How to access PayPal GBP balance?

Carnmore

I have a GBP balance in PayPal which is not accessible without being converted to EUR using PayPal's uncompetitive exchange rate.

I have added my Revolut account, which can receive GBP payments, but PayPal is still converting it to EUR.

I have spoken to PayPal and they suggested opening another PayPal account in the UK and make a payment to it using the GBP balance; I've done that but there is a fee charged for GBP transfers!

Is there any way of accessing a GBP PayPal balance without converting it to EUR other than making purchases such as eBay (Amazon don't accept PayPal) ?

Thanks in advance.

Johnny Sausage

Carnmore wrote: »

I have a GBP balance in PayPal which is not accessible without being converted to EUR using PayPal's uncompetitive exchange rate.

I have added my Revolut account, which can receive GBP payments, but PayPal is still converting it to EUR.

I have spoken to PayPal and they suggested opening another PayPal account in the UK and make a payment to it using the GBP balance; I've done that but there is a fee charged for GBP transfers!

Is there any way of accessing a GBP PayPal balance without converting it to EUR other than making purchases such as eBay (Amazon don't accept PayPal) ?

Thanks in advance.

Set up GBP account on your revolut, link that to your PayPal (as a GBP account) and away ya go

Their suggestion of transferring to an other PayPal in your own name is od as they closed an account on me for transferring myself money a few weeks ago

Carnmore

Johnny Sausage wrote: »

Set up GBP account on your revolut, link that to your PayPal (as a GBP account) and away ya go

I have a GBP account in Revolut and entered the IBAN but it's the same IBAN for the EUR account. When attempting a transfer PayPal converted the GBP balance in to EUR using their FX rate and there is no way to prevent this.

Johnny Sausage

Carnmore wrote: »

I have a GBP account in Revolut and entered the IBAN but it's the same IBAN for the EUR account. When attempting a transfer PayPal converted the GBP balance in to EUR using their FX rate and there is no way to prevent this.

your GBP aaccount on revolut should have a "local" details of a sort code and account number

Carnmore

Johnny Sausage wrote: »

your GBP aaccount on revolut should have a "local" details of a sort code and account number

Yes but an Ireland based PayPal account will only allow an IBAN to be entered rather than a UK sort code and account number

Johnny Sausage

Carnmore wrote: »

Yes but an Ireland based PayPal account will only allow an IBAN to be entered rather than a UK sort code and account number

hmm do you have paypal linked to your google pay?

can you top up your Revolut GBP account via google pay w/paypal

Carnmore

I use iOS and my PayPal account is linked to Revolut

Johnny Sausage

ah ok,

can you add paypal as a payment method on your Apple Pay and then
top up your revolut GBP account with Apple Pay

Carnmore

Johnny Sausage wrote: »

ah ok,

can you add paypal as a payment method on your Apple Pay and then
top up your revolut GBP account with Apple Pay

Ok I've added PayPal as a payment method in my Apple ID and made it the default payment method for the purpose of topping up my Revolut GBP account. However, when I go to "Add Money" to my Revolut account, change the funding source to Apple Pay, the final confirmation stage is only showing Revolut Visa or my EUR bank account as options so in effect my Revolut GBP account would be topped up from my Revolut card!

Any other thoughts?

Thank you for your help with this!

Johnny Sausage

ok i'm stumped now,

you may just have to take the hit on their ****e rates unless you know someone in the UK that you can trust to send it to and they send it back on revolut or something

Jim2007

Johnny Sausage wrote: »

Set up GBP account on your revolut, link that to your PayPal (as a GBP account) and away ya go

You can't transfer funds out of a Paypal in any currency other than the base currency.

Johnny Sausage

Jim2007 wrote: »

You can't transfer funds out of a Paypal in any currency other than the base currency.

yeah we have clarified that thanks

Carnmore

Jim2007 wrote: »

You can't transfer funds out of a Paypal in any currency other than the base currency.

To clarify, the current balance is in GBP made up of eBay payments but when I attempt to transfer the balance it is converted to EUR at PayPal’s punitive exchange rate

Jim2007

Carnmore wrote: »

To clarify, the current balance is in GBP made up of eBay payments but when I attempt to transfer the balance it is converted to EUR at PayPal’s punitive exchange rate

And I said base currency, not the currency the balance is expressed in. I expect your base currency is Euro based on what you have posted.

Carnmore

Jim2007 wrote: »

And I said base currency, not the currency the balance is expressed in. I expect your base currency is Euro based on what you have posted.

As I said, to clarify

Zardoz

Jim2007 wrote: »

You can't transfer funds out of a Paypal in any currency other than the base currency.

Yes,its basically a scam on Paypals behalf.

I've a good bit of GBP in my account but I cant get it out without converting to euro ,at a terrible rate .

I tried adding my Ulster Bank NI account (GBP) ,its not accepted.
Transferwise wont work either or Revolut.

You could setup a UK Paypal account in GBP and transfer the money to yourself .
This is kind of a grey area and Paypal could freeze the UK account if the amount transferred is above a certain amount,they may look for proof of UK address which could be awkward.

I think there are also companies out there that allow you to transfer the GBP to them via Paypal and they will convert it back to Euro for you at a good rate but I'm not entirely sure which ones are the best.

