Withdraw USD from UK

[pixie63]

I have a UK Paypal account which has USD in it. I want to withdraw my USD in USD to a bank outside the UK but whenever I try it insists on changing the payment to GBP! I have also tried moving it to a Revolut card, same problem. Please help.

[Nutellayen]

Got it, you want me to paraphrase your initial message. Here's a rewritten version: I'm facing a similar issue with my UK PayPal account. I have USD funds and want to withdraw them either to a local bank account or a global one. After changing my PayPal currency to USD, I attempted to withdraw to my UK account, but it failed, and customer service informed me it would convert to GBP automatically. Then, I tried a global bank transfer in USD, but XOOM attempted to charge me fees, which I stopped. Customer service advised me to link a UK bank account in USD, but I couldn't do it. It's frustrating dealing with PayPal's inconsistent responses and feeling like they're becoming unprofessional and overcharging.

[Taffjones]

Did you get any answer from this?  Seems to be no way to move my USD to my USD account (at Revolut or Wise), only can convert at exorbitant fx rates to GBP.

[kernowlass]

@Taffjones 

Paypal does not support Wise / Payoneer (or any other virtual banks).
Whilst you can sometimes add an account it wouldn't work properly and Paypal advise you against trying.
If you do succeed then Paypal wouldn't be responsible for any missing funds to or from that virtual / digital bank account.

[Taffjones]

@kernowlass 

Kind of ironic that Paypal doesn't support any virtual banks since that's effectively what Paypal is!

Also, bit of a problem since all my accounts are virtual - Revolut, Wise, Starling, Kroo, Crypto.com, etc.  They're not even owned by a bricks and mortar bank AFAIK.  I haven't been into a UK bank in 10 years!

[kernowlass]

@Taffjones 

Paypal is not nor has ever been a bank, it is a payment processor.

If you are in the UK you can withdraw to a U.K bank as long as the funds are in sterling and not USD.

Or you can try withdrawing to a debit card (not a virtual one) either by converting the funds to £££ OR changing the currency on your card by contacting customer services.

[K1411]

Just to warn about a potential 'gotcha' if you have positive balances in any non primary foreign currency....

I also had a USD balance ($+), as well as my primary GBP (£0).

I suddenly noticed my USD balance had decreased, even though I had not made any USD payments.

It turns out there is (currently) a Paypal setting, for each Seller, which allows Paypal to withdraw from ANY positive balance, ahead of your selected/ expected Source of Funds.

So ten GBP transactions over ~three months were exchanging my USD balance to GBP (with exchange rate losses), instead of debiting my nominated GBP sources of funds eg a linked GBP credit card.

I did turn off this 'Use balances' switch on dozens of sellers, but there seems no way to change the default 'On', or manage this better, for any future sellers?

LESSON for me, was to not keep any positive balances in Paypal, if you can avoid it.

(I had hoped to do USD to USD transfers eg. Paypal USD, to Google Pay USD, or Revolut USD but it seems that there is no way to do this direct, without exchange rate losses. (not everywhere offers Paypal))