer will determine the foreign exchange rate to apply to this transaction, and that I will not be informed of the foreign exchange rate or any additional foreign exchange fees applied until I am billed by my card issuer.
Select an option above, then click Submit to complete the currency conversion process.


So I simply chose the last option and voila. So i guess it does work on a case by case basis, unless anyone can tell me a way to set this up permanently so I don't have to do it for every single transaction.