eBay Managed Payments - Foreign Exchange Conversion

[instant.supply]

Hello I have a question regarding eBay's new managed payments system. Currently I have a US Transferwise bank attached to my PayPal, so that whenever I sell on ebay.com I can withdraw US$ without converting it on PayPal. I read a few other forum posts about the same topic but I couldn't find anything that was up to date (all posts seemed to be almost a year old). 

I looked through the Managed Payments FAQ and it stated:
"If you offer to ship internationally, your listings may appear in buyer searches on supported international eBay sites. You may also limit the countries you ship to by selecting specific regions in your listing settings. You may create listings on select eBay sites outside of Canada, such as the United States (www.ebay.com) and the United Kingdom (www.ebay.co.uk). We will send your earnings from these sales to your checking account in US Dollars."

I was wondering if this feature was currently available, and if they mean US$ Canadian account or US based account.
Thanks

[reallynicestamps]

I've been asking the same question since 2019.

There has been no definitive answer yet.

Has there tyler@ebay ?

Basically, as I understand it, we can only have one bank account attached to our Managed Payment account.

It has to be based in a bank registered in the same country as the eBay account is registered (eg a dotCA account attached to a Royal Bank of Canada account).

The account can be in loonies or in USD, but not both.

And you can't both a Canadian bank account in loonies AND a different Canadian bank account in USD attached to your Managed Payments.

[pjcdn2005]

It would have to be a US$ account at a Canadian bank.   Apparently when sellers sign up now they can check off if they want  their payouts in US or Cdn dollar but we were told last week that the details haven't been worked out yet so I am guessing that the sellers who indicate $US won't be started on MP right away.

[instant.supply]

@pjcdn2005 @reallynicestamps 

Do you know if you can seperate your managed payment account? One for Canada, one for USA. Sign up for the one in the states with an ITIN and US Bank?

[pjcdn2005]

I do know that you can't have more than 1 bank account on 1 eBay ID.    As far as having a second ID with a US bank account...from what I understand a Canadian registered on .ca can't have their eBay funds deposited into a US bank.  When asked about that, they came up with the $US Canadian bank account option.  

Perhaps if a seller registered on .com with an ITIN number it might be possible but they definitely haven't told us that is an option.   Can a person register on .com now with a Canadian address or is a US address needed?  If a US address was used would there be IRS implications?  

[reallynicestamps]

I was in the Royal Bank last week and picked up a flyer about their RBCBank, which is a US licensed bank in US dollars and available to Canadian residents.

Before going whole hog on this, check bank fees.

I closed by RBCBank account because the fees were higher than currency exchange would have cost me, but DH has kept his, originally opened for his business, and finds it worthwhile.

Many snowbirds use these accounts. TDNorth is another -available through TDCanadaTrust.

[pjcdn2005]

That's a good point that fees on those accounts may be more expensive.  I wonder if the online banks that have 'free' chequing accounts also have $US chequing accounts.

[marnotom!]

Would an account with RBCBank work with Managed Payments, though? I was under the impression that US dollar accounts with Canadian sellers using Managed Payments had to be considered on Canadian soil, and your description of RBCBank makes it sound like an American-based subsidiary or operation of the RBC Group.

[pjcdn2005]

I missed that part about it being a US licensed bank.  But it's still possible that a $US account at a Canadian bank might have higher fees than a $C chequing account.   I don't think there is an ideal solution.

[instant.supply]

I wouldn't be converting the USD to CAD through the bank. I'd be using an online currency exchanger like Transferwise and that's where the money is saved.

[instant.supply]

tyler@ebay

Hi Tyler, do you have any solution or statement regarding this?

[instant.supply]

tyler@ebay

To clarify, I just read the new eBay MP USD option, which would permanently make my account USD only. The solution they provide in the article is to "operate two seperate accounts". When I search up using multiple accounts on ebay, there seems to be a lot of issues people face with eBay suspending their account.  Can you assure me that it is perfectly fine to create a new account for the purpose of receiving CAD through MP?

Thank you

[marnotom!]

Just noticed that that blurb makes reference to a checking account (US spelling) and not a chequing account (British/Canadian spelling).

I'm wondering if this is another example of text originally composed for the US eBay that's not been completely adjusted for the Canadian site.  That reference to "US dollars" may actually have originally been on the .com site for US sellers with bank accounts on US soil.  It may be supposed to read "Canadian dollars" for the .ca site.

[pjcdn2005]

It is perfectly fine to have more than one selling account  including if it is so that you can be paid out in another currency. 

[kawartha-ephemera]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

I missed that part about it being a US licensed bank.  But it's still possible that a $US account at a Canadian bank might have higher fees than a $C chequing account.   I don't think there is an ideal solution.

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I had a look to see what was available in the way of USD chequing accounts at the major Canadian chartered banks. I found that Personal USD Chequing accounts are available, the marketing is geared towards snowbirds and world travelers not stay at home types conducting day-to-day banking. The terms offered seemed to vary widely from bank to bank too. The best deal I found was from TD Canada Trust, they offer a USD chequing with no monthly fee but there is a 1.50 fee per transaction which could really add up in a hurry. I believe the fee is waived with a 1,500 USD balance. In general the costs of these accounts were quite high if there was going to be much account activity. The online only banks either don't offer USD accounts at all, or if they do they are savings accounts.  There must be business chequing accounts available for businesses with serious USD cash flows, setting up one of those probably involves meeting with a bank representative.  

[instant.supply]

Transferwise provides a free US bank account and has excellent foreign exchange rates, which solves a lot of headaches and was great to use with PayPal.

[kawartha-ephemera]

@instant.supply 

I'm confused by Transferwise, I looked at it, it seems to be a company that facilitates lower cost currency transactions and  international transfers. Do they have an actual bank charter in Canada? They look interesting but i have to wonder if they'd be a qualified bank on the MP list. It's frustrating that there's no one that seems capable of answering these sorts of questions. About the only way of finding out if it can done is to register and see if they'll work with a Transferwise account.

[instant.supply]

They're more of an international company, you can open a virtual bank account in a bunch of countries around the world. However their US bank account is based in the US so I don't believe it would work with MP. But you could transfer money to the account and exchange it to CAD that way.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@kawartha-ephemera wrote:

I'm confused by Transferwise, I looked at it, it seems to be a company that facilitates lower cost currency transactions and  international transfers. Do they have an actual bank charter in Canada? They look interesting but i have to wonder if they'd be a qualified bank on the MP list. ...

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Wise, formerly called Transferwise (name changed in 2021) while it is a registered business in Canada, it is not a bank.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banks_and_credit_unions_in_Canada