How to change Paypal currency conversion @ checkout ?

therabbit
Contributor
Contributor

Hello, everybody.

 

I'm just a regular Joe, buying & selling on Ebay. I do more buying than selling - and i'm a member since 2011.

 

There is this strange behaviour of the Paypal / Ebay checkout system. In the past, i used to see an on-screen option in which Ebay / Paypal would allow me to select my preferred currency conversion option. For example, if i buy something in US $ (USD) and my card account is in Romanian LEI (RON) i can either use Paypal's conversion and get invoiced in RON or get invoiced in USD and the conversion will be made with Masterdard's / Visa's conversion. Paypal's conversion is around 5% higher that Mastercard's and i always chose to pay using the card issuer's conversion - because it's to my advantage.

 

The point is i used to have a choice. Now i do not. Let me explain...

This is how the old checkout boxes used to look like :

CheckoutAmount.png

 

And this happened when i clicked "Other conversion options" :

CurrencyExchange.png

 

This allowed to choose the conversion option - and PayPal actually remembers it, each time i use that card.

 

Now, the new dialog looks like this :

NewCheckOut.png

 

... and there's no more option to choose what currency exchange to use, anymore :

 

NoCurrencyXchange.png

 

As you can see, all my cards are listed - old ones and new ones. The ones where i could do the currency exchange switch in the past, still.. work the old way - i'm billed in the foreign currency and i get the card issuer's exchange rate - even if i get this new dialogues.

 

However, if i pay with a newly added card and the above dialogue pops up, i pay at paypal's exchange rate and i don't get a choice, anymore.

 

I think this is unfair... the options to choose the conversion rate used to be available in the old Paypal account interface too - but, since they switched to this new, fancy, giant button & heavy multimedia loaded interface, that option quitely dissapeared.... and no-one seems to know anything about it.

 

How about you - have you encountered something similar ?

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81 REPLIES 81

katmai
Contributor
Contributor
Yes this happens to me because I have a canadian billing address. Even with a USD Credit card. What they do is convert the USD purchase to CAD and then reconvert it back to USD as my currency billing is set to USD. I try to always use Amazon.com as they do not rip their Canadian customers off with usd Credit cards like Ebay does with this conversion ripoff racket. Ebay was not always like this.
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imaddicted2u
Contributor
Contributor

This only works for

  • Subscriptions
  • Automatically billed payments
  • Installment plan payments
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mrgoduna
New Community Member
It is best solution!
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PereGrinoz
New Community Member

this is the solution..

Thanks

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Ardiana
Contributor
Contributor

@sharpiemarker wrote:

GO to Profile > Payments > My Preapproved Payments > Set Available Funding Sources > Conversion Options


Thanks. I used to have the other option and it worked fine until last year, when I changed my primary bank and the credit card was cancelled. Now I have a new card with another bank that seemingly uses the more expensive conversion by default. I'm glad I found this panel and I'll see if Paypal accepts to not charge me. I may have to make a reclamation if they don't.


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t0ma5
Member
Member

What kind of company HIDES an option like that? Smiley Mad

I can not believe it..

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chepetepresta
Contributor
Contributor

Same thing happening to me, buying from ebay, the USD ammount charged to me on PAYPAL, was the same as in EBAY, but my credit card charged me about 120USD extras, because they said some currency exchange, i only have USD setup in paypal.... so could be a problem with ebay yes, but... paypal should not do this currency conversions if USD is available.   

 

 

 

 

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sharpiemarker
Esteemed Advisor
Esteemed Advisor

Contact tech support:

https://www.paypal-techsupport.com/app/ask


Kudos & Solved are greatly appreciated. 🙂
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imaddicted2u
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks, been waiting a few hours for a callback. Will try that form too.

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imaddicted2u
Contributor
Contributor

Just off the phone, was told it has always been the policy that paypal does the currency conversion and that the policy has never been changed??? I'm sure my credit card used to do the currency conversion and I switched back and forth depending on whether paypal or the credit card conversion cost less. Now I have a no fee card so it's always the best for conversion fee.

I guess the only option for myself, my wife and three kids is to stop using our Paypal accounts and go back to using our credit card exclusively to make web purchases.

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