Mystery PayPal Fees

[EkumSeekumGuy]

I am a Canadian Ebayer but have a US credit card drawn on a US bank ( a US division of a Canadian Bank). The billing and shipping address is in the US as well. I have noticed that when I buy something on eBay in US funds that my US account is being charged considerably more than the purchase amount. As an example a recent purchase of $1688 US PayPal charges my US account $1833 US. I'm getting the run-around on this extra cost. My bank is very clear that they are giving PayPal the requested funds in US dollars, and eBay says it is only charging for the auction amount and it is PayPal's issue. I called PayPal and they said it is an eBay issue. They said they believe that they charging a conversion fee as the eBay sellers are requesting payment in Canadian funds and they charge to convert back to US dollars, although the complete transaction ( including shipping to my US address) is entire completed in the States with no involvement of the Canadian banking industry. I cannot believe most US sellers would request payment in Canadian dollars to begin with! Why am I paying a fee to have my US eBay purchases converted to Canadian dollars, then back to US dollars, and then extracted from my US account. I'm paying twice for the dollar conversion as I have to pay off my US bank balance in Canadian Funds. This seems bizarre. Is this an issue with me being a Canadian Ebayer even tho I'm am essentially American for the financial transaction? Any ideas?

[EkumSeekumGuy]

No input...So I guess the solution to this is to dump PayPal ... which I'm about to do!!

[PayPal_Meghan]

Hello @EkumSeekumGuy, 

Welcome to the PayPal Community, and congratulations on your first post! 

I'm sorry to hear your recent payments are undergoing currency conversions when they should be completely processed in USD. I suggest reaching out to Customer Support and requesting that they change the currency associated with your US card to USD. Even though it's a US Card, because you have a Canadian account, it's likely set to CAD unless it was already updated. If it was never updated, this could cause currency conversions even though the payments are supposed to be in USD. 

If your card has already been updated, and there aren't any currency conversions taking place on your PayPal account, that leads me to believe the merchant/eBay is requesting a higher amount than you were advised. In this situation, please gather a payment receipt from eBay showing the amount you should have been charged and file an Incorrect Transaction Amount dispute by following the steps here. 

I do have one other scenario that comes to mind based on what you've mentioned. If you see the correct transaction showing on eBay and PayPal, but it's different at your bank, then that usually means your bank has processed a currency conversion on their side. Updating the card's currency can sometimes help with this, but your bank would be the one who can provide you with the most information. I understand that they've directed you back to PayPal, so that's why I wanted to present this idea last. 

I hope this information helps to provide you with clarity on what may have happened and where to go from here! 

- Meghan