Buying in Euros

Wig

Thinking of buying an item in Italy.

If I pay by creditcard through paypal, will my credit card statement list the item in Euros (and charge me a conversion rate) or will paypal convert into pounds (and charge me for the priviledge)

Or both :eek:

Or if I switch my paypal authorised credit card to my nationwide credit card can I select to pay in Euros (i.e. avoid having paypal do a conversion and charging me) then my nationwide card will be billed in Euros, and I will not be charged for the conversion...sounds good, but is it possible?

- update - Yes it is possible, (read below), I saved £13 doing this.

soolin

What will happen is that paypal themselves will convert the payment to euros and your credit card will show the sterling amount.

Paypal use their own exchange rate and the last lot I got from the US was fantastic value as paypal were giving me an extremely favourable rate.

Soo

baffcat

Wig wrote:

Thinking of buying an item in Italy.

If I pay by creditcard through paypal, will my credit card statement list the item in Euros (and charge me a conversion rate) or will paypal convert into pounds (and charge me for the priviledge)

Or both :eek:

Or if I switch my paypal authorised credit card to my nationwide credit card can I select to pay in Euros (i.e. avoid having paypal do a conversion and charging me) then my nationwide card will be billed in Euros, and I will not be charged for the conversion...sounds good, but is it possible?

Hi. If you pay by paypal, it leaves your Paypal account in Pounds, arriving in Italy in Euros. Whichever way you pay your paypal account will be debited in Pounds. The only way for you to pay in Euros is to pay your supplier directly by credit (possibly debit) card or if you already have a Euro account set up with your bank or with Paypal. I occasionally have Dollars in my Paypal account and usually use them rather than lose money on the conversion.

HTH

Baff

Wig

soolin wrote:

Paypal use their own exchange rate and the last lot I got from the US was fantastic value as paypal were giving me an extremely favourable rate.

Soo

I can't believe that paypal exchange rate would be as good or better than the nationwide rate. Nationwide don't make a charge for conversion they exchange at the interbank rate. If paypal were better they would be making a loss on the deal..........I'm not saying that you said paypal is better, but I'm just thinking that what you thought was a "good rate" may not have been, when compared to the interbank rate
https://www.oanda.com

Wig

baffcat wrote:

The only way for you to pay in Euros is to pay your supplier directly by credit (possibly debit) card

Didn't think of that, that might just be possible, but he might only be a business as far as ebay is concerned not in real life IYSWIM

Can I set up a Euros paypal account then?

Wig

Just an Update for this thread, when I was in my paypal account just now, I noticed Paypal said the total was to be £326 converted from 465 EUR.
I already know that 465EUR is £314.40 (interbank rate), so Paypal is intending to take a £12 charge off me (without my permission I might add).

I then noticed beneath the price was a link called "conversion options" clicked this and went to a page that lets me choose whether I wish to pay in Euros or Pounds. Hooray! :j

I clicked on "Bill me in the sellers currency as stated on the listing" - "submit".

And it went back to the paypal page where the total now showing was 465 EUR - Which is great because Nationwide will not charge me any currency conversion fees. Saving me £12.

*note, I said above "without my permission" this is because, I heard a radio program about some retailers in Europe who take payment from people on holiday -using their credit cards- in Pounds not Euros. They do this because they convert the Euros into pounds themselves at rediculous rates (probably no more rediculous than the banks charge) and they (the shop keepers) pocket the difference - instead of the banks. The program said that it was illegal to do this without the cardholders permission.

This got me thinking that what paypal does could be illegal. They default the foriegn currency payments into UK pounds. Most people won't know that they can change it into the original currency, and if they have a nationwide card this would save them some money.

pinkgem

i purchased an item from the US yesterday for $12.95 ebay showed this was £6.66 so postage of $23 should have been £11.83 using the same conversion rate of 1.944 that ebay showed for the item cost

i therefore presumed the total of $35.95 would be £18.49 give or take a couple of pence

when i paid by paypal the total was £18.98 as paypals conversion rate was 1.895 so it cost me 49p more than ebay said it would

i would have thought that ebay and paypal should use the same conversion rate!

Wig

Probably, the Ebay conversion is done using the interbank rate, but the paypal conversion is done using the rate they intend to use (which includes a charge).

I just checked this for you using https://www.oanda.com (there is a quick converter at the top of the page, and you can click to see the previous day's rate and you can keep going back in time. I went back 2 days and $35.95 was indeed £18.49 on Sunday.

Had you changed the default to pay in dollars on paypal and you used a nationwide card you would save a little bit (50p), but there is always the chance that the exchange rate will be up or down on the day your nationwide creditcard gets the transaction sent to them.
Today for example the interbank rate for $35.95 is £18.64.

digerati

PayPal adds 2.5% currency conversion to the amount converted into a different currency. On small amounts it's hardly noticible, but on larger amounts as shown in earlier posts - it quickly becomes a sizeable amount.

Wig

digerati wrote:

PayPal adds 2.5% currency conversion to the amount converted into a different currency. On small amounts it's hardly noticible, but on larger amounts as shown in earlier posts - it quickly becomes a sizeable amount.

And it is avoidable if you have a nationwide creditcard.