Move USD from PayPal to USD account in Canada

ocgltd
Contributor
Contributor

I have a large USD balance in my PayPal account, and I want to transfer it to my USD bank account, in Canada.  I don't want to move the money from USD -> CAD -> USD as I will incur significant exchange fees.

 

I've tried several times to add my Canadian USD account to PayPal but it refuses (says Canadian accounts must contain CAD).  I tried to add this as a US bank account but that didn't work either.

 

Help - how do I get my money out without all the exchange fees?

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118 REPLIES 118

MJG-514
Contributor
Contributor
I’m sorry but I do t believe that for a second. Banks are a big and powerful but not government and they are greedy. They want your money in any currency and would prefer to handle the fx transaction the let u find away around it. This is a PayPal issue and policy plain and simple. If u have a USD account in Canada I’m sure you use it and all kinds of transactions go in an out. This is no different we have US money flowing by wire, MSP (even customers out this way) only PayPal who should be a legit MSP won’t deposit to USD. They just want to handle ur FX.
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bernk
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This doesn't make sense to me. I wonder if there have been some recent changes to laws. If I'm still able to move USD between my US and Canadian USD accounts, across the border, then why would the banks care if I can move USD from PayPal to their US account? In any case, if this is correct it's a pretty big bummer. I just did a transfer out to RBC today. So far everything is as usual. We'll see if the funds show up as usual tomorrow.

 

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Lebbi
Contributor
Contributor
I'm on same boat as you. Was able to transfer them to my UD based TD bank account for a year until now. I removed PayPal from my shop and I'm using Stripe now. It is annoying. Let me know if you ever find a solution. I could basically rent a room in USA for the 2% additional fee due to conversion. This promotes moving our business to USA and Canadian regulations should prevent banks from deciding that new rule. Let me know if you find any workaround.
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laserfocus
Contributor
Contributor

Yeah exactly @Lebbi , something has changed. I also moved to Stripe even though I'm not 100% happy with their holding of funds either.

 

As for the other comments, sure it doesn't make sense, but something has to explain why myself as well as many others were able to transfer without issues until now.

 

Even adding/re-adding the US account did nothing.

 

I'd say give it another few months and see if everyone is still able to transfer funds, and we can verify if what the manager told me is true.

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NeverAgain3
Contributor
Contributor

Just want to say that I made a few withdrawals recently to my US based USD bank account (I use Wise) and it has been fine for me. I actually got a payment today into my Wise account. Now if Canadian banks did change the rules then perhaps using Wise is the way to go. From Wise, you can either convert your money to CAD using the real exchange rate and then withdraw for a minor fee, or send your USD from Wise to your USD based Canadian bank account. Though this method is probably a hassle for those not using Wise and with PayPal having all these issues it might just be better to move away from it.

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Lebbi
Contributor
Contributor

@NeverAgain3  I was doing exactly that for 2 years but now we can't. It is a software update that won't let you withdraw without converting to CAD first. If it still works for you, then they just did not push the update to you yet. They do this in batch it appears. 

 

I am now using Stripe and stopped using PayPal. Indeed PayPal is known and trustworthy, but I don't like encouraging bad business practices. They already get 3.5% on transactions, which is fine, but now they also eat an additional 2% with their poor currency conversion rate. I called many times and there is no workaround. 

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davidngyen
New Community Member

it seems like they reversed the change they made that locked out the exchange to CAD only, made a transfer from USD to USD two days ago

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Lebbi
Contributor
Contributor

Yes indeed they reversed the change so it works as usual now! 

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laserfocus
Contributor
Contributor

Yes looks like they reverted it back so it works now.... silly PayPal support and management, literally everyone had some new story to tell, no one could tell that it was a bug of some sort??

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lkjshefilj
Contributor
Contributor

I set up a Wise account to try this but my first USD transfer from my PayPal to my USD Wise account was reversed, and then PayPal charged me a $20 fee for the reversal! Even though this was a verified connected account.

 

There is so much misinformation out there about all of this. Some say it works, some say it doesn't. Some say it works but you get charged an additional 3% fee.

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