I used PayPal to pay for an international ebay purchase a while back. When I was in ebay it showed the amount USD that I would pay for the item from Italy ($842 USD). I had checked and re-checked several exchange rate sites to make sure of the rate before I completed the transaction. When I got the receipt from PayPal it showed a charge of $878 USD! So I go look at the exchange rate PayPal had used, and it was .8737 Euro to $1 USD. Well on the date I purchased the item, and I also checked the day before and day after just in case, the actual federal exchange rate was .9093. That's a 4% worse exchange rate than the fed and most other exchange rate services. So instead of being charged the $842 I was charged $878. So nice of them to say on the receipt, BUT not before the transaction is complete, that "PayPal makes money converting currency". NO KIDDING!!!! About $36 worth on one transaction for me. I have spent several hours on stupid chats with PayPal employees, can't talk to anyone on the phone because of COVID since they don't have anyone answering phones apparently, and two disputes both of which were denied. They've given me a song and dance that you can see the exchange rate under Wallet, and that it would have told me the exchange rate in the ebay transaction - BS!!! You don't see anything until after the transaction is completed. Just wanted to make sure everyone knows, that if you do any international transactions through PayPal, you're going to get royally hosed on their exchange rate. I can only imagine on a daily basis how much they're raking in on exorbitant exchange rate fees!
