Today's exchange rate on USD 90.23.......
Just finshed a paypal transaction....
Quote:PayPal"s Exchange Rate as of May 3, 2006:1 Canadian Dollar = 0.881634 U.S. Dollars
WTF? I never noticed this desrepency on my transactions before. <_<
Ya paypal has done that to me also!
Everyone does that. Go to a store and check what the exchange rate is. Its not gonna be what the currency market says it should be. Even banks do this.
I know Visa does this, as I noticed it with them before. Its just the first time I noticed with Paypal. Not really suprising though.
yup when you buy online from the US and pay via paypal ALWAYS choose the option to have your credit card do the conversion. Paypal sets it's own rate which is usually 3 cents more than the bank rate. Your CC will almost always give you a much better rate.
nass,May 3 2006, 10:13 PM Wrote:yup when you buy online from the US and pay via paypal ALWAYS choose the option to have your credit card do the conversion. Paypal sets it's own rate which is usually 3 cents more than the bank rate. Your CC will almost always give you a much better rate.
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Not always and many CC's have started charging a "conversion fee" on top of the exchange rate when going from USD to CDN (IIRC Amex's is 2.2% of the total transaction for example)
NefCanuck
NefCanuck,May 4 2006, 03:22 AM Wrote:nass,May 3 2006, 10:13 PM Wrote:yup when you buy online from the US and pay via paypal ALWAYS choose the option to have your credit card do the conversion. Paypal sets it's own rate which is usually 3 cents more than the bank rate. Your CC will almost always give you a much better rate.
[right][snapback]185190[/snapback][/right]
Not always and many CC's have started charging a "conversion fee" on top of the exchange rate when going from USD to CDN (IIRC Amex's is 2.2% of the total transaction for example)
NefCanuck
[right][snapback]185195[/snapback][/right]
OK then how about a " buyer beware " when buying from the US? :)
There is ALWAYS a difference between buy/sell rates, that is one way how financial institutions (like PayPal) make money. Your bank is the exact same.
I have been screwed a few times with Paypal with the exchange.
Say I make a payment in US $ but it takes it from my CDN bank account. If the person refunds me the money, it goes back in my paypal account but gets exchanged to CDN. So right away because of the difference in buy/sell exchange you lose money, it's very dumb. I like paypal for most things but sometimes I want to kill them.