Paypal additional fees for calulating exchange rate?

johnn7591 · Guest

As per post title: Does Paypal make an additional charge for calculating Ex Rates on one's winning bid - GBP to USD generally in my case? I ask as a recent bid that I calculated as being VAT free (<ÂGBP 18 I believe) looks to have crept over the threshold by 27p or so with the likelihood that VAT may now be applicable. Only a small amount at the bottom end of the scale but an interesting problem if indeed there is a charge at higher amounts for winning bids. If so, is there any way around this?

Also (just thought!) I have a mix of snipes pending and I have them all pointing to the U.K. site even though the majority atm are on Ebay.com. Is there a better solution or does it really not matter that much?

TIA, John

juangrande · Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2018 7:27 am Post subject:

You can read about PayPal's cross border fees here.

Whether or not PayPal assesses you any fees for an international transaction is independent of which eBay site you point your snipes to. If paying for the item requires an international transaction, then any fees associated with that will apply, regardless of which eBay site you used to place your bid.
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John

If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
--- Yogi Berra

johnn7591 · Guest

Cupid · Joined: 09 Aug 2007 Posts: 7919 Location: Bristol, UK

If you are located in the UK this may be more applicable to your specific circumstances.

In general when buying from the UK with a UK balance or UK direct debit bank funding (not a credit card that is much more expensive) I calculate what I'm prepared to pay based on Paypal charging me 3.5% above the mid market exchange rates (given on sites like xe.com) in order to make the currency transfer.

You most certainly can never rely on the approximations that the Ebay pages give you, you will always pay more than that, when using Paypal.

Not that I suggest you use any other method of payment for items under about ÂGBP 2,000 because all banks that I've investigated charge you more than Paypal does. For larger sums there are some interesting start ups around for international money transfer, but they generally require both parties signed up to them to work, and persuading sellers abroad to sign up for them would be a particular challenge, especially if the sale is made via Ebay and they already have a Paypal account.
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Mark

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johnn7591 · Guest