Paypal price hike on euro to sterling conversion

hennypenny

I'm a buyer from the UK and just paid for a purchase from the Netherlands. The running total was in sterling until I made the paypal payment, which then converts it to euro. The resultant paypal payment in sterling was almost £1 more than the running total at checkout. Why is there a hike in the paypal payment?

Hoddie

Brick Owl shows you the prices in your chosen currency (can change by clicking on the flag in the top right) using current exchange rates. Each store however can choose to accept payments in certain currencies only, and the store you bought from might only accept Euros.

This would be fine if you had Euros in your PayPal account, but if you only have a balance in £, or are paying using a debit or credit card, PayPal will convert what the store wants, in Euros, into £, that they then deduct from your balance/card - sadly PayPal's exchange rates are not particularly competitive. So although Brick Owl is showing you the £ equivalent of what the store actually wants in €, at the right exchange rate, PayPal will always charge you a bit more.

It's the same when you use your Debit Card abroad - most banks are happy to tell you they don't charge you a fee, but almost all of them will whack up the exchange rates to compensate.

You can limit the damage done by PayPal exchange rates by sticking to stores that will accept £. Or pay direct using payment card if you can (though bear in mind that you're then subject to your card issuer's exchange rates which, though probably better than PayPal's, probably won't be much better).

hennypenny

Thank you for the explanation. I'm new to this site and it's so much better than ebay where they will deduct 10% from the sellers, who will have to pass on the fees to the buyers. What a rip off!