Paypal and Canadian Ebay sellers.

shamrock_billiards
Community Member
Has anybody else noticed that Paypal works much better for Americans than it does for Canadians. If I sell a pool table on Ebay for, let's say $1600 CDN and my buyer decides to pay through Paypal. First you pay the Paypal fees 2.9% Which is very reasonable compared to other credit card processing companies. Now here's where it can get expensive. If your buyer pays you in CDN your Paypal account is probably set to USD primary so you have to convert the funds in to USD. When you do this you lose about 4%, and than because we are in Canada to take the money out at a atm it gets converted back to CDN and you lose another 4%. So it costs you approx $160 by the time your finished (my math and percentages are probably a little off) Now when you tell your customer you are going to charge an additional $100 if they use paypal they decline and either want to back out because they don't have cash and wanted to pay with their credit card, or have to scramble around finding another payment method, and when you call paypal about it you wait 15 mins to talk to the first guy who after you explain everything to him put's you on hold until you hang up. Has anybody else had this problem, and if so did you find a solution. Thanks
Paul.
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Paypal and Canadian Ebay sellers.

knarfdotca
Community Member
How close are you to the usa to either set up an account at a us bank or 2 paypal accounts, one for us dollars and one for canadian dollars?

You are not permitted to charge extra in Canada for the buyer to use paypal.


The user formally known as Knarfdotca, Soon To be Valuepricedsoftware
Message 2 of 27
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Paypal and Canadian Ebay sellers.

I'm confused, when you receive a payment in Canadian Dollars why do you think you have to convert it to US Dollars?

I receive Canadian Dollar Payments and withdraw the funds directly to my Canadian bank account.

And what's with the ATM how does that enter the picture?

Please explain.

Ben
"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915


"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
- answering Trolls is voluntary, my policy is not to participate.
Message 3 of 27
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Paypal and Canadian Ebay sellers.

Hello KnarfDot.

I've seen this in other places (not allowing to charge to cover paypal fees), and although I don't personally do this, I would like to know WHERE in the law it says you can't charge more depending on method of payment? Do the stores up here who charge an extra $0.25 to use Interact know this law? 🙂

Or is it a PayPal "rule"?

John
Message 4 of 27
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Paypal and Canadian Ebay sellers.

shamrock_billiards
Community Member
Hi Knarf thanks for the reply. I'm about 1 hour away from the border, so setting up a bank account in the states would be a hassle. Thanks
Message 5 of 27
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Paypal and Canadian Ebay sellers.

shamrock_billiards
Community Member
Hi Ben. Thanks for the reply. My account was set up USD primary so to use my debit card funds have to be transfered to USD. If I transfer my funds to my bank account, how long does that take? and can I transfer a CDN balance without converting it?
thanks
Message 6 of 27
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Paypal and Canadian Ebay sellers.

catseye*
Community Member
Surcharges
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-surcharges.html

Sellers may not charge eBay buyers an additional fee for their use of ordinary forms of payment, including acceptance of checks, money orders, electronic transfers or credit cards. Such costs should be built into the price of the item-this policy reduces the potential for confusion among bidders about the true cost of an item. Further, some forms of payment surcharges, such as credit card surcharges, are forbidden under the laws of many states, including California.

Can a seller add a surcharge to the final price of an eBay item? Yes, in three instances:

* Sellers may charge a reasonable shipping and handling fee to the final price of their item, providing that this fee is disclosed in the listing. A shipping and handling fee can cover the seller's reasonable costs for mailing, packaging and handling the item. Shipping and handling fees cannot be listed as a percentage of the final sale price.
* Sellers may pass along the costs associated with using escrow, if the buyer chooses to use escrow. Use caution when considering escrow. To avoid being deceived by fraudulent escrow services, use www.escrow.com, eBay's approved escrow service.
* Sellers may choose to accept payment in a different currency than the currency listed on eBay. If the buyer chooses to take advantage of this optional payment method, the seller may pass along to the buyer any costs associated with the currency exchange, provided that the costs are disclosed and agreed to in advance by the buyer.

Note: Some types of payment surcharges are permitted on some of eBay's international sites.




