Buyer Fees

nett1946
Contributor
Contributor

Why is the BUYER charged a fee to pay an International seller?

Login to Me Too
16 REPLIES 16

sandypurins
Advisor
Advisor

How much is the fee... how much is the payment? Who is charging you the fee... PayPal or the seller?

 

Are you referring to PayPal's currency conversion charge, or... is the seller charging you a fee?

Login to Me Too

nett1946
Contributor
Contributor

According to my receipt PayPal added a 2.5% fee to my payment to an Australian seller. I assume this was a currency conversion charge but I have paid foreign sellers in the past and never had to pay a fee.

 

The receipt also said "Commissions and Fees incurred by sender: $0.00" 

Since I am assuming I was the sender, I am confused.  When did e-Bay start charging buyer fees for international transactions?  I hope you can help clarify this for me.  Thank You

 

 

Login to Me Too

sandypurins
Advisor
Advisor

@nett1946 wrote:

According to my receipt PayPal added a 2.5% fee to my payment to an Australian seller. I assume this was a currency conversion charge but I have paid foreign sellers in the past and never had to pay a fee.


You are correct that it's a currency conversion charge... PayPal has a 2.5% currency conversion charge... it's documented in the "Fees" section of PayPal's User Agreement.

 

If the seller doesn't accept anything other than his local currency, the buyer who pays using a different currency will be charged a currency conversion charge.

Login to Me Too

nett1946
Contributor
Contributor

I'm still a little confused.   I looked up the Fees section of PayPal's User Agreement.

 

Under b.International Purchase Payments it says that  'Sending (buying)' is free, so I still can't understand why I

was charged a fee.

 

Also, as I said, my PayPal receipt states that NO FEES were incurred by the sender! That is clearly a lie because

I was charged a fee.  I have not been able to contact anyone to clarify the situation and wonder if any other buyers

have had this happen to them?

Login to Me Too

sandypurins
Advisor
Advisor

Section 8.5 of PayPal's User Agreement documents currency conversion fees...

 

 

8.5 Additional Fees.

Activity Fee

Currency Conversion 2.5% added to the exchange rate

The exchange rate is determined by a financial institution and is adjusted regularly based on market conditions. Adjustments may be applied immediately and without notice to you.

 

 

Login to Me Too

nett1946
Contributor
Contributor

Well I won't argue with you but I've been buying on eBay since 1999 and it's a first for me!!!

I always checked the currency converter right before making a payment and the amounts always matched.

eBay must really be hard up for money - I've seen a lot of complaints (mostly from sellers) about extra fees

they weren't aware of, fees being taken out twice etc, but I really don't know anything about the selling end

of eBay

Thank you for your answers!

Login to Me Too

stokkanda
Contributor
Contributor

It acutally seems like there is more going on... I checked my transaction and came up with 7.3% difference on the currency rate used (between GBP and Norwegian Kroner) used and the average currency given by a financial magacine here on the same day. 

 

In worst case PayPal carge 2.4% + 3.5% using credit card (adding up the percents given here and there in PayPal's web site) - and still there is 1.3% difference - which could (on a good day) depend on which currency rate they use as basis.... 

 

The conclusion? Do the math before paying using PayPals converter, and either accept it or not. There is no way to bypass it, even if using my bank's currency rate, since PayPal still charge their fee... 

 

At least this is the experience from my very first ebay purchase using PayPal... 

Login to Me Too

nett1946
Contributor
Contributor

A 7.3% difference is ridiclous  It's been years since I bought anything from a foreign seller (except fromChina & there's no conversion involved there) until last December & I don't remember paying anything extra then.which is why I was surprised at the fee this time.

I always checked PayPal's converter & the amounts were always the same. Plus the fact that my PayPal receipt stated that I didn't pay any fees!  I had to accept the amount--I didn't feel it would be fair to the seller to try & cancel the transaction & the item was worth the extra money. It wasn't so much the fee that bothered me as the fact that I didn't know about it before hand!

Reading the user agreement regarding fees is useless because it is very contradictory

Login to Me Too

Haven't Found your Answer?

It happens. Hit the "Login to Ask the community" button to create a question for the PayPal community.