Unwanted Currency Conversion

[Blazbaros]

 So I want to get paid in USD and half or so of the payments I recieve from people are converted into CAD and must pay a fee to do that.  I don't want to be paid in CAD and the payments I do get in that currency I refund and send back.

Is there an option so that all of my payments will be converted into USD only?

[PayPal_AshleyM]

Hi everyone!

Thanks for reaching out and being patient as we work through all our posts. I understand how frustrating this has been, I apologize that you're running into issues with currency conversion. In this case, the best option is to reach out to us either by phone, Facebook, or Twitter, as this will require account specific information that we ask you don't share through our Community Help Forum.

I really appreciate everyone responding and trying to give more info so we can get this resolved.

- Ashley

[bosha]

This posting by Ashley is from last April. Has this been resolved yet? Seems to be an unreasonable delay!!!

[Toto_Soprano]

I was able to avoid the issue by asking my clients to make sure they were sending me US currency. I don't know how but they somehow managed to do it.

So it seems that by default, the conversion will be happening on their end right after entering an amount in USD. Guess they have to look for some hidden tab or something when they're about to send it to prevent the conversion. 

[Kanaxa]

I have the same problem. Been going on for months. I have asked my clients to make sure they send USD; they say they did. Yet I get CAD instead. I keep choosing USD for primary currency and it changes nothing. I will try calling Paypal and see what they say. I'll report back.

[belldongding]

good luck! I gave up with the phone thing.

[lorsaw]

This is happening to me too - they pay in US$ but it gets converted into C$ by paypal.  it's so frustrating! Has anyone found an answer yet for how to prevent it?

[belldongding]

How do we get someone from Paypal to look at this and do something? I'm going to click "report inappropriate content" and see if that does anything.

[RandyinCanada]

I had the same experience today and here is what the customer support desk explained to me when I called.

If someone pays you from the US using their local US credit card on their account then the PayPal system checks the recipient's (i.e. you in Canada) account, sees that you have a Canadian address on file and does an automatic conversion to Canadian $.

This occurs even if the Primary Currency on your account is set to US$ as mine was (so ignore the PayPal FAQ on this matter).

This will not occur if someone in the US pays you directly from amounts they may have in their Paypal account (and so no credit card used).

The person sending you the $ has no control.  Both my customers were clear they paid in US$ (as I had quoted them in USD they did not even know the CDN $ amount anyway) and provided the receipt to me.  They were as surprised as I was that the system converted the amount.

So, in my mind this is simply 20th century technology being used by PayPal in the 21st.  Strikes me it would be a simple switch to have the credit card seek out the Primary Currency used by your account rather than your address and process the transaction accordingly but only PayPal could answer that as I am neither an IT nor a banking guy.

Hope that helps.

Randy

[gregster]

Disappointed to read the above reply. This has been an irritation for me, starting sometime after the new Paypal design launched. It seems they think that our preferences don't matter and have therefore removed most of them from the interface as well as arbitrary policy decisions such as this. Given that most of my transactions are in USD (I'm from Canada), I'm losing a material amount by converting back and forth all the time. Of course Paypal is happy to skim off the top in this arbitrage scheme.

[PotatoB]

This is extremely frustrating. There is supposed to be an option to choose between using PayPal currency conversion rate or the credit card's conversion but that seems to have been gone for quite a while now. I've made many purchases on ebay and some other places in US dollars but that popup, or whatever it is, that used to show up before making the final click to pay never does show anymore. I end up having to wait until the credit card bill comes (or waiting til it's posted so I can view it online) to find out if in fact it was billed in US $, and therefore using the credit card's conversion, or if it was converted by PayPal which will show up on my bill as being in CDN $. This is BS. PayPal states that I have the right to choose the credit card's conversion over theirs but yet they take away the place to be able to switch it. WTF!!?? My credit card statement will say right there beside the applicable entry if it was charged in US $ and will also state the conversion rate used as well. I was going to keep going and type more but this is quickly getting me ticked off again and I can't continue right now.

Hey PayPal, I have a message for you - IT HAS BEEN LIKE THIS FOR MONTHS! FIX THIS NOW! If you don't fix it pretty darn quick then I will not hesitate to do everything I can to get back that choice that is a right. It that means legal action then I will do it. You need to hold up to your end of the agreement. You say we have a right to choose. Then you better fix it so that the choice shows up before we make that click to make the payment.