when can Canadian sellers get their money in U.S dollars

[styleclash2]

Hi

I know this topic is discussed before, but when can Canadian sellers start getting their money in the currency they sell their items ?? I mean why do I have to get my money in CAD whereas I sold my item in U.S ? and on top of that PayPal rip you off with their exchange rate, the lowest possible, for me every year $1500 to $2000 lost if I exchange my U.S with PayPal.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@styleclash2 wrote:

... when can Canadian sellers start getting their money in the currency they sell their items ?? I mean why do I have to get my money in CAD whereas I sold my item in U.S ?

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Since you mention PayPal I will assume you are NOT in Managed Payments which currently only pays in one currency (CA$ for Canadians).

ebay.com sales through PayPal are paid in US$ -- if you have a US$ balance set up in PayPal. The trick is getting the US$ money from PayPal.

Reduced exchange fee: Convert between paypal balances before transferring money to your Canadian bank account. The exchange conversion fee is 0.5% lower than when you withdraw the money directly from the US$ balance to your Canadian bank account.

Some sellers (like myself) avoid the exchange cost by using their PayPal US$ balance only for making US$ purchases (several of my suppliers accept PayPal for payment).

Some other sellers avoid the exchange rate cost by having an American bank account.

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[arhirii2007]

ypdc_dennis wrote:

"Some other sellers avoid the exchange rate cost by having an American bank account.

I assume you are referring to an American bank account at a bank in the USA, not a US-dollar account at a Canadian Bank. Is this correct? Cheers.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@arhirii2007 wrote:
I assume you are referring to an American bank account at a bank in the USA, not a US-dollar account at a Canadian Bank. Is this correct?

Yes. That's why I said American rather than US$.

Due to differences in the Canadian and USA banking systems most Canadian bank US$ accounts can not accept US$ deposits directly from the US bank that PayPal uses.

I've been told some Canadian banks have US$ accounts which do hook into the American banking system, but most accounts do not.

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[femmefan1946]

Go to the local TDCanadaTrust or Royal Bank and ask to open an account with TDNorth or RBCBank (respectively).

These are American banks connected to the Canadian banks.

They operate in US dollars and USdollars can be transferred from them to your US dollar accounts at the "parent" bank without foreign exchange.
You will still pay foreign exchange when you transfer the US dollars to your Canadian dollar account.

Two caveats:

• These accounts are sometimes used by snowbirds, but more often by businesses doing substantial business in the USA. We opened one for our B&M shop which was selling in the hundreds of thousands annually.  I opened one for my own little eBay business and found the fees higher than what I would have paid Paypal for the mere hundreds of US dollars I was receiving.
• If you don't have an account already with the RBC or TD they may be less interested in helping you open an American account.

[marnotom!]

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@styleclash2 wrote:

. . . on top of that PayPal rip you off with their exchange rate, the lowest possible, for me every year $1500 to $2000 lost if I exchange my U.S with PayPal.

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If you're comparing PayPal's exchange rate to the mid-market exchange rate you see on the eBay site, that exchange rate is really only available to those with tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to exchange at one time, which is why it's stated as an approximation.

Quite frankly, I don't see what's so egregious about PayPal's exchange rate.  It's competitive with my credit union, and with my buyer's hat on, it's marginally better than what my VISA issuer uses for an exchange rate and miles kilometres better than my MasterCard issuer's exchange rate.

As others have suggested, if you're accepting payments made through PayPal and not enrolled in eBay's Managed Payments system yet, you're going to have to make a switch at some point.  The rub is that right now Managed Payments isn't set up to pay Canadian sellers in US dollars.  If that's what your question is about, the short answer is that nobody knows when this feature will be available.

[styleclash2]

Thank you for the tip, I did not know that.

[styleclash2]

yes you are right, I want to have the option to get paid on the currency I am selling

[styleclash2]

thank you for the note but did you say it will cost even more to open U.S dollar account with TD ? I mean they have fees when you transfer from PayPal to your account ?

[styleclash2]

yes I know the credit companies are even worse, but at the same time Paypal is one of the high as well

[reallynicestamps]

I can't speak for TDNorth and TDCanada Trust.

Our American account is with RBCBank.

They allow us to send U$ to our Canadian Royal Bank U$ account without exchange fees.

If we then want to move the U$ to our Canadian currency account, there is exchange.

But if I have U$ in PP, and move it directly to my Canadian currency account, there is exchange. (U$ to loonies)

And if I were to move it to my Canadian U$ account they would be forced (by US law) to change the U$ to loonies and then the Canadian bank would change the loonies to U$, and there would be two lots of exchange.

With our shop and with an active auction, receiving U$ was constant and the ability to keep it in the same currency allowed us to buy in the USA easily. And when we wanted to cash out, moving it to our Canadian U$ account was a money saver.

Again, we had substantial amounts moving through these accounts. As a rule of thumb, if your business is not required to register for sales taxes ($30K annual gross or more) an American bank account is probably not worth the higher fees charged by American banks compared to your Canadian bank.

The hard part may be persuading your bank manager to open the American account. They don't do it often unless there are a lot of snowbirds in your area or many businesses doing cross-border business.

[marnotom!]

@styleclash2

To what are you comparing PayPal’s exchange rates?