Bypassing PayPal's exchange rate when paying through PayPal

[DarkAvenger]

I've only found out in the past month or so that it's possible to bypass PayPal's exchange rate when paying by PayPal for a foreign eBay purchase and have your card provider process the transaction instead since most credit/debit cards provide a better, a significantly better, rate of exchange than PayPal can give. This is not the same as paying for the eBay item with your card, which I couldn't understand. If you do that I found you'll simply be charged at PayPal's rate of exchange, which is totally contrary to what should happen!

To bypass PayPal's exchange rate you select PayPal as you normally would if paying by PayPal, but then manually add your card under PayPal. This then gives the option to switch currencies so you'll be charged in the seller's own currency. Doing so bypasses PayPal's rate as it forces your card provider to process the payment. Whether it's advantageous to do so will depend on the country you're purchasing from. However I live in Australia and purchse from UK and US sellers so it's a huge advantage for me to be able have the transactions processed at my card's rate as my card provider gives actual 'mid market' rates!

As I say this is when purchasing off eBay. What I want to know is it also possible to do the same i.e. to switch currencies so I'll be charged in the seller's own currency when paying with PayPal from a non-eBay website? Since virtually all website stores accept PayPal. I tried to do this when making a purchase from 'La-La Land Records', yet when the PayPal charge came through on my bank statement it was still unfortunately at the PayPal rate instead of my Visa card rate and I'm certain I did everything correct to switch currencies so the PayPal transaction would be processed in USD and not AUD. 

I assume when a customer selects PayPal as the payment method all a website store does, including eBay, is go through PayPal's payment 'gateway' so if it's possible to switch currencies on eBay then it should work on any website store that accepts PayPal - correct? Although the step of having to manually add your card might not be as with eBay. 

However in doing a Google search on websites wanting to integrate PayPal, I see a thing called 'Advanced Checkout' which lets a website offer PayPal payment button and custom credit and debit card fields. So I'm wondering if it's only possible to switch currencies if the website offers 'Advanced Checkout', like presumably eBay has implemented, instead of only 'Standard Checkout'? If a website uses only Standard Checkout is there still be a way to switch currencies? 

I can't recall the process now I went through on La-La Land Records' payment screen or what messages were displayed which is why I'm going to take screenshots next time to document each step so if it still doesn't work others here can hopefully tell me what's going wrong.  La-La Land Records say they offer payment by card. However I believe they really mean 'card payment through PayPal' which is obviously not the same thing as offering payment by card. Some website stores I deal with do offer true payment by card so if I choose to pay by Visa the payment will be processed by Visa - unlike what happens on eBay!

Lastly what about paying on a PayPal Invoice or Payment Request? Will I be able to switch currencies to ensure Ill be charged at my card's rate when paying a seller this way? 

[PayPal_Bindu]

Hello @DarkAvenger 

Thank you for writing in the PayPal Help Community!

I see you're looking to get your card issuer's conversion rate while making payments. When you make a payment in another currency using your card through PayPal, you can able to choose your card issuer's conversion rate. To select your card issuer's rate, when reviewing your payment, select the option that says "Convert currency with PayPal" to change it to "Convert with card provider." If the options is not reflecting, it means that your card can only use either your card's conversion rate or PayPal's conversion rate. Here's the article with the information about making a payment in another currency. 

Hope this information helps,

Bindu

[DarkAvenger]

The PayPal article you refer to - 'How do I send a payment in another currency'? seems a bit lacking in the details as to when, where and how you send money with PayPal at your card provider's rate. For example in Step 4 where it says "Our conversion rate will be displayed" at this point can you actually overide PayPal's rate with that of your card provider?

I've sent hundreds of foreign currency payments and I don't ever recall being presented with other payment options at this stage to allow me to choose my card provider's rate over that of PayPal - not that I was aware then that you could potentially overide PayPal's rate with that of your card provider. After Step 6 if you click 'Send payment now' it will of course send the payment at PayPal's rate, which I don't want.

So where in the process between Steps 4 and 7 do you change the exchange rate so the payment will be sent at your card provider's rate as the article goes on to say "When you make a payment using your card", but still doesn't say how you do that? That's what I want to know. Details please. 

[Fluttr]

I had the same question/issue, I found out you can only do this in the browser. In the app I found no option to choose between PayPal's exchange fee or my card's, but in the browser it let me.