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 ?

[imaddicted2u]

This reply to a previous, similar, question proves that the Paypal rep I spoke to on the phone was wrong.

Paypal, My family and I are gone until you put this back the way it was and allow my credit card company to do the currency conversion.

/t5/Archive/Default-Currency-Conversion-Option/td-p/426243

(from the link above)

When you use your credit card, we may ask you to choose whether PayPal or the credit card associations' should perform the currency conversion for your transactions.

When we perform your currency conversion, we’ll show you the conversion rate there and then. 

If you choose to use the credit card association's currency conversion, we can’t show you the conversion rate. Your card issuer will determine the foreign exchange rate to apply to the transaction, and you will not be informed of the foreign exchange rate or any additional foreign exchange fees applied until you are billed by your card issuer.

Siobhan

[imaddicted2u]

When you use your credit card, we may ask you to choose whether PayPal or the credit card associations' should perform the currency conversion for your transactions.

When we perform your currency conversion, we’ll show you the conversion rate there and then. 

If you choose to use the credit card association's currency conversion, we can’t show you the conversion rate. Your card issuer will determine the foreign exchange rate to apply to the transaction, and you will not be informed of the foreign exchange rate or any additional foreign exchange fees applied until you are billed by your card issuer.

Siobhan

[imaddicted2u]

What a scam, ebay says you don't need Paypal, just bill to credit card BUT ebay uses paypal to process credit cards so you end up in the same boat, Paypal bills your credit card in their inflated Canadian currency.

Well, I just removed all my accounts from all of our accounts on both ebay and paypal.

Change it back and We'll be back.

[imaddicted2u]

Just to demonstrate the scam a little better.

The last order I ever made via Paypal or Ebay. (I paid ebay directly with my Credit Card, that doesn't charge me a fee for currency conversion)

The email I got from Ebay said the invoice was for $8.99 in USD. That is what should have been charged to my credit card and my credit card company should have calculated and added the exchange rate.

However when Looking at order details on ebay, I find this in Canadian dollars:

Total

C $11.96 *Pricing based on current conversion rates

BUT

When it hit my Credit Card they (Paypal) had charged me $12.32 in Canadian dollars. Ebay uses Paypal to process credit cards so no matter what you do they get to steal your money.

WHAT A RIPOFF, THIS SHOULD BE ILLEGAL.

Don't let ebay and Paypal steal your money anymore. Stop this madness, I know we are just one family of customers lost, if more people cancel their accounts they will have no choice but to pay attention and set this straight. It didn't used to be like this. Ebay/Paypal used to bill creditd cards directly in the currency of the seller, if you wanted, until they saw the opportunity to make more money....at your expense. STOP USING THEM!!!

STOP STEALING FROM US!!!!!

[AnotherCanadian]

I totally agree with your frustration about this, it's ridiculous. Out of principle, I didn't stop digging until I was able to check out an item on eBay without converting currency through PayPal.

I called eBay about it, and they referred me to PayPal, so I called PayPal and talked to someone who insisted, incredibly, that there never has been any currency conversion options, despite seeing my history of past PayPal transactions in which my card has been billed in USD. She actually said that that was probably "a glitch in the system", which was kind of surreal. I asked her if PayPal was going to stick to this story if they were arguing against a class-action lawsuit and she said she'd "transfer me to a manager", who was just going to tell me the same thing.

I ended up talking to this laid back, extremely helpful guy who said that he's aware of a problem with the currency conversion in eBay checkout, and that as far as he knows, it's only affecting Canadian customers. He helped me work around it by switching my credit card to be USD denominated, so at least for eBay items listed in USD, I can pay for them without being able to customize the currency conversion. I'll have to get it switched back if they ever fix this rip-off situation they're pushing right now, but until then I'm fine, at least until the next time I try to pay for something in Euros or Pounds.

He said that the option should still be there if you're sending directly from inside PayPal, so it may also be possible to work around this by messaging the seller, asking for their PayPal address, then manually sending the payment inside PayPal.

[imaddicted2u]

Hi, thanks for the reply. It really urks me to have been told by paypal rep that I never had the option to pay in the sellers currency. It is an outright lie.

If it is just Canadian accounts that paypal is pulling this ripoff on, that makes it all the worse.

My simple soloution is to remove all payment options from my paypal account, My wifes paypal account and from my children's accounts. I will only make purchases where I can use my credit card for payment. Family and friends I've spoken to about this are beginning to notice what PAYPAL is doing to us. Many say they will take similar steps and cut out using paypal for payments.Since ebay insists on using paypal to process credit cards they will surely see a loss in revenue as well.

[roughmetaphors]

This is not exclusive to Canadian accounts as I'm experiencing the very same problem in Australia. It's very upsetting and I've just emailed PayPal but I'm not holding my breath.

