How to change Paypal currency conversion @ checkout ?

[therabbit]

Hello, everybody.

I'm just a regular Joe, buying & selling on Ebay. I do more buying than selling - and i'm a member since 2011.

There is this strange behaviour of the Paypal / Ebay checkout system. In the past, i used to see an on-screen option in which Ebay / Paypal would allow me to select my preferred currency conversion option. For example, if i buy something in US $ (USD) and my card account is in Romanian LEI (RON) i can either use Paypal's conversion and get invoiced in RON or get invoiced in USD and the conversion will be made with Masterdard's / Visa's conversion. Paypal's conversion is around 5% higher that Mastercard's and i always chose to pay using the card issuer's conversion - because it's to my advantage.

The point is i used to have a choice. Now i do not. Let me explain...

This is how the old checkout boxes used to look like :

And this happened when i clicked "Other conversion options" :

This allowed to choose the conversion option - and PayPal actually remembers it, each time i use that card.

Now, the new dialog looks like this :

... and there's no more option to choose what currency exchange to use, anymore :

As you can see, all my cards are listed - old ones and new ones. The ones where i could do the currency exchange switch in the past, still.. work the old way - i'm billed in the foreign currency and i get the card issuer's exchange rate - even if i get this new dialogues.

However, if i pay with a newly added card and the above dialogue pops up, i pay at paypal's exchange rate and i don't get a choice, anymore.

I think this is unfair... the options to choose the conversion rate used to be available in the old Paypal account interface too - but, since they switched to this new, fancy, giant button & heavy multimedia loaded interface, that option quitely dissapeared.... and no-one seems to know anything about it.

How about you - have you encountered something similar ?

[sharpiemarker · Accepted solution]

GO to Profile > Payments > My Preapproved Payments > Set Available Funding Sources > Conversion Options

[therabbit]

Amazing answer. I would have never figured this out for myself.... Shame they hid this option, though. Probably made this on purpose to increase earnings....

Gr8 answer ! Thanks a million. Hope this is helpful for everyone else who has this problem !

[Num0016]

This doesn't work. In my case, my foreign CC is already in USD, paypal still charges me 2% for currency conversion which totally unnecessary. There is no way to avoid it.

[therabbit]

Hello and welcome to the forums.

Would you mind sending us soe screenshots (with private info hidden, of course) of your Paypal config ?

Let's see what we can do to help.

In the mean time, be sure to follow the above steps. I don't know what special settings you might have, i'm just one of the many and i don't suppose i have any special account type.

So, here it is for me : (this works for paying by credit / debit card)

Otherwise, if you intend to convert currencies inside your paypal account (which looks like this) :

you cannot escape that pesky 2% charge. These **bleep** gotta make a livin' 🙂

Cheers !

[iuliand]

Apparently this option doesn't work anymore.

Last month I made a purchase and it billed me in the foreign currency using the bank conversion rate.

But now, paypal insists in billing me in my local currency using the paypal conversion rate.

I have the option "Bill me in the currency listed on the seller's invoice" enabled all the time since the time of the old (and supperior) paypal interface.

Why is paypal trying so hard lately to make this option hard to access or not functional? Actually I know, making conversions brings good profits but I don't think the way they decided to do it is honest. I'm verry dissapointed by the path paypal decided to take.

[jevonsw]

same situation here. When checkout at eBay, even I ensure the bill at seller's currency is active, Paypal still insists on billing me at my credit card's local currency.

However, when I try to pay with my mobile phone, there is no problem at all. 

[Badur77]

You thint here is no problem with phone. But check your bill, and find that the ridicculous PayPal conversion rate was used

[imaddicted2u]

I've tried but I cannot seem stop Paypal from ripping me off with currency conversion fees. My credit card charges no fee for curreny conversion so I want to be billed in the sellers currency. Even when I check out on ebay, they show I will be billed in the sellers currency but also shows what the paypal conversion will be. Then i get an email showing the converted price. When I look at transactions in Paypal it shows as USD but on my credit card it shows billed at the paypal currency converted rate.

I can tell you one thing Paypal, you slipped through a fast one by updating the user agreement that nobody reads...if this is your game....I'M NOT PLAYING. I'll stop using Paypal unless and until this is changed to my credit card being billed in the sellers currency. I hope others will do the same.

[imaddicted2u]

I just tried to bill directly to my credit card from ebay. Ebay invoice says paid with credit card and US funds but my card was billed in canadian funds and was still listed as a paypal transaction. So if ebay is playing the same currency conversion game...I'll stop buying on ebay too.