PayPal forcing me to convert currency

[Kieranlon]

I have an Irish PayPal business account. I receive some payments in dollars and would like to withdraw those dollars into a dollar bank account that I set up specifically for this purpose.  However, PayPal automatically coverts the dollars to Euros when I try to withdraw them (so my bank has to convert them back, and I lose a huge amount on the currency conversion fees). I've spoken to PayPal 4 times on the phone about this and they lied to me on three occasions, before finally telling me it was PayPal policy. The first time they said it was my banks fault and told me to contact my bank (which I did, to no avail). The second time they said I just needed to change the primary currency of my account (which I did, to no avail). The third time they tried again to tell me it was my banks fault and that they could do nothing about it (another lie). On the fourth occasion they told me that it was PayPal's policy and that I had signed up to these terms. Obviously they make money on the conversion so that's why they have this policy. I submitted a complaint through their complaints system but I haven't even received a confirmation of receipt.

[nevadasmith · Accepted solution]

you are in Ireland and your primary currency is Euro.

when you transfer money to a local bank via clearance,I would think it is your Ireland central bank and they operate in Euro,so Paypal has no choice but to convert your payment into euro .

why don't you find out how Irish banks clear and what is the role of the central bank,and tell us .

you may want to look into transferring your US $ outside Paypal,in USA we can ask Paypal to send us a bank check,fee applies,then we can take it to our bank and deposit .

Not sure if this feature is available in Ireland and would Paypal sent you a check in US$ and not Euro.

[Kieranlon]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.  It's actually a UK bank that I have the US dollar account with. Similarly, when I try to withdraw GBP to my UK bank, PayPal converts the GBP to Euros and my bank then converts it back to GBP, so it has nothing to do with how Irish banks clear.

[vomitbreth]

Why is this marked as a solution, payPal? This is no solution. Worse than trying to contact you. I hate Facebook, but Libra has a point.

[Kevin292]

This is definitely not a satisfactory solution...

[Cyberbunny]

This is not the solution. OP has clearly mentioned that they have an account in USD to receive payments in USD which this responder failed to consider. This is not the solution. This is 2021 and PayPal is still doing similar things. They forced currency conversions on my payments too then blaming my bank for that. I contacted my bank and they explained that from their side nothing is wrong. PayPal gave me 4 different non-consistent reasons none of them is true. Anyway I'm in the process of filling this case in the court in EU. I request anyone affected to contact me to establish a class action lawsuit. slipslapslutstick <at> outlook (dot) com

[Alexpowder]

Similar problem over here too. I buy something in Euros, PayPal thinks my Revolut card is in Pounds (which is not). So requests for payment from my card in Pounds. Then Revolut converts Pounds to Euros (which is the correct currency of the card). Double conversion fees. Unless there is a way to change this setting, I am stopping using PayPal.

[Cyberbunny]

Hi @Alex ,

Please see my previous message in this thread too. I have involved my lawyers and opened a case against PayPal. I am seeking a full class-action lawsuit against PayPal since they are doing this will a lot many customers. Considering the amount of transactions take place over PayPal in a day, even at lower bound rough estimate they are making at least 250 million USD everyday by this fraud.
If you are interested in joining in in this action against PayPal, please contact me at:
slipslapslutstick <at> outlook (dot) com

I will soon be filing a petition too.

Best regards,

A.

@zorkep @GOTH-3Designs @Natalya111 

[JayDelaney]

Why is this marked as a solution? 

I received direct payments on my USD account and bank never made me convert currency. 

I am fairly new to PayPal but if your policy is stealing money by changing currency I won't be using it in the future. 

Since PayPal account is virtual account shouldn't it be possible to receive money in any currency and then, if specific country we live in has certain regulations, currency has to be changed if needed?

My PayPal account currency is set to USD, so why are you forcing currency change if payment is made in USD? 

[LPX79]

Same story. I am from Latvia, which is also EU like Ireland. Tried to withdraw USD to my Revolut account, which is exactly same nominated in USD.

At the end PayPal says it will send EUR without any connection to reality, as if Revolut is yet located in UK, which is GBB, i send USD to my USD account in UK, but it actually sends EUR!!! Freaking bu****bleep**. Absolute cheat!