Exchange rates on Ebay - in who's favour?

S

sadie

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I just bought an item from ebay costing 162.94 sterling. The ebay PayPal calculation conveniently translates into euro and tells me that 246.94 euro will be debited from my credit card (their exchange rate for today is 1 euro = 0.659843), however when I calculated the costs myself using the online currency calculator www.xe.com using todays rate (1 euro = 0.680116) it should have only cost 239.70 euro! Not sure why one exchange rate should be so much higher to the tune of costing me a fiver more???
 
i assume the higher rate allows them to take a fee from 'you' the buyer also, aswell as the 'seller'.. i could be wrong though
 
And the mid rate offered by one of the high street banks today is 0.6769-the rate on XE is probably a market rate, which is only the starting point in determining the rate offered by e-bay/PayPal etc.
 
As with all exchange rates that are quoted on the tv/websites this is usually the rates that banks get the money for and you can probably knock a couple of pence/cents off it for the banks commission.
 
I have won items or bought items on ebay and then went to pay with paypal straight away. However, I am always charged more by paypal on the exchange rate (as much as €1 for £15). This is very strange as both paypal and ebay are the one company...
They are not one of the most profitable companies in the world for no reason.
 
You never get the single exchange rate quoted, this is the mid-market rate and is used as a guide, nothing more. There are different rates depending on whether you are buying or selling the currency, these rates are used to calculate what you pay and include the overheads of the fx provider.
Leo
 
Also look to the conversion options on Paypal nwhen you ogo to pay ofr the item, you can choose to pay at Paypal's exchange rate or present the foreign currency amount to your credit card company for exchange at their rates at the time of the transaction. This tends to be more favourable and less profiteering.
 
dosfromclare said:
Also look to the conversion options on Paypal nwhen you ogo to pay ofr the item, you can choose to pay at Paypal's exchange rate or present the foreign currency amount to your credit card company for exchange at their rates at the time of the transaction. This tends to be more favourable and less profiteering.
Click to expand...

Which one ? The Paypal or Credit Card rate ?
Bear in mind that some Credit Cards add 1.5% handling for Foreign Currencies. So that would have to be added to the exchange rate when comparing.
 
Yeah - I've never seen any options for currency conversion either when paying via PayPal.
 
When you are on the payment page you will see a small link called "conversion options"...extract from paypal help below....

What does the phrase 'Conversion Options' on the Check Payments Details page mean?
Question : Answer : [broken link removed]</IMG> Clicking this link brings you to a page explaining that you have two options for currency conversion:
  • Use PayPal's conversion process to complete my transaction using my card's currency.
  • Both the original transaction currency and the converted amount that I will be charged are disclosed for my convenience. I understand that MasterCard and Visa have a currency conversion process. I have chosen not to use the MasterCard and Visa currency conversion process, and I will have no recourse against MasterCard and Visa with respect to any matter related to this conversion.
  • Bill me in the currency listed on the seller's invoice.
  • I will not know which foreign exchange rate has been applied to this transaction until I receive my card statement from my card issuer. I acknowledge that by choosing this option, my card issuer will determine the foreign exchange rate to apply to this transaction, and that I will not be informed of the foreign exchange rate or any additional foreign exchange fees applied until I am billed by my card issuer.
var solutionBaseUrl = '/helpcenter/main.jsp;jsessionid=Gd0GL29rfhzhhWBQMNjt2wLtWSJd1QQT62lb5K7N31P1G2Ph6Ft0!397204352?t=solutionTab&ft=searchTab&ps=solutionPanels&locale=en_US&_dyncharset=UTF-8&cmd=_help-ext&serverInstance=8003&solutionId=';var transactionFragments = document.getElementsByName("transactionFragmentForm");var solutionLinks = document.getElementsByName("solutionLink");atgss_loadFragments(transactionFragments);atgss_modifySolutionLinks(solutionLinks);

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Another word of warning here on Ebay transactions, I cancelled my original purchase because having paid and agreed the purchase, the seller wanted me to fax a load of photo ID and utility bill information to them before sending me the item and as I don't easily have access to a fax/photocopier I decided to go elsewhere. My refund to my credit card (about a week later) was about 10 euros less than what I paid. When I queried this with the seller, they said 'Paypal may have deducted something from your payment'. It may well have said something about this in the terms and conditions of which like everyone else read only the first three lines...
 
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