Avoiding the PayPal currency conversion rip-off

rickdews

Hi, anybody who has used eBay and PayPal to buy things internationally will know that PayPal give an awful exchange rate from GBP to dollars. This gives them a juicy profit for themselves.

There are ways round this - basically by holding a balance in your PayPal account of whichever currency the seller uses. You then pay with this.

My question is this...

Does anybody know any reliable currency conversion services online that use PayPal?

Basically somewhere that you pay into GBP, and they send you a dollar balance? Obviously they'll take a cut on the rate, but surely it won't be as much as PayPal take.

Thanks!

bxboards

Simply use a commission free credit or debit card, and pay in the sellers native currency to avoid Paypal doing a conversion. That is by far the easiest way.

porto_bello

bxboards wrote: »

Simply use a commission free credit or debit card, and pay in the sellers native currency to avoid Paypal doing a conversion. That is by far the easiest way.

I have a Post Office Credit Card for exactly this reason - it's one of the few UK Credit Cards that doesn't rip you off (via an artificially costly rate of exchange) when you make purchases in foreign currencies.

Unusually, the Post Office Credit Card charges the real rate of exchange.
:money:

J45

Is there any cards that can hold a dollar balance?

TKPeters

FairFX $ Card

forgotmyname

I used a prepay Kalixa card to purchase something in Euro's and it worked out cheaper than using paypal.