[sharpiemarker]

This is in the US PayPal agreement:

"When your payment is funded by a debit or credit card and requires a currency conversion, you consent to and authorize PayPal to convert the currency in place of your debit or credit card issuer. You have the right to have your card issuer perform the currency conversion and can choose this option during checkout on your transaction review page before you complete the transaction. If your card issuer converts the currency, you’ll be charged a rate set by them (shown on your statement), and you’ll be subject to any fees and terms set by them related to the conversion."

So see if you can choose the option for the card issuer to convert the currency during checkout.

[imaddicted2u]

Thanks for your response, it should be that simple but the option to have my card do the currency conversion is not presented any longer when I checkout...or...I would have used it...Like I have for years...and then I wouldn't be posting here. Someone else posted in this thread that it is only Canadian accounts that this is being done to. Check out the Canadian user agreement here: https://www.paypal.com/ca/webapps/mpp/ua/useragreement-full#8

It says same as US agreement:

"You have the right to have your card issuer perform the currency conversion and can choose this option during checkout on your transaction review page before you complete the transaction." However the option can't be found in the checkout.

Even when I select pay by credit card in the ebay checkout, with all funding sources removed from my paypal account, Paypal still processes the credit card and does the currency conversion and adds fees...even though the ebay invoice shows paid in USD, my credit card is billed, by paypal, in Canadian dollars.

An ebay invoice showed:

PAID : US $8.99 with Credit card

But

The order details show this:

Order total

Subtotal	C $11.96
Shipping	Free

Total

C $11.96

*Pricing based on current conversion rates

Order placed on

Sunday, Dec 4, 2016

Payment method

Credit card

But here is how it appeared on my credit card (ebay credit card payments are processed by Paypal) To me, this is a ripoff and I stopped using ebay and Paypal until they restore the ability to have my credit card company add the currency conversion. (my credit card company doesn't charge a fee for this service) Also, why do this to Canadian accounts and not US accounts?

4-Dec-2016

5-Dec-2016

PAYPAL *LIAOCHONGJI 13242999062 ON

12.32

[pichadecimento]

Hi,

This is what PAYPAL should have told you.....

in the old (better) layout
once you did the the default currency options

www.gamedealscanada.com/2016/06/09/changing-paypals-default-currency-conversion-option/

on your main preferences/options

this would naturally reflect on the checkout,
so you would setup this once

and it would be done for every transaction

from that point onwards.

Now some greedy minion at Paypal came up

with a great idea to sneak in

another extra idiot tax fee of around 3-5%

on the exchange rates for the less aware.

So....

NOW on the NEW LAYOUT/CHECKOUT

you ALWAYS have to choose the option

to be billed in the original currency
regardless of wether this has already been selected

in the main website default options or not.

That option in the main site is there

in both old and new

but only works if a particular transaction

gets the OLD CHECKOUT at the end,

wich happens very very rarely at the moment.

So how do you do it now???

The option to bill our CC/Bank in the original currency

and let our CC/Bank do the conversion instead of Paypal

is still there in the NEW checkout layout,

its just a bit hidden,

in order to extort a few more % out of the less attentive
on any foreign currency transactions they make.

So....

On the NEW CHECKOUT....

Just click on  Change just below the Exchange rate info
as per the example below

<removed>

Which opens

the Payment Options
for example to Change which CC/Bank
you want to use for this particular transaction

as per the example below:

<removed>

just click on any of the  EUR 1.00 = £0.81 links

to Open small a bogus EXCHANGE RATE INFO dialogue box next to it

as per below:

Exchange rate converted as of

12/22/2016, GMT 10:07 AM. 

View exchange rate options

Exchange rate converted as of 12/22/2016, GMT 10:07 AM.

View exchange rate options

Exchange rate converted as of 12/22/2016, GMT 10:07 AM.

View exchange rate options

Exchange rate converted as of 12/22/2016, GMT 10:07 AM.

View exchange rate options

Exchange rate converted as of 12/22/2016, GMT 10:07 AM.

View exchange rate options

And then

just click on the  View exchange rate options link

to Open the EXCHANGE RATE OPTIONS popup Screen

for this transaction.
 

It should say someyhing like:
 

• Rip me off , I love it
• Bill me in the currency listed in the Seller's invoice

or something similar(can't copy paste the atual text at the moment as PP is having ripping off issues)

Just select the bottom option
And THAT's IT 
Please bear in mind that on the new checkout you'll have to do this ALL OVER AGAIN IN EVERY SINGLE TRANSACTION involving foreign currencies.

Have fun...

[imaddicted2u]

Thanks for the info. I appreciate it.

We've decided not to be players in their obvious scam to seperate us with more of our money.

I've removed all payment methods from my ebay and paypal accounts. I've done the same for the rest of my family as well.

I'm alerting everyone I know about the scam.

Until paypal makes the option for currency conversion obvious and accessible for all transaction in both new and old checkouts, We won't be using ebay or paypal services.

Until paypal allows us to easily set a default selection for currency conversion.

We won't be using any ebay or paypal services.

Burying the currency conversion options and making you do it for every transaction may technically meet the terms of the User Agreement, but is it ethical?