Becareful of two exchange rates when buying off EBAY

armabelle

I wanted to purchase something off ebay uk but reconsidered when I got to my paypal page. Seems Ebay is a bit deceptive here. On the product page you get one exchange rate and on the checkout page (in paypal)you get a higher one. Anyone else see this?

firestarter51

armabelle wrote: »

I wanted to purchase something off ebay uk but reconsidered when I got to my paypal page. Seems Ebay is a bit deceptive here. On the product page you get one exchange rate and on the checkout page (in paypal)you get a higher one. Anyone else see this?

eBay is giving you an estimated exchange rate
The actual rate depends on your payment method in this case is PayPal so it's their rate which isn't the best but I've seen worse

armabelle

firestarter51 wrote: »

eBay is giving you an estimated exchange rate
The actual rate depends on your payment method in this case is PayPal so it's their rate which isn't the best but I've seen worse

Actually, the way I see it is that ebay are giving you the actual exchange rate while paypal are giving you an exchange rate which is a "buy" rate. I can buy sterling for what paypal are charging IOW. I think this is misleading as all payments go through paypal even if you use debit or credit card.

firestarter51

Use the uk site
More variety of products available
No estimated figures
Can set up a uk delivery address using various companies that forward onto Ireland and can avail of free deliveries

armabelle

firestarter51 wrote: »

Use the uk site
More variety of products available
No estimated figures
Can set up a uk delivery address using various companies that forward onto Ireland and can avail of free deliveries

I was using the UK site

Nody

armabelle wrote: »

Actually, the way I see it is that ebay are giving you the actual exchange rate while paypal are giving you an exchange rate which is a "buy" rate. I can buy sterling for what paypal are charging IOW. I think this is misleading as all payments go through paypal even if you use debit or credit card.

Seeing how they are two separate companies Ebay can't give you the actual exchange rate Paypal will use in the first place...

firestarter51

Nody wrote: »

Seeing how they are two separate companies Ebay can't give you the actual exchange rate Paypal will use in the first place...

Exactly eBay are giving an estimate, PayPal are the bank as such
I buy on eBay on a regular basis and don't see it as an issue
Can always go to Amazon and use credit card rates

armabelle

firestarter51 wrote: »

Exactly eBay are giving an estimate, PayPal are the bank as such
I buy on eBay on a regular basis and don't see it as an issue
Can always go to Amazon and use credit card rates

well when I was on the market for this item, the exchange rate I was being asked to pay made the product more expensive than if I had used a different supplier. I think it is an important point and I think many people may not even see the final exchange rate. Since Ebay and Paypal are sister companies, I found this info to be misleading

firestarter51

armabelle wrote: »

well when I was on the market for this item, the exchange rate I was being asked to pay made the product more expensive than if I had used a different supplier. I think it is an important point and I think many people may not even see the final exchange rate. Since Ebay and Paypal are sister companies, I found this info to be misleading

They are not sister companies and are in no way related
There is an option to agree to the PayPal payment and if you are not happy then cancel the purchase

Maybe eBay isn't for you

armabelle

firestarter51 wrote: »

They are not sister companies and are in no way related
There is an option to agree to the PayPal payment and if you are not happy then cancel the purchase

Maybe eBay isn't for you

Yes I know, thank you, I did cancel. I posted this to help other people who almost did check out thinking the exchange rate is the same. Maybe ebay is not for them either

firestarter51

You can always send the item back for a refund and purchase where you found it cheaper if it's that big of a saving

rubadub

firestarter51 wrote: »

They are not sister companies and are in no way related

Ebay used to own paypal, I was unaware they were sold last year.

Nody wrote: »

Seeing how they are two separate companies Ebay can't give you the actual exchange rate Paypal will use in the first place...

I imagine they could if they wanted to.

I imagine paypal would be happy to co-operate with ebay. They know a huge amount of their sales are via ebay. Paypals currency rates are freely available to check. It is in ebays interest to give currency rates that they know most users will not be getting though. If more often than not the rate they show is better than what paypal give then I do think they have deliberately set out to mislead people.

firestarter51

rubadub wrote: »

Ebay used to own paypal, I was unaware they were sold last year.

I imagine they could if they wanted to.

I imagine paypal would be happy to co-operate with ebay. They know a huge amount of their sales are via ebay. Paypals currency rates are freely available to check. It is in ebays interest to give currency rates that they know most users will not be getting though. If more often than not the rate they show is better than what paypal give then I do think they have deliberately set out to mislead people.

The difference is minimal, it's never been that much that I've given it a second thought personally
My PayPal balance has two currencies which is quite handy

firestarter51

Silly me I forgot there is an option to be billed in the currency you are purchasing in so your bank will give the exchange rate instead, I did a test on it last year and it was 0.9% of a difference at the time

Here is the first thing I could find on google for a guide

http://blog.iopsl.com/change-paypal-conversion-options-to-avoid-high-currency-exchange-fee/

armabelle

firestarter51 wrote: »

The difference is minimal, it's never been that much that I've given it a second thought personally
My PayPal balance has two currencies which is quite handy

made a difference to me alright

firestarter51

armabelle wrote: »

made a difference to me alright

What was the PayPal exchange rate and the exchange rate you finally paid then ?
And why didn't you choose the option where you don't use PayPals exchange rate as linked above

armabelle

firestarter51 wrote: »

What was the PayPal exchange rate and the exchange rate you finally paid then ?
And why didn't you choose the option where you don't use PayPals exchange rate as linked above

only one payment option through ebay and dont remember the amounts but it was a difference of 20 euro and product cost 470 euro so is a big difference IMO

firestarter51

armabelle wrote: »

only one payment option through ebay and dont remember the amounts but it was a difference of 20 euro and product cost 470 euro so is a big difference IMO

You change the settings on PayPal before hand to choose your own banks exchange rate rather than PayPal exchange rate
A difference of €20 is 5%


When I changed it from PayPal to bank settings it was only a difference of around 1% on a purchase of £1k so I didn't bother again

5% doesn't sound right to me

firestarter51

aido79 wrote: »

I find it hard to believe that there would be a 4% difference between the Ebay rate and the PayPal rate to be honest.

There isn't that much, I'm a regular user of both
Calling bs on this whole thing

aido79

firestarter51 wrote: »

There isn't that much, I'm a regular user of both
Calling bs on this whole thing

Same here.
I deleted my post as it was saying the same as yours but yours was more detailed.

firestarter51

aido79 wrote: »

Same here.
I deleted my post as it was saying the same as yours but yours was more detailed.

seems like an inexperienced online shopper going by another post on the same issue

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057618400


thread should be closed as its not an issue, there is an option to use paypal currency exchange or not