The real rip-off here is when a Canadian is buying an item from another Canadian on the ebay.ca site. The item is posted in US dollars "for the convenience of Americans". Assume the American and Canadian dollars are at par. The item sells for $100 US including shipping and taxes. The buyer purchases through PayPal and pays at 2.5% "conversion" fee to convert from US to CDN dollars and pays $102.50 CDN. At the other end the seller is charged a 2.5% "conversion" fee to convert their $100 US to CDN and receives $97.50 Cdn. Paypal pockets $5 for a transaction that takes place completely within Canada, with the buyer/seller sending/receiving Cdn dollars and without any money crossing an international border. On top of this the seller pays PayPal another fee to use their services.
All PayPal should be doing is transferring the $100 Cdn it receives from the buyer to the seller, plus charge the seller a service fee. That's what happens in the US when one American buys from another in US dollars. Canadians are getting ripped off when buying within their own country and I'm surprised more people are not up in arms about this.
There should be an option on ebay.ca for Canadians buying from Canadians involving items posted in US dollars. The option should be that the seller will accept the CDN dollar amount that is shown on eBay.ca below the US dollar amount. (This reflects the current exchange rate). For example, when a $100 US sale happens, if the CDN dollar amount is shown as $110, the buyer agrees to pay the seller $110 CDN. That is the amount Paypal or MasterCard would bill the buyer and that is what the seller would receive. Of course eBay doesn't have much interest in doing this as they own PayPal. This conflict of interest is to the detriment of Canadians.
