Have you noticed that if, like me, you order from GearBest in £ and pay by PayPal in £, you get a better deal than ordering in $. Most other sites revert back to $ at the payment stage, with their £ estimate being way off PayPals exchange rate. I’m beginning to like GB.
Their support has been good too, but when they asked me to upload a video of a fault it was quite difficult, because “Each file must be below 2MB. The following file formats are supported: gif, jpg, png, bmp, doc, xls, txt, rar, ppt, pdf”. They also said it had to be clear an in focus. Was tempted to use an animated gif.
You can change that in your PP preferences (“paypal bill me in the currency listed on the seller’s invoice”) and let your card company/bank/issuer do the conversion. However, of course PP has this setting hidden in the darkest place and purposely put their FX rates as the standard option!
Apologies resurrecting an old thread, but I think this is still relevant.
If your credit card has better conversion rates than PayPal, you can set PayPal to charge your card in the sellers currency.
• In your PayPal summery select the Tools menu
• Select recurring payments
• Select My pre-approved payments
• Select Set available funding sources
• On the list of funding sources select Conversion options, next to each item
• Select Bill me in the currency listed on the sellers invoice
Remember to now pay in USD and tell PayPal to charge the card in the stores currency.
If your credit card has a bad conversion rate, try Revolut. It’s a top-up debit card that gives good currency conversions. I don’t believe I get any benefit from this, but my referral link is https://revolut.com/r/andrew8kj or alternatively download the app from Google play store or Apple app store. Get the free virtual card first then pay for a physical card if you need it. Avoid buying stuff at the weekend. Currency conversion rates are bad, because they use the Monday rate and have no idea what that will be, so hedge their bets.
Example of a recent item I purchased from BangGood for $18.99 and the cost to me in £(GBP):
• BangGood £14.66 (paid in £.)
• PayPal £14.94 (paid in $.)
• Revolut £14.31 (paid in $.)
Thanks for the details, it is always good to share these essential bits with a wider group of consumers. Otherwise they are all out to get us!
There is only a small downside to this option: it doesn’t work in every Paypal market. I have multiple accounts due to travel and in some countries this feature is not visible. (but it would be possible to contact PP customer service and ask whether they can change it).
If you can change it and also have a credit card (or other funding source) that won’t have ridiculous fees for Fx, then you are golden.
My colleague recommended the Revolut card. It gives better rates than his bank when he travels.
I’ve probably too many cards now, so I got a Curve card, which is a neat idea. £5 free with promo code JQOFV (I also get £5). Just download the app to sign up. Gives 1% cash back on up to 3 shops. These app linked cards are great. You get notified of transactions instantly and can lock the card if needed. In the UK the Revolut card can also be used as a bank account for money transfers, etc.
That is good to know.
There are also cards or accounts with no additional fees except the standard scheme rate (MC/Visa/Amex). Those would be financially the best if a consumer would frequently use foreign currency transactions and she/he can live with the other conditions of the payment provider.