Canadian Citizen with a Borderless Bank Account-why can I not use this account

[VintageByChoice]

I live near the US/Cdn border and frequently cross the border to shop.

I opened a Borderless Account with the TD Canada Trust and also obtained a US Visa credit card to use when I travel.

I would like to be able to have any funds that I have with Paypal deposited in my Borderless account (which is in US Funds).

I then use that account to pay the US Visa.

I tried to set this up but Paypal will not allow.

I would like to know the reasoning behind this action

[PayPal_Adrian]

VintagebyChoice -

Welcome to the boards!

I'm assuming you ran into problems adding the USD bank account into PayPal - the reason it failed is because PayPal has to send the random deposits in CAD.  These are then rejected by the bank, which disables it out of our system.  Even if we were to enable the bank, all withdrawals to Canadian banks have to be converted to Canadian Dollars, so the withdrawal would, again, fail.  This isn't good for anyone, as PayPal is charged a fee and you could be too.

Hope this helps to clarify,

Adrian

[CoinCanuck]

Adrian,

 I am in a simalar situation to the poster above. I have a USD account at a Canadian Bank. I would like to set up that account to be linked with my PayPal account as most of my transactions both buying and selling are USD.

You replyed to the poster about that the reason this is not possible is because the money will be deposited (and rejected) in Canadian dollars. You never address the issue of why the money cannot be deposited in USD to a USD account in the first place.

The only reason I can see on PayPal's part for doing this, is to achieve a few more percent profit on each transation by forcing users to uses PayPal's high conversion rate. 

Currently to buy somethign i need to convert USD to CND then PayPal converts that back to USD

and when i sell somethign I get paid in USD which paypal converts to CND on a withdrawl, that i then have to convert back to USD.

How can I be expected to expand my eBay sales (and in turn PayPals cut) when the majority of an items final value sale goes to fees, charges, conversions etc. 

- A Concerned User

[melaniek]

I also have the US Funds TD Account and the US Funds Visa.

I know it states that paypal will only deposit CAD to Canadian banks but the US funds account allows for wire transfers from the US so it would just be nice to not ding Canadians more money.

I'd also be happy to pay my Visa directly from paypal but doesn't seem like there's an option to do that either. 

Now with our dollar being higher, it's just becoming too pricey for Canadians to use paypal for business with the states.

[Sellingnow1982]

Why not open up a US bank account with USA money and link it to your paypal account.  That way when you buy stuff in the USA you can have dollars to pay with.  The sellers would appreciate it because they don't have to pay to convert the money.  You would be able to pull out USA dollars.

[Luanne]

Don't do this!  It's not a smart solution!

All you are doing is trying to connect a Canadian bank account that has its funds in USD -- but it's still a CANADIAN bank account!  It will not work properly!

Your best option is to open a U.S. account (ie. at a U.S. bank.)  RBC has the best solution I've found so far....  They have not only their main Canadian bank but they own RBC U.S.A. (a string of 430 U.S. banks) and by going to any RBC in Canada you can open up both a Canadian account in Canada and a U.S. account at one of their U.S. banks and then manage both online in the same place.  Pay all your U.S. bills, get your paypal deposits, etc. to the U.S. bank account for free (if that's what you want) .... bottomline, that is a much smarter option and all U.S. services will work with it because it is an ACTUAL U.S. bank account!  You can also transfer the money at no cost between accounts.  Just the smartest solution I've found so far! 

Bank of America also has a free bank account ("ebanking) and you can take out funds at any Scotiabank ATM in Canada at no extra charge but still the RBC solution makes the most practical sense.

Luanne

[jarose]

Thank you for that info.

I will try to open a USD account in USA

The conversion rate used by Pay Pal is Ridiculous,

It should be clearly stated when we open the account.

[Luanne]

You're welcome.  Again, if you don't want to have to travel to the U.S. to open the account, etc., a smart solution is to open an RBC "ACCESS" account (not just a USD account, please make sure you ask for an "access" account.)

[VintageByChoice]

I am the original poster on this topic.  Some one has suggested that I should just open an account at an US bank. 

How would I go about doing this, since I am a Canadian citizen and don't have a US address.

I think I will look into opening an RBC access account as someone else has suggested.

[thewitcheryvint]

Thank you so much to this thread for explaining the problems behind Canadians trying to opening US$ bank accounts in Canada. Paypal never comes out and says "the real reason is because we like to make $$$ on every conversion"etc. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad paypal exists because it makes life easier when paying on line but we all want to make money!  After 2 attempts with the Scotiabank and Td Canada trust, blaming the banks instead of Paypal, I will go to RBC and try that option! THanks again!