Need to know if Paypal can deposit US funds into Canadian ban with a US account???k

[oldconvent]

I am finally swallowing a lot of crow here as I swore I wouldn't sign up with paypal ,however things are not going to change so have created a paypal account after several days of trying.Now the problem is I'm told that Paypal can not transfer US funds into my new CIBC band in a US savings account. Can anyone out there tell me if this is possible or not. I understand that paypal will cgarge a fee to transfer US funds into a Canadian account .....not sure what those fees are??? any advice would be appreciated.

[pierrelebel]

" Paypal can not transfer US funds into my new CIBC band in a US savings account."

That is correct.  It has always been that way ever since PayPal came into Canada in November 2000. 

The problem resides with the Canadian Bankers Association and the US Treasury rules. Nothing PayPal can do about it.

PayPal no longer charges a fee to transfer Cdn$ funds from the PayPal account to a Canadian dollar account held at a Canadian bank.

If the funds in the PayPal account are in US$, they need to be converted into Cdn$ (it can be done automatically) and PayPal charges a conversion fee of 2.5% (competitive with most Canadian banks and credit card issuers).

Two ways around that:

1) list and sell in Cdn$ (as recommended by eBay-Canada) so no conversion is involved

2) open a bank account at a bank physically based in the USA where you can withdraw US$ without conversion to Cdn$.  However, at some point you may have to convert those US$ into Cdn$ and your Canadian bank will then charge you a conversion fee.  If transferring large amounts (over US$10,000) you get a break on the fee.  For much larger amounts ($25,000/$35,000 depending on the bank) you get a much larger break. This information is based on actual personal experience.

[oldconvent]

Thanks Pierre as always good info. I haven't been on ebay since they started "paypal only" for sellers.Things sure have changed in past  7-8 years. I would still like to sell on ebay com as I think my stuff gets more response on that site.meanwhile guess I'll go with the flow. I spoke with several paypal reps about this in last 3 days in trying to get hooked up into the system, all gave me different answers.. 

[pierrelebel]

"they started "paypal only" for sellers."

Actually, eBay is not "PayPal only".  Sellers can accept credit card payments (VISA/MasterCard) using their own merchant account if they wish.

The official eBay.ca payment policy can be found here:

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/policies/accepted-payments-policy.html

and on eBay.com:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/accepted-payments-policy.html

[oldconvent]

My understanding is that it was "paypal only" when they initiated that a number of years ago,eliminating  other formas of payment like cheques,money orders etc.I'll look into the credit cards....guess the fees would be similar to paypal's 

[reallynicestamps]

In addition, sellers do have a few other 'electronically viewable' services that are approved by eBay. '

However, buyers are very very wary of them.

We took credit cards directly when we had our B&M store. Even though we were over 30 years in business, we had many customers who preferred to buy through PP, rather than give us their cc information directly.

So there's that to consider.

[reallynicestamps]

BTW -- if you do shows, look into Square.

I have friends who do SF Cons and pow wows who swear by it.

Oh -- and a seller can accept cheques or money orders IF the buyer offers them.

In my experience, those offers usually don't pan out. No MO and no sale.

[oldconvent]

obviously not like the good old days when there was a fair amount of honesty.I had no problems taking cheques,MO's,cash and even suggested I would take the shirt of their back if the put some numbers on it and signed it.It was areal fun time selling on ebay then,people didn't take themselves to seriously....... wink ! wink! Maybe I'll just move to the USA for 6 months and do all my selling there.probably would solve a lot ????

[reallynicestamps]

Really?

I loved it when Billpoint came in (later Paypal) and I not only got paid faster, but there were fewer fake 'ship now the MO is on its way ' fake emails and no bounced cheques.

But I came late to eBay, only about 2001.