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ATM XE rate is 1US = 1.01645AU
but guess what's the rate in Paypal?
PayPal exchange rate:1 USD = 0.960083 AUD
Are there any alternative to get the high rate? What do you guys use?
PayPal "Currency Exchange Rate" Rip-off
POWERevolution on 06/11/2010 - 18:58
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Well after Paypal conversion fee isn't that it should be around $0.99AU?
At the lowest rate it should be $0.985 but only 0.960 surely they double dip us there!
Anyone here ever use Comm Bank master CR card for foreign currency? Do they give better rate than Paypal?
Get a wizard clear master card, and use that for your pay pal transactions. The exchange rate is better, no fees, and it doesn't come out of your bank account (straight away).
Read the part which I bolded, even if you went to Commonwealth bank to buy foreign cash for example, $1AU would only get you $.98US
Anyone here ever use Comm Bank master CR card for foreign currency? Do they give better rate than Paypal?
Foreign currency cards are a waste.
There are fees for putting money in and fees wherever they can charge you a fee.
Putting foreign transactions on your credit card will work out cheaper than a foreign currency card.
I have always found American express to offer the best currency conversion rate when I am buying online.
The wizard clear master card as suggested may offer a better rate however I do not have one so cannot compare.There are fees for putting money in and fees wherever they can charge you a fee.
Hell yeah! :(
He's talking about using a normal CR for fx purchases, not actually getting a dedicated fx card. At least that's what I hope he's doing.
I don't know about signing up for a Wizard Mastercard just to do fx shopping if you already have another card that you're happy to keep, unless the volume or magnitude of your fx purchases really is that high. Don't forget that c/c applications have other ramifications on your credit history, especially if you are looking at a loan/remortgaging/refinancing.
IMO signing up for a c/c to save $5-10/month in fx fees just isn't worth it.
When did u get these rates? I haven't seen 96 on paypal since sat last week before the rate rise when everyone was thinking that the rates wont go up.
And the paypal rate is sitting at 98.9458 for me atm. inline with most credit cards at approx 2.5% off the market rate.
you might want to double check your rates there power
Yep I think those rates aren't current.
PayPal exchange rate:1 AUD = 0.989458 USD
The rate 0.96 is at the time I created the post & @ 7.08PM SA time.
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/9674/rate01.jpgJust check again (8.29pm) it's now down to…
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/7664/rate02.jpg0.95 AUD
PayPal exchange rate:1 USD = 0.959299 AUDuh… ur changing one AMERICAN dollar into australian dollars here that's an effective rate of 1.04AUD per USD
that explains why you're getting such a "low" rateand the current USD/AUD rate is 98.41
remember the aud is currently above parity
in your OP you stated an exchange rate that would've put the AUD at below parity(man why didn't i see that earlier)
We bought an item from the US yesterday. It sucks that the prices that show on eBay as the AUD equivalent don't actually match up with the PayPal exchange rate. It looks cheaper until you checkout and see that they give you such a crap rate.
Yeah it never match up.
Like h4lcyon said, use a Wizard card for all foreign currency payments. That will solve your problems…
From what I have noticed, Paypal updates their rates twice a day mon-fri US time (ie, tues-sat in Australia). My estimates on the times are somewhere between 10-11am and 5-6pm Adelaide time.
TO POWERevolution:
According to your original post, isn't it suppose to be "ATM XE rate is 1AU = 1.01645US…" because AUD is currently stronger than USD?I'm also confused, are you converting from AUD—>USD or USD—>AUD?
I agree!
Stop trying to start a revolution! :PSorry my bad…didn't know I got that wrong :)
BTW how do you view rate from AU->US in paypal as I can only do US->AU?Go into paypal>currency converter and then select AUD as your primary I'm guessing.
anz credit card and ING orange both incur foreign currency transaction cost when I used these online. ANZ is around 2.5% too. It's a bit like shipping costs, be careful and shop around for a good deal.
Are there any alternative to get the high rate? What do you guys use?
The XE rate should not bother you.
The rate listed on XE is the current market rate for that point in time, credit cards and paypal do not use a market rate for their transactions they set the rate once or twice a day and that is it for transactions which occur that day.
BUT as people have said you are looking at the wrong conversion.
You are converting American to Australian dollars, you want to go the other way.
When you see on the news and they say that the exchange rate is 0.98 they mean that 1 Australian dollar Buys 98 American cents. That is Australian dollars to American dollars (you are doing the opposite)So when you did the conversions the paypal rate was actually better than the market rate XE was showing you.
when confirming payment on paypal, i uncheck paypal conversion and check for the conversion to be done by my wizard. Paypal charges me in US dollars.
from experience they take around 10%, 5% each way.
so for example if USD and AUD was exactly 1 for 1.
they would only give you .95 each way. ofcourse as a buyer or seller u would probably only exchange once, but yes its a big cut. They know how to take a mintyou talking about paypal's cut?
I have never had paypal take 5% let alone 10% off the exchange rate
The most I've seen is 2.5%m which is reasonable and in line with the banks.well if u read the opening post you'd realise that in itself is 5% and im saying its 10% if u exchange both ways.
It's not 5% each way because in the original post the OP got the AUD to USD rate mixed up with the USD to AUD that's why it seems like such a huge discrepancy.
Just don't let paypal do the conversion. Simple! Uncheck it and let your credit card, etc. do it and you should get a slightly better rate, especially if you have a Wizard mastercard.
While on the topic, always watch out for DCC, dynamic currency conversion, when overseas. They'll try to charge you in AUD for foreign items but the rates are shocking.
A lot of hotels in Asia offer this complimentary service (rip-off) ;)
My bad I got that stuff-up :)
hi guys , just wanting to know how you guys are getting that exchange rate with paypal thats pretty high compared to what im working out, i log into paypal and look up currency converter wich takes me to the conversion table and i put in an amount and it comes up with 0.889638 AUD.
thankssomething wrong there. I just bought some stuff yesterday and got 1.07 (Yep its a rip off compared to my 28 degrees card, but it was only a small amount and I have some paypal credit thats just been sitting there)
Are you buying something in AUD but you have PayPal funds in USD? That has happened to me. I have no AUD in my PayPal account and had some USD. Tried to pay for an eBay item yesterday in AUD, so it used my USD fund to pay for it. Exchange rate came out 1 USD = ~0.89AUD. Ouch.
I got those USD when it was around 1AUD=1USD. Kept there hoping that AUD will come down. Looks like I have now lost more than 10% of the value…
I don't think anyone actually get the exchange rate from XE at any store they purchase from, but paypal does have a 2.5% conversion fee.
This exchange rate includes a 2.5% processing fee above the wholesale exchange rate at which PayPal obtains foreign currency, and the processing fee is retained by PayPal.
https://cms.paypal.com/au/cgi-bin/marketingweb?cmd=_render-c…