Transferring money out of Paypal - Euros to GBP - what's best?

Tunstallstoven

Hi

I've received a refund of 270 euros into my Paypal.  I want to withdraw it into my UK bank account.  Is the only way to do this to let Paypal do the conversion?  Or are there other better options?  

Paypal are quoting a conversion rate of 1 EUR = 0.823 GBP, which would total £222.22.

A quick look on XE, and they quote a conversion rate of 1 EUR = 0.851 GBP, which would total £229.74.

Not a massive difference, but every little helps, etc.  

Any advice much appreciated.  

Many thanks

(PS - not sure if this is the best forum for the post?  Happy to move it / for it to be moved if not.)

bagand96

The PayPal markup is about 3.3%

The question is, what rate will your UK bank convert it at and do they levy any charges? 

Tunstallstoven

Thanks for your response and help.  

I'm with Virgin Money, I'll get in touch with them and find out.  

Ta

Tunstallstoven

Hi again

I have spoken to Virgin and they said they can convert the money if transferred in in euros.  They will use whatever the daily exchange rate is and do not charge a fee.  So that's all good.  

But when I go onto the Paypal transfer page, it doesn't seem to give me any option to transfer out in euros.  It converts automatically, and for 270 euros that equates to £222.22.  Under fee it says "Free" so it doesn't look like that are charging a fee.  And 270 x 0.823045 does equal 222.22, so doesn't look like there are any hidden costs.  Just not a great exchange rate.  

I've contacted PP to see if it is possible to transfer out as euros and will report back when I get a response.  

If anyone here knows how to do it in the meantime (or whether it is possible) would be great to hear from you.  

Many thanks

CKhalvashi

Tunstallstoven said:

Hi again

I have spoken to Virgin and they said they can convert the money if transferred in in euros.  They will use whatever the daily exchange rate is and do not charge a fee.  So that's all good.  

But when I go onto the Paypal transfer page, it doesn't seem to give me any option to transfer out in euros.  It converts automatically, and for 270 euros that equates to £222.22.  Under fee it says "Free" so it doesn't look like that are charging a fee.  And 270 x 0.823045 does equal 222.22, so doesn't look like there are any hidden costs.  Just not a great exchange rate.  

I've contacted PP to see if it is possible to transfer out as euros and will report back when I get a response.  

If anyone here knows how to do it in the meantime (or whether it is possible) would be great to hear from you.  

Many thanks

You'll also need to check what their daily exchange rate is, as that rate looks not good.

If you're receiving money on a regular basis, it may be worth paying a few £ for Wise EUR bank details and converting the money yourself.

Please note that I am aware a limited number of people have had issues with Wise, but as a long term customer for both personal and business reasons I never have. Very few companies get to their size without 1 or 2 people having small issues (as OH, who works for an airline, said to a passenger once, 'we handle around 20000 bags a day, it's inevitable that on the rare occasion 1 or 2 of those will go missing'). I also hold a small number of shares in Wise PLC.

Tunstallstoven

Hi @CKhalvashi - thanks for the advice.  I won't be receiving money in a different currency regularly.  In fact, this should be a one off.  

Speaking to PayPal for help was really quite confusing.  I think the bottom line is that there is no option to withdraw the money as euros and have the bank do the conversion.  I'm still not sure whether PP charge for the conversion.  On the transaction page it says there is no fee.  But as stated, the exchange rate is low, so perhaps the fee is incorporated into the low exchange rate somehow?  I don't know, and finding out is not proving easy!  So I think it will just be a case of withdrawing it, letting PP do what they do, and sucking up any losses. 

A point of interest, one thing they did offer...  To withdraw the money to my credit card.  They said they have the ability to change the default currency of my credit card.  Sounded odd to me!  The idea was for them to change my CC to eruos, withdraw the money to that, and for me to then transfer the fund from my CC to my bank.  Aside from sounding suspect, I also wasn't sure whether it would even be possible to withdraw funds from my CC to bank, so I respectfully declined!  

CKhalvashi

Tunstallstoven said:

Hi @CKhalvashi - thanks for the advice.  I won't be receiving money in a different currency regularly.  In fact, this should be a one off.  

Speaking to PayPal for help was really quite confusing.  I think the bottom line is that there is no option to withdraw the money as euros and have the bank do the conversion.  I'm still not sure whether PP charge for the conversion.  On the transaction page it says there is no fee.  But as stated, the exchange rate is low, so perhaps the fee is incorporated into the low exchange rate somehow?  I don't know, and finding out is not proving easy!  So I think it will just be a case of withdrawing it, letting PP do what they do, and sucking up any losses. 

A point of interest, one thing they did offer...  To withdraw the money to my credit card.  They said they have the ability to change the default currency of my credit card.  Sounded odd to me!  The idea was for them to change my CC to eruos, withdraw the money to that, and for me to then transfer the fund from my CC to my bank.  Aside from sounding suspect, I also wasn't sure whether it would even be possible to withdraw funds from my CC to bank, so I respectfully declined!  

They will not offer the best rate.

You may be able to do the above with a debit card, but there likely will still be a fee from your bank, so you'll need to check the rates for this.

Westin

I know you wish to maximise your conversion but at the end of the day you quoted a £7.52 difference.  Are you perhaps over thinking and spending too much time/effort on this?  The FX rates will be changing all the time. There is no surety over the FX rate that will be obtained via Virgin Money/XE.com until the conversion offer is made.  I'd use the PayPal conversion and be done.

bagand96

Tunstallstoven said:

A point of interest, one thing they did offer...  To withdraw the money to my credit card.  They said they have the ability to change the default currency of my credit card.  Sounded odd to me!  The idea was for them to change my CC to eruos, withdraw the money to that, and for me to then transfer the fund from my CC to my bank.  Aside from sounding suspect, I also wasn't sure whether it would even be possible to withdraw funds from my CC to bank, so I respectfully declined!  

I agree with @CKhalvashi that a credit card will almost certainly cost you more, they'll charge a fee and may also make a % on the exchange rate (unless you happen to have one of the zero fee travel credit cards). 

You don't need to worry about Paypal charge or not.  There is no fee, but they a making around 3% on the exchange rate fee. They're telling you exactly how much you'll receive in GBP so there's no surprises.  I also agree with @Westin you're talking about £7 ish difference.  How much is your time worth? The time already spent on looking into it is probably worth more than that.

Tunstallstoven

Thanks for the replies.  I think you're right, it's not worth sweating.  I thought I'd post in the first instance to see if there was an easy solution or something I was missing, but seeing as that's not the case I'll go ahead and withdraw and let PP take their fraction of an ounce of flesh   

[Deleted User]

You've probably already completed the transaction but Virgin Money don't charge for Euro transactions in the UK and EEA. Paypal were registered in Luxembourg when Iast looked.

Getting Paypal to credit the Euro onto the VM card (with Euro selected as the card currency) is likely to get you the Mastercard rate.