Carnmore

Zardoz wrote: »

You could setup a UK Paypal account in GBP and transfer the money to yourself .
This is kind of a grey area and Paypal could freeze the UK account if the amount transferred is above a certain amount,they may look for proof of UK address which could be awkward.
.

I’ve done that, as advised by PayPal customer service(!)
, and although the balance remains in GBP they charge a transfer fee! I don’t know how they get away with this

Jim2007

Zardoz wrote: »

Yes,its basically a scam on Paypals behalf.

It most certainly is not a scam, it is stated there in plain sight, if people could not be bothered to read the contracts they sign up to, then that is their problem.

Zardoz

Carnmore wrote: »

I’ve done that, as advised by PayPal customer service(!)
, and although the balance remains in GBP they charge a transfer fee! I don’t know how they get away with this

They charge a fee as its a cross border transfer .
I think its ~0.5%
You will lose ~3.5% if you let Paypal transfer from GBP to Euro .

https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/cross-border-and-conversion-fees

Zardoz

Just to update on this I managed to get my GBP funds out of Paypal using Xoom, a Paypal company.
It allows you to send money to a bank account from your Paypal balance .
It charges ~0.65% to transfer the money.
Paypal would only let me withdraw in Euros and wanted to convert at a cost of ~4%.
Xoom allowed me to send the GBP intact to a UK bank account .

Carnmore

Paypal recently decided to debit my Revolut account rather than card despite my card being the 'preferred' funding source.

This resulted in the eBay GBP purchase being converted to EUR using their punitive exchange rates. PayPal repeatedly fobbed me off but I persisted and eventually got the differential between their rate and Revolut's back.

I don't know why this company hasn't been closed down by now.

Jim2007

Carnmore wrote: »

I don't know why this company hasn't been closed down by now.

Probably because Ireland is a very small part of PayPal's world....

Ireland is unusual in that you are allowed to buy in Sterling. On Ebay, with my Swiss account I can only buy in Swiss Francs, I can see the prices in the vendor's currency, but that actual transaction happens in Swiss Frances.

The only exception is if I happen to have a Sterling cash balance, in which case it offers to first apply the Sterling cash and then the rest is taken in Francs.

I don't know, but I would not be surprised if it is the same for most people outside the "Irish Bubble".

Actually from the end of this year we have been told that we will be no longer able to buy on Amazon.co.uk because they have decided not to support third country sales. We need to place the order via Amazon.de, .fr, .it instead.

Carnmore

I’ve opened a UK PayPal account to be used for any GBP purchases in future

Jim2007

Carnmore wrote: »

I’ve opened a UK PayPal account to be used for any GBP purchases in future

We’ll have to wait and see how all of that plays out. If there is a no deal BREXIT I expect China & Russia will force a full functioning trade border between the UK and the EU at the WTO.

Effects

I'm looking for a way to take a sterling balance out of a paypal account without converting it to euro.

Paypal are looking for me to convert it to euro, then back to sterling. That'll end up costing me £150.

Is there a way of taking the money out without getting screwed by paypal?

Starlord_01

Revolut?

Pacifico

Similar thread here recently: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2058052099

I think the general consensus was it's not easy!

Effects

Starlord_01 wrote: »

Revolut?

Same thing, paypal want to convert it to euro, before revolut will convert it back into sterling. Revolut offers a slightly better rate than my UK bank account though.

Effects

I'm having a similar issue with PayPal. I've set up a paypal account using my UK address and phone number. Now I'm having issues withdrawing my sterling balance to my sterling account in the UK.
Paypal are trying to tell me my account isn't UK based. And they have redirected me to their automatic help system, which is totally useless.

If I set up another account next time I'm in the UK, will paypal charge me to transfer between my two paypal accounts with my UK address?
I won't be back in the UK for another couple of months, and I'd rather not wait that long.

Jim2007

Effects wrote: »

I'm having a similar issue with PayPal. I've set up a paypal account using my UK address and phone number. Now I'm having issues withdrawing my sterling balance to my sterling account in the UK.
Paypal are trying to tell me my account isn't UK based. And they have redirected me to their automatic help system, which is totally useless.

If I set up another account next time I'm in the UK, will paypal charge me to transfer between my two paypal accounts with my UK address?
I won't be back in the UK for another couple of months, and I'd rather not wait that long.

If you are not habitually resident in the UK, then they are most likely correct, it is an MLA issue and you can expect they will apply it fully.

Repeating the exercise and then trying to move money out of an account that is already flagged will take you to the next level in MLA... with the possibility that they will freeze it.

You need to contact them directly and get it sorted out.

Effects

Paypal are currently trying to say it's an issue with my bank account, and that it's a euro account, which is ridiculous.

Effects

Paypal customer service now saying they don't recognise Northern Ireland as being part of the UK.

Effects

From Paypal:

As checked all the details of your account, the address used was in Northern Ireland, not in the U.K., that is the reason why the currency showing is in Euro.

Here's what you need to do in order for us to resolve this issue, you need to close this PayPal account and set-up a new one. You can still use the same email address and register the same information you have, but please take note for us to have the currency in Sterling, you have to register your address in UK.

Effects

I'm still trying to deal with Paypal, but just going around in circles. They seem to be stuck on insisting that Northern Ireland has to use Euro as it's currency, and won't accept GBP as their legal currency.