Using a US Dollar credit card from Canada

[tonnerbeer]

I have a US Dollar account with my Canadian Bank for which I have a US Dollar credit card. Whenever I make a purchase on EBay in US Dollars, the charges to my bank have been converted to Canadian Dollars and then my bank converts the Canadian Dollars back to US Dollars for payment against my US Dollar card.  Fees are charged for each conversion.

How can I prevent the unnecessary conversions.    As an aside, isn't this rather unethical if not illegal?

[marnotom!]

It’s probably not possible to do this for the reasons @reallynicestamps gives, but for 💩 and giggles, you could try adjusting the currency settings on your PayPal account so that your credit card issuer “converts” the currency and not PayPal. You’re probably already going through Checkout on the US site, but I’m just going to throw that point your way just for the sake of more complete information.

As this is a PayPal issue and has nothing to do with eBay—who no longer owns PayPal, BTW—I’d also consider using your credit card directly if that option is available from sellers using Managed Payments. I assume this double-conversion isn’t happening when you make online purchases in US dollars that aren’t processed by PayPal?

Here’s a US thread that links to some info on adjusting PayPal’s currency conversion settings. Keep in mind it’s a few years old and the mechanics may have changed:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Payments/How-to-avoid-Ebay-s-scam-like-currency-exchange-rate/m-p/2846...