Rationale for limitation on switching billing currency?

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

I'm just wondering why eBay doesn't let sellers switch their billing currency as often as they wish. Currently, the limit is that you could only switch your billing currency once every 12 months (I thought it used to be every 6 months last year... or did I remember it wrong?). Does anyone have speculation for a rationale behind this limitation? The CAD is significantly lower than USD now so I want to switch, but couldn't because I switched last August. =\ 

[pierrelebel]

It has always been one year limitation.

The current value of the currency (lower Canadian dollar) has NOTHING to do with billing currency which is only for convenience.

[pierrelebel]

By the way, looking into your listings - all priced in Canadian dollars - a note:

"Canadian Buyers EE You are more than welcomed to message me for a Paypal invoice in CAD instead if you wish."

????

I guess your listings may have been priced in US$ at one time before you changed your pricing to Cdn$.  You should revise your listings accordingly and delete that sentence.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

The current value of the currency (lower Canadian dollar) has NOTHING to do with billing currency which is only for convenience.

That still doesn't answer the question why eBay would not let sellers switch billing currency at their convenience. What is the reason for eBay locking down the ability to switch between billing currencies? 

My billing currency is currently set as USD as you may have guessed because I had that "Canadian buyers can request for CAD invoice" message. And as you can see, my listings are currently all set in CAD, not USD, so with billing currency set as USD, I have to pay extra foreign exchange fees to pay my eBay fees. The inability of switching my billing currency will cost me 2.5% (+ currency fluctuation) than I should be paying. I wonder if the switch lock down is here so that Paypal can charge us that extra fee. =___=

[pierrelebel]

" I wonder if the switch lock down is here so that Paypal can charge us that extra fee."

No.

Maybe it would be easier if eBay did NOT allow Canadian sellers to pay their fees in US$ but insisted all sellers pay them in Cdn$, the currency of the country.

There is a reason why eBay allowed Canadian sellers to pay their fees in US$ if they wanted to: some Canadian sellers asked for it.  It allowed them to use the US$ received from buyers for sales in US$ without having to convert those US$, avoiding the conversion fee (or spread) charged by financial institutions.

I do not think you will find another country in the world where sellers are allowed to use a currency other than the currency of the home country. We should be thankful for that flexibility, despite its annual limitation..

[nuvistors]

I find ebays policy good on this.  There is no reason a seller should be able to change currency on a whim.

[pierrelebel]

I agree.

I think there is a misunderstanding on the value of the policy.

Changing billing currency does NOT change the actual fees paid by sellers, regardless whether the currency goes up or down.

The billing currency is determined at time of listing. For GTC listings, the billing currency will NOT change regardless of a seller switching billing currency. It does not matter if the listing is in US$, Cdn$, £ or € .  eBay will automatically convert the fees from whatever currency into the billing currency using that day's wholesale currency conversion without adding a fee or a spread.

For a Canadian seller, the main advantage of switchich from Cdn$ to US$ billing currency is to utilize US$ to pay eBay fees without conversion.

If a seller sells $1,000 a month, with fees of about $100, the seller could save about $2.50 a month in conversion fee.

[i*m-still-here]

Some time ago I saw there was something wonky going on with my selling id.  

At that time I was a TRS with a discount, and the discount had suddenly disappeared from my dashboard for no apparent reason.

I called ebay ................ after 1-2 hours nothing was solved so I forgot about it until the next bill came.

I received two bills:  One in Canadian and one in US $s.

One had the TRS discount and the other did not.

I started calling ebay........... it took 4-5 phone calls @ 1-2 hours each to "sort" of fix the problem.

No Kidding.......... every phone call seemed to solve the problem but ended making it worse.

Somehow in the middle of a month my billing currency was altered (not by me).

It must have been a computer glitch, but an absolutely major headache.

I spent hours and hours on the phone.

Every time I had to explain from step one and even then they couldn't comprehend the problem.

Trying to deal with an issue which is a little more complex is simply beyond what they are capable of dealing with..........

I don't think it was ever fixed correctly.