Buying in US dollars

[andy01424]

just had a nose on paypal there rate at the is

PayPal
GBP (1 GBP = 1.46255 USD)

ouch !

xe.com

1.00 GBP = 1.50798 USD

[ilegal]

They milk it big time do Paypal. So does this mean if you pay with paypal when buying stuff you'd be better just paying with your debit card if it's an option do you think?

I tend to just use paypal but if it's going to save me cash I'd think twice!

[djs]

You should try the bureau de change on P&O ferries. 1 euro is 85p (or thereabouts) and they were buying them back in a machine that takes coins for under 52p. Daylight robbery.

[bernardscott]

When I placed a few orders earlier I was charger at 1.44 :/

[DiscoDes]

Another Paypal "shill" to make more money.

I have Santander Zero Card that I can use and don't get charged for foreign transactions, but TBH for purchases under £50 or so it's hardly worth it.

[ilegal]

Cheers guys, I'll pay more attention I think next time though. Like DiscoDes says, especially on the pricier stuff

[GunJack]

if you know the rate your card issuer uses, you can opt during the paypal process to use that rate rather than paypal's, but it's only usually worth the faff if it's a big value order

[ilegal]

Thanks GunJack that's what I've seen when I've been buying stuff but I tend to use paypal because, well, that's what I always use. Had never thought about using the debit card thing until andy01424 kicked this thread off. I just imagined it would be more faff

[4madcats]

When you pay in any other currency via paypal you have the option for paypal to do the conversion or have your own bank/card provider do it. After you've entered details of the amount & the receiver & move to the next confirmation page there's a "change" link directly under where paypal tell you what their conversion rate is, click that & it takes you to a separate page to decide.

Only thing you need to be aware of is that although your bank may have a better conversion rate & most use this www.visaeurope.com/en/cardholders/exchange_rates.aspx

most will charge their own conversion fee, i.e Nationwide Flex account charges 2% of the total to convert, so for small amounts it's not that much cheaper

[GunJack]

even better if you've got an amex card linked on your pp acct,. any $ transaction with amex via pp is about the best rate you'll get

[sammy13]

I bought from Fasttech yesterday, and was charged over £2 more by paypal than their site in GPB said.

[dinamic22]

I have never checked, I will in future though