PP Euro exchange?

frivolous_fay

Anyone know how the paypal exchange rate for euros is calculated? Does it depend on the credit card you have?

I'm anticipating spending around £800 with a German seller.

catt_2

Hi Fay

You've often been v. helpful answering my questions.... For once I think I can return the favour!:D

Each day Paypal sets its own currency exchange rates.

I'm just paying for an Ebay purchase from the US. Bidding was priced in US dollars, with a GB pound conversion rate shown. So $34.49 was also shown as £16.84. That was last Friday for my winning bid.

When I came to pay today with Paypal, the exchange rate was shown as £1=$1.98394 making £17.39 so Paypal exchange rates are not great. I don't think it matters which credit card you pay with because your credit card or debit card merely funds your Paypal account through which the payment is made.

Of course if you've got a money-back or points collection type credit card you get a small benefit using that, same as you normally would.

As yours is a large sum, perhaps you can find out how the Euro-GB pound exchange rate is fluctuating at Paypal over a few days and pick a favourable day!;)

catt_2

PayPal currency exchange rates
Just noticed when paying for an ebay item that I could change where the currency exchange rate comes from, either paypal or card issuer. I noticed paypal's £/$ rate was 1.74 yet looking on xe.com shows the current market rate is 1.78.

Will have to see what my card issuer uses, but wondering if this is just another way PayPal makes money out of us, by using a less than favourable exchange rate by default.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=2041323&highlight=paypal+currency+exchange+rates#post2041323

doingwhatican

I receive payments in a few different currencies. The paypal exchange rate is quiet poor in comparison to the whole of market rate. This is where they can make more money from you when you change your foreign rate into your local rate.
I wonder if you could have several bank accounts, eac hone a different currency and then withdraw that particular currency from paypal into the relevant currency account. To omuch hassel for me and I do not receive large amounts that would warrent it.
The only advantage I have on the US dollar is that the listing and final value fees for ebay.com are cheaper then ebay.co.uk so I save a few pennies there, only to have it taken away from me when I exchange the dollars over to pounds.
Has anyone on here got foreign currency accounts that they withdraw their currencies too?? I wonder if it could be done.

catt_2

I could not see the choice between Paypal and the card issuer that is suggested by the earlier poster from the other thread. Perhaps Paypal has removed this option?

catt_2

I have just put my dollar purchase through the Paypal account. I can confirm that it does indeed give you a choice between the disclosed Paypal currency exchange rate and the card issuer's rate.

This choice only appears once you have selected to pay buy card. Be careful, because the options tabs are designed to encourage you to use the Paypal method, with those tabs highlighted!

If you have the Nationwide credit or debit card you will do appreciably better than with the Paypal rate.

Alfie_E

frivolous_fay wrote: »

Anyone know how the paypal exchange rate for euros is calculated?

PayPal charge a 2.5% fee on top of whatever wholesale exchange rate they get. See the PayPal Fees page.

When PayPal is taking the money for your payment from your credit or debit card, any conversion by PayPal is effectively Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) – the same thing people coming back from their holidays in Spain complain about on this forum. Prior to December 2004, PayPal didn’t give you any choice – they always did the conversion. After that time, PayPal started offering a choice to comply with the card networks’ regulations on DCC.