Purchases in Foreign Currency

[Temp20221106E]

Hi I'm in Australia. If I was to buy something from a website that only offers $US and chose PayPal as my payment option with credit card as the PayPal source, does PayPal charge my credit card in $AU or $US, and is there any additional charges or is it just the conversion amount? I have the option of using my credit card on the website but the bank converts it to $AU and then adds 3% of whatever the $AU price is. Eg $US100 converts to approximately $AU155, so my total credit charge would be almost $AU160. Just trying to work out which method would be cheaper - paying on credit card directly or on credit card via PayPal

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi @Temp20221106E,

Welcome to the PayPal Community Forum and thank you for your post! I'll be happy to help with the matter of currency conversion for a purchase you're looking to make.

When you set up your payment, prior to the final click to confirm the payment, you should be shown how the transaction will be charged. If it shows that the charge will be in USD, that will mean that the card's currency exchange rate will be used. If it shows the charge in AUD, that will mean that PayPal's exchange rate will be used in order to take the funds and convert them through PayPal. PayPal's conversion rate is determined multiple times a day based on comparable available rates plus the costs PayPal assesses for the completion of the conversion. The total rate is available to you before you confirm the payment. 

You will also have the opportunity to change the conversion method at that time, to whichever is preferable to you. If no method is chosen, the default that was shown will be used.

I hope this helps!

Olivia

[Temp20221106E]

Thank you for your reply.  That helps me.