*JMHO* - to be taken with a grain of salt!
Message 7 of 27
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Paypal and Canadian Ebay sellers.

mirakbiz_inc
Community Member
shamrock_billiards

All paypal debit cards are only in USD, that's a service for the US paypal users that was extended to the Canadian ones. If you already have the money in Canadian, don't convert it to US. Just do a bank transfer to your Canadian account. Otherwise (you are right) you are loosing twice but that's because of your own fault. Exchanging currencies is added cost and should only be done when strictly needed. The reason why many of us have USD accounts in the US is so that we can move our USD there and then choose when to convert to Canadian
Message 8 of 27
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Paypal and Canadian Ebay sellers.

ospreylinks
Community Member
Actually, what we have started doing for Cdn buyers is when they win a listing (which we list on the .com site in US$) is convert it to Cdn equivilent using the current XE Curr. Exchange Rate, then instead of sending them a Paypal invoice tied to the item, we send them a request for money in Cdn$'s and they pay us in Cdn $'s. We do convert the Cdn $'s to US, instead just draw them right out of Paypal in Cdn$'s to our Cdn$ bank account.

As a result we are gaining anywhere from 2% to 4% in exchange over what would have been had we allowed payment to be received in US$'s and then transferred to our Cdn$ bank account.

Jeff
Message 9 of 27
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Paypal and Canadian Ebay sellers.

ospreylinks
Community Member
Case in point.... If I transfer US$'s to my Cdn$ account as of this point in time, Paypal offers me an exchange rate of 1.20441.

Now if I convert my US$ sale to Canadian at the XE quoted exchange rate currently 1.23355 I have made 2.9% just by having my clients pay in Cdn funds directly....

Paypal fees mechant fees are already high enough without taking it on the chin on exchange as well.

Jeff
Message 10 of 27
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Paypal and Canadian Ebay sellers.

@Shamrock

Just add your Canadian Dollar bank account to your PyaPal profile. You can then transfer Canadian Dollars directly, it takes 2 - 4 days depending on your bank and is treated just like any other direct deposit.

For the US Dollars you either accept PayPal poorer exchange rate, spend the money in US Dollars using the debit card or paying your eBay fees (If your fees are charged in US Dollars) or best, set up an actual US based account (not a Canadian account in USD), transfer the funds from PayPal and use a third party exchange service (xe.com etc.) to convert to Canadian and deposit in your Canadian bank account.

Ben
"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915


"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
- answering Trolls is voluntary, my policy is not to participate.
Message 11 of 27
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Paypal and Canadian Ebay sellers.

ospreylinks
Community Member
Why bother with the US for Cdn buyers at all... heck tonight the Royal Bank was quoting a buy rate for US$'s of 1.214 while XE was 1.23375. So again why give up any of the exchange to the banks by accepting US$ and transferring to a US$ account here or elsewhere.

If you don't convert at the outset of the transaction and accept US$'s at some point you are going to run into a discounted exchange on selling the greenbacks, be it Paypal or another bank.

So Ben, go ahead accept US$'s and eat the exchange transfer at some point if you think it is wise. I want to be paid in Cdn $'s with the buyer paying the highest exchange possible for my benefit, not for some bank to make the spread.

Jeff
Message 12 of 27
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Paypal and Canadian Ebay sellers.

So Ben, go ahead accept US$'s and eat the exchange transfer at some point if you think it is wise. I want to be paid in Cdn's with the buyer paying the highest exchange possible for my benefit, not for some bank to make the spread.

Well I list on .com and over 95% of my sales are outside Canada so It's impossible not to collect a lot of US Dollars. Most of my Canadian buyers, the few that I have, pay in US Dollars even though I offer a Canadian Dollar equivalent with a favourable (for the buyer) conversion rate. Of course I prefer to receive credit card payments (via my own merchant accounts) that way I can convert to Canadian (I use the Bank of Canada Noon rates)at the best possible rate.

It would be great to sell only in Canadian Dollars but I think it's better to use US Dollars which is the standard currency for most of my buyers and my product catagory.

