Foreign Transaction Fee on Ebay Monthly Payment

[theroseyreview]

For the first time I have been hot with a foreign transaction fee on my monthly ebay payment.

I checked back through my payments and this has never happened before.

I use a Westpac Mastercard to pay ebay fees.  Although I use my Paypal balance also and I notice that the charge is in Australian dollars so no foreign fee should apply.

Called Westpac, they claim that ebay has changed their banking.

However, when I look back through my invoices, nothing seems to have changed.

Is this just Westpac being difficuly or has anyone else been charged this fee?

I don't see how a foreign fee could apply if it is in Australian dollars???

Anyone have any suggestions?

[elovie-oz]

Not only Westpac. My PayPal account was link to my NAB and I was charged the fee, so I called NAB and they were happy to revert it.
Then I changed it to St George and also got charged the fee.
Something is not right..!

[dazzledayz]

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@elovie-oz wrote:
Not only Westpac. My PayPal account was link to my NAB and I was charged the fee, so I called NAB and they were happy to revert it.
Then I changed it to St George and also got charged the fee.
Something is not right..!

---

You need to speak to your branch accountant or manager to get an explanation of why a foreign transfer is being applied to an Australian entity.

PayPal is registered in Australia and transfers to it should not incur this sort of fee.

I've never had to pay it but I fund my fees directly from my PayPal account ie I always leave enough in the account to meet the eBay bill.

What's the amount involved; is it 10% of the total ie a part of the ATO gst grab on foreign purchases?

[porcelain_dolls_by_me]

Ebay processes their billing overseas and as such, and this has only been introduced recently, banks are charging their 3% FX fee on such transactions.

Even though the billing amount is AUD denominated, as the charge emanates from overseas the fee is charged.  For heavy eBay sellers this can amount to a fair slug every month.

Yet another way the banks have found to rip off the consumer.

Way around the problem is to direct the monthly billing to a card that does not charge international transaction fees.  There are several on issue - we use 28 Degrees.

[davewil1964]

The easiest way is to pay from Paypal funds. No FX fees there, either.

As most sellers get paid through Paypal, it is not hard to leave enough in the account to cover upcoming fees.

I have a credit (debit, actually) card attached to my main account, because I had to when I opened my store, but I've never used it to pay fees. Which is good, as it got hacked last year and the replacement one has a different number.

[digital*ghost]

For those who have an account, ING charges no foreign transaction fees.

[philrodger]

I made an overses purchase on ebay, I chose not to use PayPal but rather my own credit card because the exchange rate is better and I purchased in US dollars.

Imagine my surprise to find I have been charged at the PayPal rate. I contacted ebay (a miracle in itself) and they said that although I elected not to use PayPal they process the charge through PayPal anyway and use their own exchange rate, not that of my Mastercard.

To ad insult to injury I was sent a purchase summary which said that I had been charged at the Mastercard rate when that simply was not true.

[bwid0505]

I have just found that I was being charged a Foreign fee too for the membership fee.

I contacted my bank (Westpac) and was told the transaction was processed outside Australia  in Switzeland.

I contacted Ebay and was told I was the first person to report this issue.

I suggest you to contact your bank and Ebay.

[lyndal1838]

Unless a seller can accept your card through their merchant facility all credit card payments are processed through paypal.  Nothing new there!

[minimum_56]

See this post from last year...

https://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Selling/Sellers-Check-your-banking-institution-for-International-Fe...

I also had the same thing happening.

My ebay fees were paid by Paypal & if there was insufficient funds in Paypal the default was credit card (CBA)

I ended up changing the billing to credit card payment & the International fees disappeared.