Using ebay/paypal abroad

[excalibur2]

hidehi all

Is there any problem buying from the USA using paypal, the item is about $15 from a reputable seller............my question is really about drawing the money from my account in the UK and hidden UK bank charges converting it to $$$s. It would be silly to buy something in the US and the bank charges are more than the item being bought.

Thanks

[chrisq99]

Hi m8,

It should be fine since paypal have their own US dollar to sterling rate, they will show you rate of conversion at the time of the transaction. Your transaction will appear as sterling on your bank statement.

[TooNice]

Shipping charge may be a bigger concern. Paypal may not have the best conversion rate, but it's not the biggest concern when buying from overseas IMO.

[2Cold Scorpio]

I had no problem buying from a U.K. seller on eBay several years back...I figure it would work just as well the other way around. ^_^

[lolo3000]

That shouldn't pose a problem

[Whiternoise]

If it's a reputable seller then as everyone says, you shouldn't have a problem.

PayPal only charges fees if you're recieving money. The way outbound payments work is you go through the checkout, it will convert the price into your native currency - note the exchange rate though - and you simply pay that much. This is one of the reasons why it works so well for overseas transactions, as they do all the conversion and so forth for you automatically.

PayPal works, as far as i can tell, on a fairly complicated system of loans.

1. You checkout, specifying how much you want to send

2. PayPal calculates the cost to you and asks you to submit

3. You click confirm. PayPal then debits your PayPal account with the sterling amount and credits your sellers account with the relevant USD.

4. Now, unless you have the amount already in your PayPal account, they will then ask your bank (automatically of course) account for the required amount in Sterling. This usually (for me anyway) takes a week or two to appear on the statement - even though the transaction as far as you and the seller is concerned - is immediate.

5. PayPal work out how much they need to slice from the payment in terms of fees, i forget how much exactly for $15, and then credit the remaining amount to the seller.

6. Your seller now has "$15 - Paypal fees" in his PayPal account. He can either withdraw it into the bank account that he linked to PayPal or he can leave it there to buy other things with.

PayPal make their money at the other end of the transaction, you will never have to pay more than the checkout value in hidden or open fees. Other way round, they'll take money off you. All you're doing is basically paying PayPal, who in turn handle the "foreign affairs", your bank simply sees this as a payment to another bank account online, as if you were buying from Amazon - they don't do any of the converting or fee taking.

[mooo]

I brought many item from the US and paid via Paypal and it hasnt been a problem. However you might not get the best conversion rate.

[Saracen]

Thread moved.

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