Ben
"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915


"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
- answering Trolls is voluntary, my policy is not to participate.
Message 13 of 27
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Paypal and Canadian Ebay sellers.

shoplineca
Community Member
They way everyone talks here about exchange rates its like they are dealing in hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Crap I spill more than that at lunch. I used to deal in futures in currency dealing with $10 - $30 million US at a time.

Even my own personal accounts when I lived in the US I was transferring $40,000 here and $80,000 there.

I dont know what anyone's eBay monthly sales are and their amount of US business but I would be surprised if many are loosing much more that $20 or $30 a month at worst in coversion but to save that may end up costing you a heck of a lot more in inconvenience.

Malcolm
Message 14 of 27
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Paypal and Canadian Ebay sellers.

Malcolm

Of course it's small, perhaps between 2 and 3 points, don't know about you but I feel it's worth making a little effort to save a couple of thousand dollars a year.

Must be a nice lunch if you're spending that much.

Ben
"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915


"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
- answering Trolls is voluntary, my policy is not to participate.
Message 15 of 27
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Paypal and Canadian Ebay sellers.

rd1000
Community Member
acccepting Cdn dollars does not get you further ahead. Paypal charges a higher transaction fee and a higher percentage, so while you may not pay during the exchange rate, they get you with fees. And the fees are based on a higher dollar amount. I did the math both ways, and you are no further ahead receiving payments in Cdn dollars.

Rob
Message 16 of 27
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Paypal and Canadian Ebay sellers.

ospreylinks
Community Member
They do charge a higher merchant rate, but not 3% higher... that would mean the merchant rate would be approaching 5.5%...

Do the math again.... it works....

Jeff
Message 17 of 27
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Paypal and Canadian Ebay sellers.

ospreylinks
Community Member
Okay.... proof in point....

I just sold an item and converted to Cdn $'s and sent a request for money in Cdn$'s instead of invoicing in US$'s....

Cdn value was $71.56 ... Paypal fees = $2.68 or 3.675%

Earlier I did a US$ transaction for $61.49 US and the Paypal fee was $2.08 or 3.38%

Now tonight, if I transfer US$'s via Paypal I get an exchange of 1.2107, however by converting using the XE quoted rate I get 1.24344 or a premium of 3.274%

When I transfer more than $149.99 Cdn from Paypal to my Cdn bank account, I suffer no service charge...

So, as I do the math, I see that I suffer a small Paypal premium of about 1/3 of 1% by dealing in Cdn, however even after taking this into effect my net gain is between 2.9 and 3% exchange. Seems good to me? Where do I loose?

Jeff
Message 18 of 27
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Paypal and Canadian Ebay sellers.

wrightcomputes
Community Member
Has anyone looked into Royal Bank's US-dollar account in a US Bank and see if PayPal will accept that? It's not just a regular US-dollar account -- like other Canadian Banks have --, they advertise this as being an account in a US-based Bank.

I find the best approach being to keep everything in USD. Listing in .com in USD, billed by eBay in USD, getting paid by buyers in USD, purchasing products in USD, etc. But to do that, you have to be able to withdraw PayPal funds in USD.

I did the math, and figured about $5,000 savings over a year period by not losing in currency exchange (your mileage will vary depending on your purchase/sales volume). This is just from not having to convert PayPal payments from USD to CAD, then buy products in CAD from suppliers that also accept payment in USD. If I was to do it in Canadian dollars, I'd get an exchange of 1.20 (today) from PayPal and pay to suppliers the equivalent of 1.24 exchange over their USD price. By keeping it all in USD, I save about 6 points (2 from PayPal, 4 from the suppliers).
Message 19 of 27
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Paypal and Canadian Ebay sellers.

shoplineca
Community Member
Here is another little secret, talk to your banker about the amount of US business that you do and they may set you up with an account that allows you to trade in US currency and covert at preferentail rates over the existing and current counter rates.

All the banks have these types of services. They are generally kept for their "Special" customers but you can ask and perhaps demand the Special package related to foreign exchange in order for your bank to keep your business and help your business grow, in turn meaning more business for your bank.

Sometimes the terms may require you to keep a $5,000 deposit in the account or pay a fee for the privelage however, like everything else, all is negotiable.

Malcolm
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