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?
... View more