I too have just been stung by the PayPal automatic FX machine. I spent an hour trying to make sure that my EUR invoice would be paid in EUR, rather than converted into GBP for payment. But failed abysmally as I was using my tablet device. I even tried using PayPal full "classic" site to no avail. I get charged zero for FX conversions on my credit card, and so obviously wanted to pay with no conversion, but couldn't find this on the PayPal website for love nor money, not even in the help or FAQ section. Why PayPal have chosen to squirrel this option away in somewhere that a reasonable person wouldn't intuitively think to look, or provide any online FAQ help to find this option is disingenuous. Why we are not offered the option at checkout for the card provider to perform the conversion is beyond me. Showing (typically) a 7% bid/offer spread on FX conversions when the wholesale market is highly liquid, and with much tighter spreads than that is ridiculous and unjustifiable. It's not as if PayPal have a load of extra overhead in performing the conversion. Plus PayPal is also able to achieve netting benefits, where someone wants to convert from EUR to GBP at the same time as someone wanting to convert from GBP to EUR. Ah well, now that I've changed the settings I won't be making the same mistake again. But shame on PayPal fo rnot making this otion more accessible.
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