Canadians-what are your reasons for wanting USD?

[stupidbird!]

I’ve always been paid in USD and enjoyed it because I could use the USD (through PayPal) to purchase things from the US IN USD. Now that PayPal is not going to be an option, I’m not sure if I want to be paid in USD or not. What are YOUR reasons for wanting to be paid in USD? (Or what are your reasons for NOT wanting it)?

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@stupidbird! wrote:
I’ve always been paid in USD and enjoyed it because I could use the USD (through PayPal) to purchase things from the US IN USD. Now that PayPal is not going to be an option, I’m not sure if I want to be paid in USD or not. What are YOUR reasons for wanting to be paid in USD? (Or what are your reasons for NOT wanting it)?

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For many it's the personal control over their funds to convert when it's convenient and not at a loss. Or leave as US funds and use how they please.

-Lotz

[stupidbird!]

This is a good point and the only reason I could think of to stay with USD-when the exchange rate changes, you could benefit. With the Royal bank (not sure about other banks) it seems that you can move money between any CAD and USD accounts you have for free. (Just did a quick Google search for their exchange rate fee and this came up.) This makes it seem like a good idea to be paid in USD and then transfer the money to CAD within your accounts without having to pay the 3% fee that EBay is charging for this service.

[byto253]

I use US$ for travel so holding US$ works for me.   

With no cost chequing accounts and just about free US$ credit cards MP in $US provides a lot more flexibility than paypal as a lot of accomodation rentals and travel related stuff like rental cars do not take paypal.   

And if I have extra US$ and some to convert, the exchange rate flex and ability to shop for the best conversion rate on the market makes it better to.   I never pay the bank exchange rate, I find out what the exchange companies are at and the bank always matches it.

[barnfindparts]

To avoid excessive exchange fees.

[byto253]

Good example here.  Paypal is converting $100 US to $116.82 CDN and our local currency exchange is converting $100 US to $119.60 CDN. 

If MP in US$ works well ebay has easily best paypal on this one.   Just waiting for my $US activation to start listing new stuff.

[biglittleape · Accepted solution]

If you're a re-seller than most likely you source your invetory from outside of Canada so your expenses will be in USD.  You want to sell and receive USD so you can use those funds to purchase new inventory directly with no currency conversions.

If you're forced to receive CAD than you will lose about 7%, USD -> CAD -> USD, when you need to purchase new inventory in USD.

[stupidbird!]

Wait, so if you choose to get paid out in CAD and you sell something to someone in the US, you have to pay the exchange on the buyer’s USD?

[pjcdn2005]

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@stupidbird! wrote:
Wait, so if you choose to get paid out in CAD and you sell something to someone in the US, you have to pay the exchange on the buyer’s USD?

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No.  

If you list on .ca and your payout is Canadian dollars, you will be paid in $C regardless of where the buyer is.  If the buyer is paying in another currency, they pay any conversion rate and you will be paid in Canadian dollars.  No conversion requried.

If you list on .com you are automatically paid $US so if your payment is going into a $C bank account, those $US need to be changed to Canadian before they can be deposited. In that situation, you pay the conversion rate.

 For me personally, I have to decide which site I want to list the majority of my items on. If I were to list  just on .com, then I would arrange for a US payout and vice versa if I was going to list just on .ca.  For years I've listed on both sites so if I want to continue to do that, I might end up having a different ID for each site.

[pjcdn2005]

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@biglittleape wrote:

If you're a re-seller than most likely you source your invetory from outside of Canada so your expenses will be in USD.  You want to sell and receive USD so you can use those funds to purchase new inventory directly with no currency conversions.

If you're forced to receive CAD than you will lose about 7%, USD -> CAD -> USD, when you need to purchase new inventory in USD.

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If I were buying my inventory from the US I would definitely list on .com and have a payout in $US.  The ideal would be if  I could then have a $US credit card at the same bank so that I could easily purchase items with that card in $US and then pay off the card with my US$ account. 

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

So basically the only costs for wanting to get paid in 2 currencies would be 2 store fees and the years you spent builting up feedback to becoming an established seller? I guess if your volume warrants it or you have the available items to list.

