topic Re: How do I change the currency for purchase? in Buying

How do I change the currency for purchase?

123drbruce — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 03:04:42 GMT

When buying from a seller in another country, I want to buy in the currency of the seller.

How can I change ebay / Paypal to NOT convert to my currency?

Re: How do I change the currency for purchase?

kopenhagen5 — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 03:16:05 GMT

You can't. You purchase in the currency shown.

Conversion is done at checkout either in eBay if paying other than PayPal or PayPal.

If you are not happy with the conversion rate, see if the seller accepts Scrill but PayPal's rate is usually better than many.

Re: How do I change the currency for purchase?

*tippy*toes* — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 03:18:36 GMT

As your PayPal funds would be in AUD, I don't think there's much you can do about them converting it when you go to make a payment. I think there is somewhere in PayPal where you can change AUD over to USD, but it's been awhile since I checked. I do know that if you manually send money, you can send it as USD. Last year I wanted to send a friend $50USD and wasn't sure how much that was in AUD. I noticed there was a dropdown where you could select the currency you wanted to send. It still showed as AUD in my PayPal transaction list though.

Re: How do I change the currency for purchase?

kopenhagen5 — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 03:36:57 GMT

That's right tippy, you can send funds in any currency using PayPal's conversion unless you have a balance in US and send US$'s, but when making a purchase in eBay you are stuck with their conversion rates.

Re: How do I change the currency for purchase?

phorum_junkie* — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 05:11:49 GMT

Living in two countries I often have to transfer money between the UK and Aus plus I fairly often buy from US sites (not ebay) and the Paypal transaction nearly always works out better then using my banks to do the exchange even though I have a UK bank that does not charge any fees.

Re: How do I change the currency for purchase?

123drbruce — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 20:47:08 GMT

Thanks, however, for me the ebay conversion is outragiously expensive.

My credit card providor uses the Mastercard conversion rate WITHOUT A CONVERSION FEE (as most banks do).

A US$55 purchase using ebay will cost me about A$4 more than what my credit card provider charges.

Cheers

Re: How do I change the currency for purchase?

123drbruce — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 21:44:18 GMT

Skrill also converts payment to buyer's currency (eg. if I buy from US, it'll be charged in A$).

Is there any online payment option that allows user to pay in any selected currency?

Re: How do I change the currency for purchase?

phorum_junkie* — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 22:56:14 GMT

My credit card providor uses the Mastercard conversion rate WITHOUT A CONVERSION FEE (as most banks do).

That is not what most banks do and their exchange rate is rarely better than Paypal's. The ebay conversion price you see in the listing is just an estimate and rarely works out the same as that from the bank or Paypal.

It has been a while since I paid for an ebay purchase in another currency however there always used to be an option to let your bank do the conversion, of course you have to have a zero balance in your Paypal account so it uses your card rather than the existing balance.

Re: How do I change the currency for purchase?

lyndal1838 — Wed, 30 Dec 2015 00:10:51 GMT

Most banks charge the fee separately to the actual conversion whereas paypal builds the fee into the rate.

If you add the 2 amounts charged by the bank it is usually more than the paypa rate.

Also, with paypal there is no lag between the being given the rate and your card being charged. When you use your credit card there is often a 3 day lag between making the payment and the card being debited where the rate can change.

Re: How do I change the currency for purchase?

123drbruce — Wed, 30 Dec 2015 02:06:22 GMT

"...My credit card providor uses the Mastercard conversion rate WITHOUT A CONVERSION FEE (as most banks do).

That is not what most banks do and their exchange rate is rarely better than Paypal'"

I'm in Australia, and there is typically a double whammy - the credit card provider (Mastercard or Visa) tack on a percentage charge at the time of conversion (this goes to the bank, not Mastercard or Visa) AND the banks typically impose another 'currency conversion charge' (typically a flat fee).

Both the Mastercard and Visa daily conversion 'rate' is posted online. The rate is typically close to the daily mid-market rate. Mastercard tends to be closer than Visa (by about 0.005%). If you look at their websites, you can use their daily rate to see what they measure' versus what your bank charges.

As far as I can tell ebay are charging about a 6% conversion fee (between US$ and A$).

If I use my credit card, I'll get the Mastercard rate for the day of the transaction.

Hence, I'd like to pay in US$ for purchases from those selling in US$.

Cheers

Re: How do I change the currency for purchase?

lyndal1838 — Wed, 30 Dec 2015 05:23:21 GMT

You don't have any choice whether you pay in US$ if the seller has listed in US$.

The only question is whether you allow paypal to do the conversion with the fee built into the rate or your bank who will have a lower conversion rate but will bill you separately for the fee.

I have always found the paypal rate to be the best overall.

Re: How do I change the currency for purchase?

123drbruce — Wed, 30 Dec 2015 21:41:44 GMT

# lyndal1838

I'm in Australia. It appears ebay don't give me any choice to select which currency will be charged to my credit card..

I noted above that ebay appear to be adding about 6% to a US$ > A$ conversion.

On a US$55 purchase, the mid-market rate conversion is A$75.60. The amount ebay wants to charge is A$80.14. That makes a conversion fee of about 6%!!!

Last evening I went to see what the case may be for a HK$ > A$ conversion.

It appears that ebay do it HK$ > US$ > A$.

The product was HK$48 and the mid-market conversion = A$8.50. The eventual ebay A$ price was A$9.70.

That's a staggering 15% conversion fee!!!!

Re: How do I change the currency for purchase?

pennyforum14 — Wed, 30 Dec 2015 22:38:03 GMT

eBay are NOT your payment processor, Paypal is. They now operate separately, rather than as one company.

When you pay from your Paypal account balance you are given the option of choosing which currency you use IF you have funds in more than one currency available in your account. If you only have AU$, they will convert to the currency of the transaction. They add approx 2.5% to the going conversion rate. So if the current rate is 72.9c, the Paypal rate will be around 74.7c. Your bank may charge a lower conversion rate, but will add a conversion fee on top and is usally about the same or a little more in the end. I believe the Paypal payment processing fee is charged on the converted rate, but I could be wrong about that. Also, unless the seller has their own merchant credit card facilities, you can't use your credit card directly, so you have to use Paypal. I don't think Paypal have the option to change the currency for payments coming directly from your card (as opposed to from your balance).

Re: How do I change the currency for purchase?

phorum_junkie* — Wed, 30 Dec 2015 23:26:23 GMT

There is no point in comparing the conversion rate in the ebay listing with either the bank or Paypal exchange rate. Ebay just give an estimation and the rate is fixed once a day, banks and Paypal change their rates several times a day and you will pay the rate applying at the time of the payment.

I have been using Paypal and both UK and Aus banks to transfwr money and pay for things for the last 15 years so have a very good understanding of where I am better off.

My OH wouldn't believe that it was as cheap or cheaper using Paypal than the banks so we both transferred £400 to us in Aus at exactly the same time. My net total was $10 more than his.

Re: How do I change the currency for purchase?

cg0417966086 — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 06:56:04 GMT

The 0% forex mastercard is much better then using eBay or Paypal for conversion.

To use your banks rate you need to pay using the Paypal option and then select the billing currency as noted above.

I just completed a purchase of 192.12 GBP - eBay were going to charge $349.73, Paypal were going to charge $351.72 and my bank ended up charging me $337.71 - a saving of almost 5% - $14.01

So I guess given the conversion rort eBay has a vested interest in making paying in sellers currency non-intuitive.

Re: How do I change the currency for purchase?

kh-stanley1 — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 07:32:27 GMT

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.