PayPal exchange rates are poor

[sanhoeflyer]

having just bought an item for $4560 USD the conversion rate applied by PayPay was 1.59 to the pound when the published rate is $1.6495  this makes it quite expensive useing pay pay. A lesson learnt. In future I will use my debit card, they are paying 1.6345 .

I feel somewhat robbed, I trusted PayPal to be fair and reasonable.. Lesson Learnt

I will never use PayPay for any substantial payment again.

[katewhetstone]

I have trusted Paypal for years and cannot believe the ripoff they have just pulled on me with their exorbitantly unfair exchange rates.  Everybody BE VERY CAREFUL when paying in foreign currencies! I have just paid 20GBP more for a phone I bought in the UK because I used Paypal rather than my Visa card.

When I spoke to customer service I found out that it is not actually the exchange rate which is bad - it is the fact that Paypal also charges its own fee for the transaction (for GBP 3.5%, for USD 3.0% of the foreign currency amount) and this fee is counted in when they calculate the echange rate.  So it is the transaction fee which is the rip off!  3.5% is ENORMOUS, much more than visa who charge 1.5% for example.  IF I take out the transaction fee, the exchange rate is reasonable and normal - comparable to the one used by Visa.

What makes it worse is that the transaction fee is not shown anywhere in a person's account.  The only way you can find out about is to ring them up. Of and of course it is in their T&C's, but who reads those.

So please, do me a favour and really do your homework before using Paypal to make payments in foreign currencies.  There are guaranteed cheaper ways to do it, starting with your credit card.

[DemianAct]

My dear PayPal if you do not answer your costumer's questions asap i'm going to share this topic every day for a year.  And by the way you are not my pal anymore, but you sure like to be my pay. Why do you rob if I may ask?!

[kernowlass]

@DemianAct

If you want an answer from paypal then you need to ASK paypal eg customer services.

This is NOT customer services so you won't get your answer here.

[peter132]

I too was exceptionally disappointed with PayPal's exchange rate. Fortunately, I only spent just under $100, but was surprised to find out PayPal gave me 1.32 CAD for 1 USD. MasterCard would give 1.37 ! Huge! Bad PayPal. Very bad. MasterCard next time.

[Phoenix00017]

Here's your answer:

https://www.paypal.com/us/selfhelp/article/Where-can-I-find-PayPal's-currency-exchange-rates-FAQ1976

Here’s how we set our exchange rate:

• We receive a wholesale rate quote from our bank twice a day and add 2.5% to determine the retail foreign exchange rate to apply to transactions that involve a currency conversion.
• Our currency exchange rates are competitive with conversion rates used by banks and by currency exchanges.
• When you withdraw money from your PayPal account to your local bank account, we automatically convert the money into the local currency at the time of the withdrawal request.

This matches the response given at the beginning of this thread, except the poster neglected to mention the 2.5% "spread" charge.

[SkyGaruda]

The link does not work. I get an empty page..

[Wind238]

I am disappointed with Paypal exchange rate too. I would like to withdraw balance in my paypal to my local bank account in these few days. However, according to Paypal exchange rate for USD to Malaysia Ringgit today, the exchange rate is 1USD = 4.188MYR whereas the www.xe.com (The World's Trusted Currency Authority) show the exchange rate is 1USD = 4.31526MYR. May I know why the difference is so huge? How does Paypal calculate and make up their exchange rate?

I understand Paypal receive a wholesale rate quote from their bank twice a day and add 2.5% to determine the retail foreign exchange rate to apply to transactions that involve a currency conversion but I still feel doubt on their calculation on exchange rate and hope they could give a fair and reasonable exchange rate for their members. Thank you. 

[Boofhead1]

I have been a customer for over 10 years and I am sick to death of been stung with abysmal exchange rates. For international purchases I will be using my debit card from now on.

[Swani]

I won't be using paypal again. I received an amount of USD 133.81 from my friend and paypal charged me USD 6.19 as fee. Now the amount i had in my paypal account was 127.62 USD which according to current coversion rates (1 USD = 64 INR) would have been equal to 8167.68 INR, however, i was only paid 7892.58 INR which means the conversion rate in Paypal for 1 USD to INR is less than 62 INR. This is something unacceptable. You take your fee for the services that you offer. But why are the conversion rates so low. You will have to answer!!!

[steve23094]

I would like to know if you have a monhtly subscription running though PayPal and it's in a foreign currency whether the conversion rate is set when you first subscribe or it floats according to the exhange rate every month?