-Lotz

[recped]

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@stupidbird! wrote:
This is a good point and the only reason I could think of to stay with USD-when the exchange rate changes, you could benefit. With the Royal bank (not sure about other banks) it seems that you can move money between any CAD and USD accounts you have for free. (Just did a quick Google search for their exchange rate fee and this came up.) This makes it seem like a good idea to be paid in USD and then transfer the money to CAD within your accounts without having to pay the 3% fee that EBay is charging for this service.

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No bank ANYWHERE is going to convert currencies without applying an exchange rate and it will be a rate higher than the piublished mid-market rate.

When RBC says "no fee" they mean no fixed fee over and above their currency conversion rate at the time.

Even if you were converting a Million Dollars you will still be getting a rate 50 - 75 basis points lower than the mid-market rate. As the transaction size goes down the conversion commission goes up, for small conversions the rate will be similar (possible a bit lower) than what eBay or PayPal use.

One also needs to consider the direction and volitility of exchange rates. If you have US Dollars in your PayPal account from January/February you have lost almost 4% already due to the current volitility.

[recped]

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@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

the years you spent builting up feedback to becoming an established seller?

-Lotz

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Highly overrated, I've opened a few new selling id's over the past 10 years, I've never observed any difference in sales using an id with double digit feedback vs an id with 5 digit feedback.

The only issue has been getting over the initial seller limits for new id's but it's pretty easy to get a limit increase when you can link it to an existing account with high limits or old id's that have no published limits.

[ricarmic]

I'm late to answering this, but in my (stamp) world things are a bit odd.

The sources of material are from all over the world.

In Canada generally there are two main Catogues/valuation systems collectors use. One group focus on Canadian stuff and are in $C. The other (main) ones used here are US based and cover the rest of the world as well and are in US$.

Canadian buyers expect to pay $C prices against the Catalogue value regardless of whether is is in US$ or C$. So if something is catalogued for $100, US, the local folks expect to pay $50 $C for it. The US/International folks expect to pay $50 US for it. Almost always the US$ has been worth more than the $C and the buyers of that stuff will tend moreso to be international so pricing in US$ makes more sense.

That's one of the reasons why I originally started in US$ (actually there wasn't any $C at that time is another reason) and have maintained it going forward.

[reallynicestamps]

Only if you have a Store subcription.

With 200 Free Listings monthly a Store may not be necessary.

And while feedback takes a long time to build, we constantly tell newbies to do some buying to build FB (and trust).

The question in my mind would be which account should be with the USD account, since at the moment both currencies are in play.

But then I realized that my Seller Hub tells me how many Free items I still have left from the current promotion, and that gives me a rough guide to which currency will be the new account.

I'll have to keep an eye open every day for a month or so to close out listings in the 'wrong' currency and redo them for the other account.

And think of names for the new accounts. Shoot.

I just remembered I have three inactive accounts. Good. This may be easier than I thought.

[stupidbird!]

Here is my question: Which way is cheaper? Selling in USD on .com (with a USD bank account set up) or selling in CAD on .ca (with a CAD bank account)

If I sell in USD, EBay will put the USD in my USD account and I won't pay a fee? (I think this is true). OR... if I sell on EBay.ca and someone from America pays with USD, what is the exchange rate that Ebay uses? Is it the same one that my bank uses?  Am I losing more money in this scenario than I would if I sold in USD?

These are the two scenarios that I don't really understand.

Any help is appreciated and thank you to everyone who has already answered.

[regs43]

The way I understand

if you sell in CAD and a US customer buys THEY pay conversion. so you get the $20 CAD your order total was worth minus all the fees etc. The customer paid the conversion fee with their credit card or whatever way they are paying.

If you sell in USD and get payouts in USD then I understand ebay just deposists the money as is after fees. Then your bank will charge a conversion fee whenever u decide to do soemthing with the funds.

If you have your billing currency for your ebay store in Canada then your fees will be billed in CAD and have to be converted from USD to CAD so you will lose some there. If the fee for your item is $1.00 and you sell in USD that fee is converted to CAD and then taxed vs  the same item sells listed in CAD you pay the same $1.00 fee but its in CAD and then taxed. So the higher your fee is the more you lose on the conversion.  Just another thing to consider too.