Paypal's currency converter a little fishy?

[playford]

I bought something in US dollars and ended up paying more in Canadian funds, despite the fact that Can. currency is higher than the US dollar - where does Paypal find this conversion chart, and what year is it from? If my purchase had been large enough, that could have been a lot of money and I find this more than fishy and maybe bordering on illegal.

[hs2011]

Had a similar issue to the ones mentioned.   I intended to make a purchase of $1,264.50 on a US website, so I intentionally used my $US Mastercard.   I have done this before and costs have been passed through fully in $US.   In this case Paypal converted my charge to $CDN and sent through to my $US Mastercard and guess what? - My $US credit card made the conversion back to $US from the $CDN charged by Paypal.   Final amount on my credit card was $1,330.66 US.    So, the final charge came through in $US, but the end cost was almost $70 more.

I used to think users should use Paypal instead of entering your credit card information directly to avoid getting **bleep**ed.   Well it turns out I got **bleep**ed by using Paypal and will just enter my credit card directly next time.

[ian_parenteau]

The problem is PayPal forces all non-USA transactions to be in the destination country's currency.  PayPal does not understand or accomodate US Dollar only credit cards issued by banks outside the USA.  PayPal does not understand or accomodate US Dollar only bank accounts from banks outside the USA.  There is a lot of forced and unnecessary currency exchanges happening at PayPal.

[ellebal1111]

I wonder why...extra convertion, more convertion fees...PAYPAL is a rip off! Plain and simple~!!

[ellebal1111]

PAYPAL has become another wall street corporation with little time for customers, bent on scamming their way into profit...are you surprised!??   

[MikeB44]

After 9 USD transactions charged by Paypal in USD to my USD credit card,  next USD transaction converted to CAD by Paypal (2.5% commission taken + exchange rate) and charged in CAD to my USD credit card. Credit card card company converted CAD charge to USD taking the own commission + exchange rate.

Was told by Paypal that my credit card was listed as CAD which does not make sense, i.e. suddenly after 9 transactions?

Still trying to confirm that new USD transactions will be charged in USD to my USD credit card. No answer after more than a week.

Maybe better to close my account than be sorry.

[Tichondrous6]

I went to buy something off eBay. It came to 110.27 usd. But I'm Canadian so I had it transferred, I figured since the Canadian dollar is higher if I put 110.27 in it would work out. But as I just checked, apparently it will cost me 111.18 Canadian. I went to my local bank to ask if something happened to the dollar. They said that I could get the same amount of money for 107 usd. So I'm being charged 4 more then what it actually is for no reason. I can understand them making it a little in there favor, but 4 dollars is ridiculous. As a result i cannot pay for the item as I'm aproximatly 1 dollar short. Which means I'll have to cancel and giving me a bad rep on eBay. None of it being my fault

[maurry40]

indeed,,

I have sent them email on this matter but am waiting for an answer

I too have said that and exchnge in the Thousands of dollars  , with this rate of exchage, could result in a legal dispute of their exchange rate. (good old American litigation)

[ProVision147]

Okay, it's obvious that enough merchants have a concern with the currency exchange rate. Will someone from PayPal PLEASE address these concerns and give us an explanation as to why PayPal's rate is different than the standard rate found on other going conversion sites, such as http://www.xe.com/ ???

Or, perhaps no one at PAyPal monitors this forum, or can offer a plausible explanation.

Clear the air PayPal.

[klaassendaniel]

They really need to address this. I get paid in USD most of the time. First they take a transfer fee and then they use outlandish conversion rates. It seems like a scam.

[kdstcyr]

I just noticed this today and I find myself here.  Canadian dollar is a little above parity today, but the exchange rate on the transaction record shows less than, much less.  I'm pretty sure Paypal is required to show any fee they charge for currency conversion or at least it would be better if they did, less fishy.  I think I'll use my VISA from now on as they DO show and use the daily exchange rate AND show the foreign currency handling free clearly and separately.