Transferring non local currency to Bank account

[tuts]

I am from UK, England but spend most of my time in Singapore. I have a Paypal account in Singapore in which I can take different currencies.

I have 2 bank accounts in Singapore, one which takes SGD (Singapore Dollars) and one which takes GBP (British Pounds Sterling).

My Singapore Paypal account was verified with the SGD account and the account is operating OK - apart from...

When I transfer GBP from the Paypal account, there is a conversion fee to pay as the Paypal verified Bank account set up with Paypal in Singapore only takes SGD. The conversion rates are not very good at all and I am trying to avoid this extra charge for simply getting my own money back.

What I want to do is get the other Singapore account which is in GBP added to my Paypal account.

If this can be done then there will be no currency conversion rates for me to pay. Thing is, to get an account verified, Paypal pays in 2 small amounts which you then need to confirm with Paypal to prove the account.

As the account is in GBP, how do I prove the 2 deposits as Paypal will pay in 2 small amounts of SGD?

These 2 amounts will then be rejected by the bank as it is obviously the wrong currency - hence I can't get my GBP payments without paying the conversion fee.

There must be some way to get around paying this extra fee when I already have bank accounts in the required currencies?

Can anyone please help as I cannot find the answer to this problem in the FAQs?

Hope this is fairly clear as I have gone on a bit!

Thanks

[PayPal_Siobhán]

Hi there tuts, 

It is clear- welcome to the community & thanks for posting!

First, as this is a UK community forum I can only really comment from a UK perspective so you may need to call or email the customer support team dedicated for Singapore to be 100%, you can do this by clicking on 'Contact Us' or 'Email Us' at the bottom of your PayPal account or trying +6565 1046 50.

So, from my knowledge PayPal is country specific in the sense that you can only withdraw in your local currency so in this case in Singapore Dollars or USD if you have a USD bank account. There is no way for you to withdraw to a Singapore bank account in GBP even if you have it denominated in GBP with your bank.

If you wish to make payments however from a card that is linked to this bank account you can add the card and email PayPal customer service with the last 4 digits of the card and request that we change the currency so you are charged directly in GBP.

So... just to clarify, there is no way for you to withdraw in GBP to this Singapore bank account even if it accepts GBP currency & you cannot add a UK bank account. You can add a Singapore or US bank account only to complete withdrawals. 

FYI- If you reside between both countries you can have both a UK & Singapore PayPal account. 

Sorry this is not the answer you were hoping for but I hope this clarifies things.

Siobhán 

[tuts]

Hi Siobhan

Thanks for reply

Looks like I was being too optimistic thinking it would be relatively simple not to have to pay Paypal an extra few percent!

With reference to my original question, do you have any tips to allow me to lessen the amount paid to Paypal

I lose 3.4% initially anyway simply by taking credit/debit card payments via Paypal and then get charged a further 2%+ for having British Pounds changed into Singapore Dollars.

Maybe there is a cheaper way of taking card payments that allow me to keep more of what I collect?

Any advice appreciated.

Hopefully I will read any reply you might leave before I go on holiday - back on 24th June

Cheers

[AeroPhil]

I am having the same problem.  I am in Singapore and I want to withdraw in USD to my bank, but PayPal customer service is useless as always.

If I withdraw in SGD, then PayPal automatically converts to SGD and take their fees and conversion commision.  This equates to over 100 dollars on a withfraw of 2500 USD.

This is known colloquially as the "PayPal conversion scam it seems.