Exchange Rate Too High?

[CurriMintz]

I am sending money to a seller in Ukraine. There should be no fees, and there is no buyer protection, only friends and family. I can only send money in USD.

Google says $500 USD should equate to £401.72 GBP at a rate of 1.24 / 1.25

I sent the seller two payments of $500 which were both charged at £420.37 and this is significantly more than the exchange rate!! PayPal used 1.1894

I sent a further third payment of $500 which was charged to me as £403.55 at a rate of 1.239 which is much more close to the current exchange rate.

I know exchange rates fluctuate, but surely not by that much in the space of less than 24 hours?! I’ve been up charged almost £40.

Does PayPal use its own independent, higher exchange rate? I’d just like to know if my payments are correct, or if there’s any way I can claim back the money I think has been charged too much.

Thanks for any help!

[kernowlass]

@CurriMintz 

You should not be using the friends/family option to pay for goods/services from a seller. It may lead to the sellers account being permanently limited as they are not allowed to use their account for selling in the Ukraine.

However.....

  https://www.paypal.com/uk/cshelp/article/where-can-i-find-paypals-currency-calculator-and-exchange-r...

[CurriMintz]

Thank you for making me aware of this. I didn’t know about that, and I don’t think the seller does either. We are friends so I have no issues sending money using friends and family. But I will look further into PayPal’s agreement with sending money to and from Ukraine as I’m sure my friend doesn’t want their account suspended!

What I was trying to get at is that there shouldn’t be any extra fees on my payment given the arrangements with Ukraine, and I wondered why my payment was significantly higher. Still not sure why I’m paying £20 extra in exchange rate in the space of less than a day, seems like too big of a jump when other sources put the rate lower. But I suppose there’s nothing to be done and I’ll just cut my losses. Thanks anyway!