Paypal Incorrect Currency Exchange Rate Internet, Internet
To sign up for a one month subscription to the game World of Warcraft, I used my Paypal account. I was charged $14.99 USD by the game company but Paypal charged me $15.05 CAD on my credit card with a posted exchange rate of 1 CAD = 0.996614 U.S. The Canadian dollar has been stronger for months, so I opened a case with Paypal.
First Answer from Paypal:
"As you know currency conversion happens all day every day. The site that I keep my eye on is XE.com, that seems to be the most up to date currency site." -Craig
My response:
The exchange rate used in the paypal transaction is not what is logged on the XE site for May 28th. The actual rate should be 1 CAD = 1.0241704034 U.S. Dollars.
Second Answer from Paypal:
"Based on the transaction history, when you initially made the payment it was for $15.05 CAD, which translated to $15.39 USD at the time. Once that was done, the payment was submitted to Blizzard Entertainment totaling $14.99; it converted the money down to $14.99 ultimately, so that is the amount that you ultimately paid." -Curtis
What??? I called their support line only to be placed on hold forever. I finally hung up. I looked up posts on their own paypal website and saw numerous people complaining about how Paypal does not accurately exchange foreign currency.
I believe this needs to be investigated as clearly there is no way I should be paying more in CAD than the USD price due to the exchange rate. If Paypal is charging some fee in the background to the buyer, they should show this explicitely. If not, they should charge the credit card the same amount charged by the seller and let the credit card company calculate the exchange rate.
thx
6 Updates & Rebuttals
Ken
Greeley,Colorado,
USA
Employee of PayPal??
#7Consumer Comment
Tue, June 28, 2011
To Don Mason,
Guess I'll have to file a ripoff report against PayPal...haven't received a dime!! :(
I don't like a lot of the things they do either, but this OP had the fee explained in what appears to be an honest and reasonable manner and still wastes all his time and energy on this.
Gotta go now and check my mail for that check from PayPal. ;)
Don Mason
Philadelphia,Pennsylvania,
United States of America
Paypal is scum
#7Consumer Comment
Tue, June 28, 2011
Paypal is total scum and they do all kinds of unethical and immoral things as routine business practice. They also clearly employee people to come on ripoff report and defend them. Just check out how horrible their reviews on the BBB Trust Link are (trustlink.org) - 183 one out of five star ratings... in other words the worst rating they can get.
Ken
Greeley,Colorado,
USA
WHO is the IDIOT here?
#7Consumer Comment
Sat, June 25, 2011
I'm sorry to disagree with you, but I'M not the one who has spent hours on pursuing 6 cents when you appear to be not listening to PayPal's explanation of the charge....GET A LIFE!!!
Send me a SASE and I'LL send you the @#$*% 6 cents.
Oh No You Didn''t
United States of AmericaMy 2 cents about 6 cents
#7Author of original report
Sat, June 25, 2011
It must take you a long time to make orange juice cause it says "concentrate" on the can.
No idiot, it's about the business practice.
Ken
Greeley,Colorado,
USA
SIX CENTS !!! ???
#7Consumer Suggestion
Fri, June 24, 2011
This serious rant is over SIX CENTS?...Are you nuts? I would think the time you've spent on this is worth more than SIX CENTS.
What do you do if you really ARE ripped off?
Mary
USAPayPal Currency
#7Consumer Comment
Fri, June 24, 2011
From the PayPal legal agreement:
2.5% added to the exchange rate
The Currency Conversion Fee applies whenever a currency conversion is required to complete your payment. The exchange rate is determined by a financial institution and is adjusted regularly based on market conditions. Adjustments may be applied immediately and without notice to you.
From the PayPal help center:
Heres how we set our exchange rate:
We receive a wholesale rate quote from our bank twice a day and add 2.5% to determine the retail foreign exchange rate to apply to transactions that involve a currency conversion.
Our currency exchange rates are competitive with conversion rates used by banks and by currency exchanges.
When you withdraw money from your PayPal account to your local bank account, we automatically convert the money into the local currency at the time of the withdrawal request.