Fee to pay Ebay invoice. Is this correct?

[shacklestore]

I've being charged international fees by my bank to either pay an Ebay invoice or for using the Paypal gateway. The invoices are in AUD and that is the currency I used tp pay. However I wasn't aware that when payments are made locally to Ebay using the Paypal gateway they are actually credited to an overseas account and any fees are passed on to the customer.

It seems all rather convoluted but I learnt this from my bank when I queried some odd debits. My main concern is that it doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere by Ebay or Paypal though I could be mistaken and was hoping someone may be able to point me to the related section?

Ebay has rejected my email stating that I must use the Ebay contact form. However the only option they will allow is a direct chat session with an Ebay rep who as usual hung up when they realised my question was outside of their standard script. It's rather tiresome this hanging up game of theirs.

Thank you

[audio-spot]

My test purchase as a guest checkout via the PayPal gateway and with my Coles MC (GE Money) has the item showing as an $11.80 PayPal transaction with no extra fees. Therefore I have not been able to replicate the original complaint.

I think the OP should contact their card issuer to ask why a transaction in AU dollars with the Aust arm of PayPal attracts an international fee.

[lyndal1838]

Thanks for reporting back audio-spot.

I must admit when it happened to me it was a paypal account transaction, not a guest transaction....and it was a very long time ago.

The GE Money Terms and Conditions have changed many times over the years and hopefuly that would have been changed as it was a grossly unfair charge.

I agree that the OP needs to ask his card issuing authority about it.....it is obviously their issue, not ebay or paypal.  Unfortunately I doubt that we will ever get to the bottom of it now.

[audio-spot]

One thing I did notice is that the line on my credit card statement ends in AUS, ie Paypal + seller ID + numbers + AUS.

Perhaps those attracting an international fee do not end in AUS (maybe US or another country) and hence hit the credit card provider as an international transaction?

[lyndal1838]

You might be right about that audio.

My paypal account predates being bought by ebay so was probably opened through the US site.   I just added ebay to my existing PP account when I joined and started buying.  That is why I was so surprised...my previous purchases and money tranfers were all to/from the USA and Canada and involved converting currency anyway.