PayPal using Dynamic Currency Conversion when I don't want it

Yorkshire_Pud

I have a UK credit card with no fees for foreign use. Therefore purchases abroad are paid for in local currency of the country I'm buying from as this always gets a better currency exchange rate, ie its cheaper than any other method.

I recently signed up to PayPal and when buying from abroad it SEEMS to only let me pay in GBP because PayPal do the currency conversion for me at a rubbish exchange rate so something I would have paid £19 for cost £20.

During the buying process I could not see ANY option to pay in local currency. I'm sure PayPal don't want me to find it of course. They try on the same Dynamic Currency Conversion trick that hotels etc do when abroad although they are explicitly supposed to offer to receive payment in local currency as a first offer.

PayPal trick you in to paying using DCC because they make a fortune from the unwitting or conned.

Whilst clicking Continue from one page to another during the buying process and looking for the option to pay in local currency there is no final review page. The Continue button confirms payment.

All very different to Amazon who give the chance to bail out before its too late and although they also try to get you to pay by DCC they make it very easy to compare the final cost which is ALWAYS cheaper paying in local currency with my no transaction fee CC, before clicking the confirm (not the 'Continue') button.

So where is this mythical opt out button and why are PayPal allowed to make Dynamic Currency Conversion the default when paying in local currency should be the default? Why do the UK regulators let them get away with it, in the UK at least?

dazza.mk

Th option IS there on the payment screen, I made a payment in USD at the end of Sept (converted by credit card)

Consumerist

If you are not seeing the option then you might need to check your browser/add-ons settings. Firefox browser with the NoScript add-on can, for example, prevent page elements from showing. Ad-blockers can have the same effect.

Hope this helps.

bengal-stripe

Yorkshire_Pud wrote: »

During the buying process I could not see ANY option to pay in local currency. I'm sure PayPal don't want me to find it of course.

Paypal offers you the option to pay in local currency.

The first screen shows your foreign payment converted into pence and pounds. Then you can click a button indicating you want to pay in the foreign currency and another screen comes up, showing you the amount in USD, EUR whatever and a warning that the conversion is down to your CC and paypal cannot give you the amount in GBP.

I have no idea if you can have this window disabled due to the wrong browser settings, as consumerist has said. But as I am a technical dunce, I do not play around with my settings.

Yorkshire_Pud

I read an old thread on here that described how to set your desired payment method as the default after logging in and choosing Profile etc.

It may have been the case in 2010 but it isn't now.:mad:

There is NOTHING to allow this so it can only be offered during the checkout process with its Continue button and studious and in my case successful hiding of the option to choose to pay in local currency.

I note someone has found this option on the Payment screen although I don't know at what stage the Payment screen appears as there is no Confirm button, just Continue that suddenly results in payment going through before you expect it.

I'm new to PayPal and learning the ropes but I still say they are purposely making it difficult to have control over payment options.

Vortigern

It's not a button, but an inconspicuous text link to a page where you can choose not to use DCC

See this earlier post
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=66195173&postcount=17

Yorkshire_Pud

Well that link confirms PP took away the option to set pay in local currency as a default setting! Wonder why?

Still don't think that there was a Currency Conversion Options link anywhere in my check out process and I wonder if the fact I have a linked Credit Card to eBay might somehow make the link disappear!?

Just remember thinking I will sort it before the final checkout page and suddenly it was confirmed, no review purchase, no confirm, just Continue (and too late).

Tried to find a screen grab of said page with the Option but to no avail.

Think this crew are devious and unethical.:cool:

grumbler

Yet another thread: Paypal payment in foreign currency

Fingerbobs

I think the option to set the default currency conversion option came up for me when making a foreign-currency payment. At the point you select the currency conversion method during a purchase, there was an option to make that selection the default. That's certainly how I set it up. I don't think the option was ever configurable via the main PayPal settings pages.

bengal-stripe

Yorkshire_Pud wrote: »

Well that link confirms PP took away the option to set pay in local currency as a default setting! Wonder why?

Well, the option was available some four weeks ago, when I paid a not inconsiderable amount in Japanese Yen, using my CC.

As I have no purchase in foreign currency right now, I cannot check whether or not that option was removed in the last month.

---

Here is the purchase in Japanese Yen charged in Japanese Yen on September 26th 2014.

Yorkshire_Pud

bengal-stripe wrote: »

Well, the option was available some four weeks ago, when I paid a not inconsiderable amount in Japanese Yen, using my CC.

As I have no purchase in foreign currency right now, I cannot check whether or not that option was removed in the last month.

---

Here is the purchase in Japanese Yen charged in Japanese Yen on September 26th 2014.

I meant being able to set pay in local currency as the default choice in account settings/profile which used to be the case!

I accept it is possible to choose that option during the buying process, just I didn't find it apparently and not confident I will in future so as things stand I will just close my PayPal account and write it off as a bad option for buying from overseas.:(