Pay Pal rip on purchase

[hotrodvideo]

I just purchased an item this morning from a US seller .The Australian dollar rate was stated in the check out at $91.36  ,I went ahead with the purchase via Pay Pay .I  then logged into my Pay Pal account to find i had been charged $95.51 an extra $4.21  had been charged . So is this  a failure by ebay to quote  upto date exchane rate or Pay Pal just gouging more money ?

[kopenhagen5]

eBay and PayPal use different financial institutions with different exchange rates.

Exchange rates always differ depending on where you go.

PayPal's exchange rate has always been considered very good.

If you went to your bank it is very likely more again.

[lyndal1838]

Paypal builds their fees into the exchange rate whereas the amount that you see on ebay is just the item price converted.

If you do the conversion through your bank you will see the cost of the item and then a separate amount which is the bank fee.  If you add them together you usually find it is more than the one amount charged by paypal.

You can check the exact amount you will pay in paypal.....they have 2 tables.....one is the cnverted price of the item only and the other is the price you will pay including the paypal fees.

[digital*ghost]

eBay can't determine the payment method a buyer will select, nor the funding source or who the buyer will choose to perform the currency conversion, so the conversion they show is just based on the actual rate at the time you view the item. You do get that rate in most cases, though, it's not updated in real time so there can be minor differences. Some sites will show a much closer conversion, either because they can accept multiple currencies, or because the payment methods are limited and the conversion fees can be calculated up front. 

PayPal charge 3.5% when converting AUD to USD, and 4% when converting AUD to any other currency, so I've found the easiest way is to add 3.5% to the conversion (or $3.50 for every $100). It's not exact, due to the fluctuations of the exchange rate - there's about $1 difference to the result you'd get by adding 3.5% to $91.36 and what you actually paid, but it gives you a better idea when you're about to purchase something. 

[porcelain_dolls_by_me]

Get a 28 Degrees credit card and use this when checking out on PayPal.  Then, change the conversion option to have the amount converted by the credit card issuer.

28 Degreesdo not charge any commission and make the AUD/USD conversions at the interbank rate - this will save you a minimum on 3% on all foreign currency purchases.