Converting USD and GBP payments to AUD

[onlineservices2012]

Hi, I am currently selling on the AU, UK and US ebay sites, which means I'm receiving payments in AUD, GBP and USD. I'm being charged 2% by Paypal to receive funds in AUD, but because the GBP and USD payments are coming from overseas, I am being charged 3% by Paypal (despite receiving these in the original currency). I then have to convert the GBP and USD within Paypal to AUD before transferring it to my bank account. The conversion fee is an additional 3%.

If I generate $100,000 a year in overseas sales, it is just insane to think that the conversion fee alone will be $3,000.

Does anyone have any tips or suggestions to minimise these fees? I've looked into the idea of opening up an overseas bank account (e.g. in the US and UK), but it looks notoriously difficult for anyone not living there to do.

[lemmayj]

Last time I checked (and it was a couple of years ago), paypal wouldn't let you transfer your GBP to a UK bank account, even if you had one. (I have one).  I believe they will let you transfer to a US bank account.

We actually drastically reduced our sales on the US and UK sites just because of this issue (effective overall  5-6% in fees depending on what conversion rate you get on the day). We used to just hold the money in the relevant currency and use it to pay for purchases in that currency, but this also resulted in extra pain as regards business accounting issues....

Will be very interested to see if anyone else posts with some positive suggestions, as we would use them too.

[onlineservices2012]

I just discovered that we can pay our eBay fees in foreign currency. This will be able to use up some of the GBP and USD but only a small proportion. 

[phorum_junkie*]

I have UK and Au Paypal accounts and transfer money between them as it is cheaper than using my bank's currency exchange services. This of course only works if you have an address in both countries to open the Paypal accounts with.

[jensmanchester-australia]

You could just list on the Australian Site and sell Internationally to the UK and US. That way all your payments received will be in AU$

[onlineservices2012]

phorum_junkie - yes it is cheaper than using the bank's foreign currency exchange services, but I feel like the currency conversion fee still adds up if you're conducting large amounts of transactions. I'm only a small seller compared so some of the huge ones on ebay - I wonder how they handle their different currencies. 

jensmanchester - I realise this, but I've found that some buyers prefer browsing on ebay.co.uk or ebay.com (where not necessarily all the international listings turn up depending on the user's search settings) and are more likely to purchase something in their own currency. It also allows me the flexibility of pricing items differently according to different regions. For example, I actually charge more for local customers to purchase the same items just because I know that these items are more expensive in Australia and so people are willing to pay more for it.

[dungeon_door]

PayPal are thieves. You can not even transfer the foreign currency out to a bank on your own country.

Pay your eBay bills in the currency. It is the best way

[davewil1964]

I suspect a lot has changed in the SIX years since this thread was current.

Unless your bank accepts foreign currency deposits I don't doubt it is not possible. I've also never heard of being able to pay eBay Australia in any currency than $AUD.