Refund giving in USD however exchange rates have changed meaning I am out money.

dlc-wal
Community Member

I ordered several products to build a 3D printer.   Some of the products arrived very fast and I was extremely happy with the seller.  Now nothing else has arrived and the first to not make their deadline was awesome with no questions asked refund.   My issue is that the seller refunded what they were paid (in USD) however since it has been over a month and the Canadian dollar is stronger that it was when I made the purchase, I am out the difference.

 

Should PAYPAL not be refunding me in CAD since they did the conversion and withdrew Canadian funds from my account?   It's bad enough to have to sit waiting for a product that never arrived and the first was a small purchase so it was only a few cents difference but now I have a couple of larger purchases that have also not arrived which will mean several dollars per item difference.

 

If this is just how it works, I will not be using ebay again.

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Refund giving in USD however exchange rates have changed meaning I am out money.

That is the way it works. It does not matter which eCommerce site it is, not just eBay. You made a currency conversion at one rate and paid for that service. Converting back is another service.

 

The bigger issue is conversion fees. No matter what you do, you will always be out the roughly 2.5% conversion fee PayPal charges to convert Can$ to US$ when you purchase and you will be out the 2.5% fee conversion fee again when you convert back to Can $. So for any transaction you will be out roughly 5% if you just converted Can $ to US $ and back to Can$ in the same day with the same day exchange rate.

 

This is just not PayPal. It is for a bank account, a credit card, whatever. Conversion fees will be charged at roughly 2.5% for any transaction.

 

If the dollar changes rate over a month, you can lose or save depending on which way it goes. But usually not enough to save on the conversion fees.

 

So don't blame eBay since they do are not the payment processor. Nor blame PayPal. Or a bank, credit card, whatever. That is the way currency conversion works.

 

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Refund giving in USD however exchange rates have changed meaning I am out money.


@dlc-wal wrote:

... the first to not make their deadline was awesome with no questions asked refund.   My issue is that the seller refunded what they were paid (in USD) however since it has been over a month and the Canadian dollar is stronger that it was when I made the purchase, I am out the difference.


 

Best way to avoid the loss on a refund is NOT to convert the US$ back to Cdn$

 

Leave the funds in paypal as US$ until (a) the next time you make another purchase in US$ and use the money then, or (b) the exchange rate becomes more in your favour (some are still predicting a 59 cent dollar).

 

Paypal allows you to set up your paypal account to keep funds in as many has 22 different currencies. I have 4 balances set up Cdn$ / US$ / AU$ / UK pound and use them as needed.

 

To setup from the paypal summary page: PayPal balance  >  Manage Currencies

 

-.-

 

Only guaranteed way to avoid the risk of currency exchange losses/gains is to only buy items in Canadian dollars. Lots of sellers on eBay that sell that way.

 

-.-

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Refund giving in USD however exchange rates have changed meaning I am out money.

How did you pay? In the past, when I used a credit card and the credit card did the conversion, the refund was indeed made with the new exchange rate. However, when I used the PayPal conversion rate (so my credit card was charged in CAD $ - not converted by the credit card company but by PayPal - then the refund was the same. Except with American Express - PayPal does not give us a choice with that card).

 

I think it still works the same way, but it has been a long time since I used PayPal's conversion rate to pay. I always take the conversion rate of my credit card and take the chance of having a different refund if there is said refund.

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Refund giving in USD however exchange rates have changed meaning I am out money.

mcrlmn
Community Member

You paid in U.S. currency. for an item listed in U.S. currency.
It doesn't mater whether we're talking Yen, Euros, or Pounds.

You wouldn't be bellyaching if the CDN dollar was lower than when you made the transaction. This post wouldn't exist.

No matter how much you try to spin this....
No, PAYPAL should not be refunding me you in CAD since they did the conversion and withdrew Canadian funds.
You asked them to do the conversion when you paid.

God forbid you ever go on a holiday and buy currency.
Do you expect the same rate you paid; if you sell back any remaining balance upon return home?
I'll bet.. only if it's in your best interest.

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Refund giving in USD however exchange rates have changed meaning I am out money.

Just a question, I current paid $299 US and it was covert from Canadian, but now I got refunded $299 US some how PayPal automatically covert  back to Canadian into my PayPal account and I was out by 8% because the currency rate.

 

 Isn't it use to be they will keep the original fund back to your PayPal account until you want to withdrawal back to your bank account and they will of course stealing some difference of the rate?  

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Refund giving in USD however exchange rates have changed meaning I am out money.


@d3r9 wrote:

Just a question, I current paid $299 US and it was covert from Canadian, but now I got refunded $299 US some how PayPal automatically covert back to Canadian into my PayPal account and I was out by 8% because the currency rate.

 

 Isn't it use to be they will keep the original fund back to your PayPal account until you want to withdrawal back to your bank account and they will of course stealing some difference of the rate?  


Do you have US$ set up as an active paypal currency? If you don't then the money goes back to the primary currency (minus currency conversion fees).

 

If paying in US$, I take the extra step of $ conversion within paypal first before paying.  That way the entire US$ payment is from my US$ balance (and any refund will go back to that US$ balance).

 

-..-

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