PayPal currency conversion rates vs. credit card conversion rates

I'm re-posting this because the first time didn't help and because I have a bit more info since my credit card bill arrived. The original post is first followed by the update.


ORIGINAL:  I've recently made two purchases from sellers in the US, and in US funds, but when I went to make my payments, which then had me login to my PayPal account, I was not able to switch the currency conversion choice from being PayPal's to being the credit card company's conversion instead. That option was nowhere to be found and believe me, I tried to find it. The first purchase was a couple days ago and was surprised and upset when this happened. The second time was just this morning and the same thing happened.

 

The same thing happened once or twice earlier this year and I just chalked it up to some kind of annoying glitch and didn't think I could do anything about it. But after doing some quick looking on the PayPal site it shows that the currency conversion choice is still in effect and should have been shown to me. What is going on? Is the problem with eBay or with PayPal or is it both? Has PayPal changed their policy on this and eliminated the choice, and not updated their help / info pages?

 

In the past I have always chosen to go with the credit card's conversion and NOT PayPal's because I have found that I save a little bit that way. It may only amount to literally just a couple dollars or even less but it is still MY right to choose (according to PayPal themselves) and it really bothers me when that doesn't happen.

 

Can someone explain to me what is going on and can / should I contact PayPal to get them to switch my payments to using the credit card's conversion and NOT theirs. Is there a time limit to get them to fix that?


**Following the original post I was asked a question by ypdc_dennis: Do you mean that the popup box (the one that shows up before you sign in to paypal) where you select credit card OR paypal has disappeared when you go to pay?

 

My reply:  The popup box was there and I selected PayPal and not the credit card. Then after it had me login to PayPal I selected to have it charged to my credit card and NOT to withdraw it from my bank account that is linked to the PayPal account - which is what I have always done before. Nothing in that regard has changed. What did change, however, is that once I clicked to confirm and make the payment it did not present the next popup where I would confirm the payment details (including which conversion method to use - PayPal vs. Mastercard and change that if I wanted to) and then make the final click to make the payment.. When I did click It just simply made the payment without going to that intermediate popup first as I described. I was simply not given the opportunity at all to make the change.

I can't see anything that I did that was different from my past purchases that did work properly. Like I said this happened once or twice earlier this year and i recall that it happened once or twice last year as well. I hope this clarifies things a bit.

 

UPDATE: Since the original post I have made another 2 purchases (Dec. 19 & 22) and the same thing happened with those as well. Now that my credit card bill has arrived I see that for the earlier 2 purchases (Dec. 6 & 7) it appears that for both of the items themselves it was billed in CDN $ with the currency conversion done using (I assume) PayPal's rate. The shipping/import charges (shipped using the GSP) were billed in US $ with the currency conversion done using Mastercard's rate. The exchange rate is printed right there on the bill beside those 2 entries.


I don't understand why they correctly billed in US $ for the shipping/import costs (and therefore using Mastercard's conversion) but wrongly billed in CDN $ for the item itself. This is the other half of my issue. What do I do? Do I contact (call?) PayPal to try and get these problems sorted out or what else can I do?

 

If it helps, I will also mention that I made 2 purchases on November 4 & 8 from Canadian sellers which were listed and paid for in CDN $ so no problems with those.  The last purchase before these Nov. ones was on July 17, so there was a gap of more than 3 and 1/2 months where I had not made any purchases.

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PayPal currency conversion rates vs. credit card conversion rates

I would phone PayPal and ask them about it.

I usually pay with the balance in my PP account so I have always thought that if a cc was used, the currency change would be done by the bank.  If something different is being done than what you've seen before, PP should be able to help.

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