Ebay and Paypal not allowing credit card currency conversion

[buttsack]

I have made a few purchases through ebay recently which are in USD and GBP. I asked ebay to use my credit card for the exchange rate and every time I pay the transaction on ebay is shown in the foreign currency amount. I then look at my credit card statement and I was charged in AUD. I don't get why my credit card still being charged in AUD?
This is a problem as I am being charged at paypal's exchange rate which is worse than my credit card, plus Paypal has extra fees. I have tried signing into paypal to purchase and also the automatic method where a box is checked and both end up using paypal's exchange rate.
I have made a complaint about this once before and was refunded the difference by Paypal, who told me it was up to Ebay but I called Ebay first and they told me it was Paypal's fault.... This is becoming very annoying and a waste of my time.

Is anyone else experiencing this? This has only been a problem recently.

[kopenhagen5]

I thought if you pay by PayPal that is backed with a credit card you will automatically be using PayPal xchange.

And in order to use your credit card xchange, you need to pay using merchant facility (credit card) not through PayPal.

For example if a seller is selling in US$ and has merchant fac. then use Visa.

But of course not many on eBay offer merchant fac. mostly businesses as opposed to private sellers.

[bluebudgies]

No, kopes, that's not correct. They have made it harder to find how to change it so the bank does the conversion but it's still there somewhere because I saw it a few months ago. I have a feeling it was in my paypal settings whereas it used to be in ebay several years ago.

OP, my bank used to charge me in AU dollars but it'd have a note saying what the US equivalent was (or UK). After all, if they're doing the conversion then they're charging you the amount after it's been converted to AU dollars. Maybe it's the bank that has changed the way they show it in your account. Unless you have an overseas credit card they have to charge you in AU dollars because that's what the account is in.

I used to let the bank do the conversion most of the time because their rate used to be marginally better, but it was mainly because my bank had a nasty habit of charging me the conversion fee as well if I let PP do it. I approached them about it but didn't get a satisfactory answer and should have followed it up, but after that I just changed the way I paid.

Have you been into your paypal settings to see if there's a box to tick somewhere, rather than just pay through pp? Sometimes they change the settings without telling us and that may have happened without you realising. I can't remember where I found it but it's somewhere in pp.

[bluebudgies]

I may be wrong in some of what I said above. I had a look around in paypal and found the section where you select where the funds come from when you use paypal but it doesn't explain everything and it says nothing about who does the exchange. There was a link for further reading but I didn't bother going any further.

If you want to find the section I'm referring to, go into your pp account and click on the cog up the top right (settings), then click on the Payments tab. It'll give you options for your funds source when you buy online or in a store and you need to select the first one (online).

I'm fairly sure I bought something a few months ago from the UK (not on ebay) and used pp but it came from my credit card and the bank did the currency exchange, but I can't say for sure that's how it worked.

[buttsack]

I have never had a problem paying in USD or GBP on my credit card through ebay/paypal up until the last few weeks. I think ebay or paypal are being dodgy and automatically converting it themselves and charging in AUD, which always works out more than just using my credit card.

I've been in contact with Paypal and they are trying to get to the bottom of it since ebay is showing the amount in USD but charging AUD and not giving an option for credit card conversion rate.

Here's what ebay is saying;
"The reason why it charged you with AU dollar, because you are logging in at ebay.com.au. Even though the item is on US or UK once you are paying the item under the Australian eBay site it will automatically be converted to AU dollar. But if you are logging in under US or UK eBay site it will show there own currency."

Something dodgy is going on...

[porcelain_dolls_by_me]

We use 28 Degree card for all of our overseas currency denominated EBay purchases and have PayPal charge that card for transaction.

The trick is, and I am going from memory here, when you nominate to charge your card for a purchase you then need to "change conversion process (or the like), and then request your card to be charged in the foreign currency.  Not AUD which is the default option, and which means PayPal will convert the foreign currnecy amount to AUD at their rates.

In the case of 28 Degrees, they will receive the charge in the foreign currnecy at convert at their rates, which is typically the interbank mid rate, and they charge no fees.

[buttsack]

There is no option to change the conversion process. A few months ago there was a box I could select on checkout which would use my credit cards conversion rate but this has now gone. From what Ebay is saying there is no option any more and everything is automatically converted without any way around it besides logging into the foreign ebay website and paying there...

[porcelain_dolls_by_me]

Hmmm    I made an international purchase through PayPal only last night and used the option I mentioned above?