We switched to PayPal from another processor to handle our virtual terminal and web based credit card processing. We're in Canada and clear both US and Canadian currencies. We did this so we could manage all our collections through one interface - PayPal.
Unfortunately the we're finding PayPal is reporting the transactions to MC and VISA as cross border if they are processed through the cc gateway or virtual terminal. A few US card issuers charge their cardholders a cross border fee when they see a cross border transaction, even when it's made in USD. Card issuers make this fee appear as if we (the merchant) assessed it -- which makes the cardholders go ballistic!
Technically it's not PayPal that is assessing the charge however PayPal is causing it to be done by not passing the appropriate country codes to the card provider which is the root cause of the problem. They have acknowledged that and did proposed a solution where we operate from 2 accounts -- technically it will work but splitting revenue between accounts jacks discount rates which costs us hundreds per month AND eliminates the benefits of operating from a single account.
The problem is getting bigger, we're up to a dozen calls per week and in most cases the client demands a refund. There's really no option but to provide one if we want to keep the client.
Has anyone solved this problem?
