I just bought something from a German online shop, quoted price €544/£495 at the current exchange rate.
I unthinkingly went to pay for it with Paypal, and they were going to take £520! So they would be skimming £25 off the top from me.
Paid for it with my debit card and the payment price was spot on at £495.
The moral is beware Paypal and their terrible exchange rate!
Amazon do it as well if you order from any of their international sites with a UK card.
I have a Halifax Clarity card linked to my PayPal for foreign currency so I just have to make double sure I have selected that in PayPal AND selected the option to charge the card in the foreign currency. PayPal do like to take a hefty cut whenever they can
With PayPal, you can opt to not use their currency conversion. They don't go out of their way to make it easy to do so, though.
When paying by PayPal there is an option to change from PayPal's exchange rate to your bank/card's exchange rate.
Edit - Too slow.
With PayPal, you can opt to not use their currency conversion. They don’t go out of their way to make it easy to do so, though.
Didn't know that, cheers.
It's the same as the "pay in home currency" scam that you get on overseas chip+pin machines. It's always a bad deal, even compared to the typically awful rates you get on a credit card.
yep, always ask/click to pay in the local currency so your bank does the conversion. I think the worst ones can be shops that offer to use your 'home' currency...I'm not sure there is any restriction on the rate they use!
Yep, just bought for forks from Germany. Paid by PayPal but was aware of their poor exchange rate so selected to pay in € to my credit card. Saved £35.