PayPal Community

I sent USD $39.04 (AUD57.28) to what I thought was the recipient for an item. However it turns out I unknowingly sent it to the wrong recipient as it turns out there are TWO recipients on PayPal with not only the SAME NAME!, but also the SAME PAYPAL ADDRESS! Even the intended recipient was unaware of this other (imposter?) recipient. As I said even their PayPal addresses are the same. Also the correct intended recipient lives in the USA and this other one lives in Germany. Yet when I went to send the payment only ONE recipient showed so obviously I thought nothing of it as the name was CORRECT. Now if PayPal had got their act together and showed both when I typed in the name then I would've immediately seen there were TWO and promptly taken the necessary action to ensure the CORRECT recipient was selected to send payment to. I therefore feel PayPal should refund the FULL AUD57.28 to me! Now I've always understood you CAN'T have two recipients with the exact same name! Surely PayPal's system would've not allowed a name that was ALREADY IN USE! But apparently it does! Well that's NOT my fault! ... View more

I've only found out in the past month or so that it's possible to bypass PayPal's exchange rate when paying by PayPal for a foreign eBay purchase and have your card provider process the transaction instead since most credit/debit cards provide a better, a significantly better, rate of exchange than PayPal can give. This is not the same as paying for the eBay item with your card, which I couldn't understand. If you do that I found you'll simply be charged at PayPal's rate of exchange, which is totally contrary to what should happen!   To bypass PayPal's exchange rate you select PayPal as you normally would if paying by PayPal, but then manually add your card under PayPal. This then gives the option to switch currencies so you'll be charged in the seller's own currency. Doing so bypasses PayPal's rate as it forces your card provider to process the payment. Whether it's advantageous to do so will depend on the country you're purchasing from. However I live in Australia and purchse from UK and US sellers so it's a huge advantage for me to be able have the transactions processed at my card's rate as my card provider gives actual 'mid market' rates!   As I say this is when purchasing off eBay. What I want to know is it also possible to do the same i.e. to switch currencies so I'll be charged in the seller's own currency when paying with PayPal from a non-eBay website? Since virtually all website stores accept PayPal. I tried to do this when making a purchase from 'La-La Land Records', yet when the PayPal charge came through on my bank statement it was still unfortunately at the PayPal rate instead of my Visa card rate and I'm certain I did everything correct to switch currencies so the PayPal transaction would be processed in USD and not AUD.    I assume when a customer selects PayPal as the payment method all a website store does, including eBay, is go through PayPal's payment 'gateway' so if it's possible to switch currencies on eBay then it should work on any website store that accepts PayPal - correct? Although the step of having to manually add your card might not be as with eBay.    However in doing a Google search on websites wanting to integrate PayPal, I see a thing called 'Advanced Checkout' which lets a website offer PayPal payment button and custom credit and debit card fields. So I'm wondering if it's only possible to switch currencies if the website offers 'Advanced Checkout', like presumably eBay has implemented, instead of only 'Standard Checkout'? If a website uses only Standard Checkout is there still be a way to switch currencies?    I can't recall the process now I went through on La-La Land Records' payment screen or what messages were displayed which is why I'm going to take screenshots next time to document each step so if it still doesn't work others here can hopefully tell me what's going wrong.  La-La Land Records say they offer payment by card. However I believe they really mean 'card payment through PayPal' which is obviously not the same thing as offering payment by card. Some website stores I deal with do offer true payment by card so if I choose to pay by Visa the payment will be processed by Visa - unlike what happens on eBay!   Lastly what about paying on a PayPal Invoice or Payment Request? Will I be able to switch currencies to ensure Ill be charged at my card's rate when paying a seller this way?  ... View more

If I'm checking the AUD to USD exchange rate and I use PayPal's 'Currency calculator' (Wallet > Currency calculator) and set 'From' to USD and 'To' to AUD and for today 27 Sep 2023 I enter $100.00 for the USD the Currency calculator shows this would cost $150.84 AUD or an exchange rate of 0.662954.   Now if I go into PayPal's 'Send and Request' and choose one of my contacts and set 'You're sending' to AUD and 'Recipient receives' to USD and I enter $ 100.00 for the USD it shows this would cost $163.15 AUD or an exchange rate of 0.612933.   A bit of a difference isn't it between what PayPal's own Currency calculator gives and what PayPal's 'Send and Request' gives, which I'm told by PayPal's customer service representive is a 3rd party website  - REALLY!   Now I'll tell you the exchange rate given in the 'Send and Request' is the CORRECT rate as that IS the rate you WILL get if you either send money overseas with PayPal's 'Send and Request' or make an overseas purchase and pay with PayPal.   Now I don't know what's going on with their Currency calculator! To go back to my AUD to USD rate applicable for today, that rate of 0.662954 is EVEN HIGHER than the 'mid market rate'! Which is IMPOSSIBLE of course to anyone familiar with currency markets.  For your information the HIGHEST mid market rate so far today is 0.640612. So CLEARLY PayPal's 'Currency calculator' is WAY OFF!   So please DO NOT use PayPal's Currency calculator to check the PayPal exchange rates. Use ONLY PayPal's 'Send and Request' to view the CORRECT PayPal exchange rates! Perhaps someone here could try in vain to let PayPal know their Currency calculator is - well not working properly!   ... View more

Everything was fine yesterday, but today I'm trying to get into my PayPal account, but when I log in I'm being presented with a 'PayPal - Business Sign-up' page, yet I don't wish to sign up for a business account! How do I get past this screen as there appears to be no option to not sign up i.e. to simply pass on this and go straight into my account.   On this same page it's also asking me to 'Add your mobile number to help keep your account more secure' However I don't have a mobile phone and there's no option to decline! This request to add my mobile number does pop up from time to time, but in the past there's always been an option to skip it i.e. the 'Not right now' option, but that's not appearing!         ... View more