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You need a bank account that is actually based in the USA.
@vip-marketplace wrote:
You think if I get one of those US based bank account from RBC (as opposed to the US$ account they created for me this morning), I would be able to transfer actual US$ into it without PayPal forcing the conversion?
Yes! Any bank that operate under the US clearing house system will work.
@femmefan1946 wrote:
The USA has a thing about residents of foreign countries holding US bank accounts. It's part of Homeland Security policies, but actually started with offshore gambling problems in the 20th century.
The only "thing" is that you need to prove your identity, easy in person, not so easy if not. Plus you need to provide one simple IRS form (W-8BEN) and you may have to update the form annually or bi-annually. Even if you don't file that form it only means that withholding tax applies to any interest earned in the account. On my US account the interest paid is so tiny that the witholding has never been more than a couple of pennies so I don't even bother with the form (you can use any amount that is withheld as a credit on your Canadian tax return).
@vip-marketplace wrote:
I just called PayPal. Maybe the PayPal agent was wrong but he was positive that I would never by able to link a US bank account to my Canadian PayPal account... Is this true? Do you know a way around it?
Not true! Unless something has dramatically changed (without any type of notice).
@vip-marketplace wrote:
The more I talk to them the more I think you're right.
Why would I be OBLIGATED to convert my US$ to CAD$?
Is there a Canadian law that prevents Canadians from transfering US$?
If I have a Canadian bank account in US$, why wouldn't they let me transfer my US$ into it? The only reason I see is that they want to take their share (conversion fees).
The systems PayPal use to transfer money from PayPal to a users bank account are not capable of transferring US funds to Canadian banks. It's not a "Canadian Law" but rather Canadian/US banking regulation and policy. The policies predate the existence of PayPal.
@reallynicestamps wrote:Not directly.
What PP does is change the U$ to Cdn$, send the money to Canada where it is changed back into U$ and deposited in the U$dollar account.
Two sets of exchange fees.
What RBCBank does is send U$ to the Royal Bank, part of their company - bank to bank- then deposit the U$ in your Royal Bank U$ dollar account. One set of exchange fees.
If it were not possible to send U$ anywhere, the international banking system would be unable to use U$ at all, except in pallets of cash.
I never said it was not possible to send USD "anywhere", that is obviously not true. What I said was that the ACH (Automated Clearing House) system PayPal uses doesn't allow it.
The primary reason I was using a US bank when I was still listing on .com (up until 2009) was to obtain far cheaper conversion rates using third-party exchange services. Instead of 2.5% (por more?) to PayPal it's possible to reduce that to about .75%, that and the ability to time the market meant an average savings of up to 3% on currency exchange (more during volatile periods).
I sell in Media, it was the .com shipping caps that motivated me to move all my eBay activity to .ca, I continued to list in US Dollars until that option went away and since then I only maintain the US account to pay for personal purchases and fees for third-party tools that are billed in US Dollars.
