Options of withdrawing Foreign Currencies without Converting them: NOT POSSIBLE!

[athineos]

PayPal offers foreign currency balances and one thinks it would be possible to use them without converting them. We for example have a UK PayPal account in GBP and would like to accept USD and EUR customers payments. Of course this would only make sense if we can withdraw those funds by transferring them to other same currency bank accounts. Unfortunately this is not possible. Even worst, PayPal confirmed to us, that by doing so we risk to get our funds not only once converted, but twice!

Example:  Withdraw EUR Euro funds to our EUR Bank account out of PayPal. We would receive EUR, but the funds would prior get converted to GBP and then to EUR agai, which means we would get charged with conversion fees and rates twice!

Here is a part of the Message discussion protocoll:   

"Me: So this means that it would be possible to transfer from this UK PayPal account Euro funds to a EURO Bank account without directly in Euro without converting in GBP? Must this Euro Bank account be in the UK or can it also be in the EU?

PayPal representative: Yes, you might see it converted to GBP in you activity page but it will be in euros when it entered your bank. The bank can be in or out of the UK.

Me: but if I see it converted prior to my receipt at my EURO bank account this means, that the transactiom would have been charged with conversion rates so I would receive less Euros. Is this correct. I ask this because I have faced this with another bank and the Euros I received wher 10% less! Without reaseon they got converted inbetween two Euro accounts.

PayPal representative:Yes, that is possible to happen.

Me: But you understand that this would be fully unacceptable and that it would be a reason not to use my PayPal account for our new international ecommerce shop? Because this case is even worst then transferring into aGBP account where you only face 1 conversion. If I would transfer Euro funds to a Euro account they would convert first to GBP and then again in EUR, so this would be double conversion rate losses and charges. Unthinkable and a reason not to use PayPal. Agree?

PayPal representative: I completely understand where you are coming from. As that is how your withdrawals will be processed, we can stick to only withdrawing the funds to an UK bank account so that only one currency conversion will occur.

[sharpiemarker]

@athineos 

Have you read the UK PayPal User agreement on how to use multiple currencies and how they work with PayPal? And how the withdrawal works? It explains all this and yes it is not possible.

"PayPal offers foreign currency balances and one thinks it would be possible to use them without converting them."

Yes, by opening foreign currency balances within your PayPal balance and accepting those same currencies into those balances and using them within PayPal, no transferring out without conversion. That's how it worked for years.

"Of course this would only make sense if we can withdraw those funds by transferring them to other same currency bank accounts. Unfortunately this is not possible."

Yes, that is not possible because PayPal accounts are country specific. Money is withdrawn in the original opening home currency of your PayPal account to local banks pretty much. (ie. UK PayPal, withdrawals in £ to UK bank, German PayPal withdrawals in € to German Bank, Japan PayPal withdrawals in ¥ to Japanese, and so on.) And a great deal of foreign PayPal accounts let you withdrawal to US bank account and for free until recently. 

If you add, for example, a € currency UK bank account, PayPal will convert your € funds into £ (your UK PayPal home currency) and then your € UK bank converts the £ into €. Double conversion! Yes.

Again, that's how it worked in PayPal for a very long time.

So what you do is set up your PayPal checkout integration for your intl shop to accept one currency, GBP, and then there would be no conversion fees to deal with. 

You receive in GBP and withdrawal in GBP, very easy.

Alternatively, you may of course accept different currencies in your shop to go to the matching currency balances in your PayPal account then move/convert the various currencies from one currency balance to another or convert everything and withdrawal to GBP to your UK GBP bank.

[Diogovski555]

Hello. Help me please. I live in Portugal and I got money to my PayPal acc in USD. I have an USD bank account(located in Lithuania), not EUR. Why do I need conversion If I send money to USD account? Thanks,

[pcfr0907]

Living in Singapore and having the same issue. Paypal is trying hard to take advantage of its client.  Stop using Paypal and go to client friendly multi-currency wallet service which do not extort commissions from their clients. Revolut, Transferwise or the likes.

[Diogovski555]

I have a revolut account and consider use her to receive payments generating links, but don't know why every link fails.

[pcfr0907]

just ask them. they have a quite effective client service .A chatbot and a real human client service. Paypal ? well,... they outsource to the Community of users. It is not possible to speak to anyone for fund transfer basic questions. Cheaper for Paypal but it sucks for the clients