PayPal Community

You're welcome.  Again, if you don't want to have to travel to the U.S. to open the account, etc., a smart solution is to open an RBC "ACCESS" account (not just a USD account, please make sure you ask for an "access" account.) ... View more

Hi Adrian, thank you for the nice words. 🙂   Actually it was my FIRST posting on here as far as I know! lol 🙂   Luanne ... View more

You CANNOT link your debit card to your account (in Canada.)  You can link your credit card or your bank account to Paypal, that's it.   That being said, yes if you link your bank account you can go ahead and make a purchase but you better make sure you have the money in the bank in short order or it will end up being returned and will then go to your secondary source for payment (whatever you marked as your secondary source, usually a credit card.)  I find it usually takes a couple business days or more to hit my bank account so I'd say have it in by the day after you make the charge at least.   And technically I'm sure Paypal would say you better not charge unless it's already in the account...     ... View more

If you view your history, there is a column showing "fees" and if you go into the actual details for fees on each transaction, it will give you more information.  Be aware that the currency conversion fee is not just about the nominal exchange rate you hear on the news.  It involves a fee for the actual conversion just like we pay at any financial institution whether in Canada or abroad.   Luanne ... View more

Just link to your bank account and you can easily transfer the money there.  I do and it is usually done in about 2 to 3 business days for my account here in Canada.  You can also link up your credit card to make payments from but not to receive payments.   I really would not be trying to involve a debit card or credit card anyways because if you look at the fee information, if you ever need to pay/send money to someone, there is a fee involved if it is from a credit card or debit card so I think it's much smarter to simply link to your bank account.  I've been doing it that way for years without any problem.  If you're worried about the access to your account, you could always have one account just for paypal use and only keep as much in there as you need for purchases.   Luanne ... View more

Hi a1b2c3,   here's why....  The exchange rates you hear about in the news (saying that the Canadian dollar is worth more than the U.S. dollar) are what they call "nominal exchange rates"  and are used by governments when talking about the value of the dollar.  These however are not the actual exchange rates you receive when you go to convert funds for a transaction.  The exchange rates for transactions through a bank or any other financial institution are called the  "cash rate" and usually include a currency conversion fee of up to 4%.  That is why, even when our dollar is, in theory, more valuable than the U.S. dollar, we still have to pay more... because we also are paying the fee for currency conversion.   It is essentially unavoidable unless you want to keep a U.S. bank account (not to be confused with a Canadian bank account holding U.S. dollars) for your purchases and pay right from that. 🙂    I posted more about this earlier with actual screenshots from the Bank of Canada website if you wanted to take a look under the currency conversion tag to find it.   Luanne ... View more

Just a note re paying LD for calling them.... if you don't already have a VOIP phone where it's free, then you could get a Magic Jack and use that.  That's how I call them when necessary. 🙂     ... View more

Youi're quite welcome.  🙂  Check out my posts on other Canadian-themed threads re currency conversion issues, etc. 🙂 ... View more

Don't do this!  It's not a smart solution!   All you are doing is trying to connect a Canadian bank account that has its funds in USD -- but it's still a CANADIAN bank account!  It will not work properly!   Your best option is to open a U.S. account (ie. at a U.S. bank.)  RBC has the best solution I've found so far....  They have not only their main Canadian bank but they own RBC U.S.A. (a string of 430 U.S. banks) and by going to any RBC in Canada you can open up both a Canadian account in Canada and a U.S. account at one of their U.S. banks and then manage both online in the same place.  Pay all your U.S. bills, get your paypal deposits, etc. to the U.S. bank account for free (if that's what you want) .... bottomline, that is a much smarter option and all U.S. services will work with it because it is an ACTUAL U.S. bank account!  You can also transfer the money at no cost between accounts.  Just the smartest solution I've found so far!    Bank of America also has a free bank account ("ebanking) and you can take out funds at any Scotiabank ATM in Canada at no extra charge but still the RBC solution makes the most practical sense.   Luanne ... View more

You don't use your debit card in Canada gang.... simply link your bank account and then you pay from that.  I have done that for Netflix as well as many other services.  So forget "debit card" and link either your credit card or your bank account instead!   On the subject of debit cards.  The debit card in the U.S. is an entirely different animal than what we have in Canada.  It has to do wtih their very different banking system and charges to merchants based on whether a transaction is processed as credit or debit.  From what I know of it, it's a headache!  Believe me, you don't want to deal with American debit cards! Just use your bank account or your credit card and you'll be fine. 🙂   And Adrian, I don't think there are any debit cards in Canada at all that are Visa or MC branded.  We run with an entirely different system here and we use either a debit OR a credit card period. 🙂  Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I can't see Canadian companies going that route.   Luanne ... View more