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[OM] ( OM ) off - topic - *ay*al

Subject: [OM] ( OM ) off - topic - *ay*al
From: "Brian Swale" <bj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2002 22:37:16 +1200
Hi folks

I've entered uncharted territory (for me) this week.  Selling things and being 
paid via PayPal. Quite a learning curve.  ( I mentioned once or twice before 
that I am also a fern nut, and in my spare time (with a friend) I have produced 
a complete list of all the ferns of the world, about 12,800 of them, along with 
their synonyms (alternative scientific names), geographic distribution, 
references and so forth. I sell this on CDROM now.). 

I think for USA citizens it is a lot more straight forward, but for me living 
outside the USA there are a few hurdles to jump. For a start, all currencies 
get converted to USA dollars. I wanted to be paid in New Zealand dollars. No 
go. This means I have to pay the cost of currency conversion (in addition to a 
fee for this which amounts to about  50n 60 - 70 dollars NZ.). That seems 
straight forward enough? They say they use the up-to-date exchange rates.

I'd like to know WHOSE up-to-date exchange rates. Not those of ebay. Not 
those of the online currency converter I use <http://www.xe.com/ucc/>. Not 
those in my daily newspaper. They pitch the rate about 5% to my 
disadvantage; for example if the average rate is about 1:2.13588, they used 
1:2.0249.

I ended up losing 14.5 0n the whole transaction which included queueing 
my funds to be transferred from the PayPal bucket to my bank in New 
Zealand.  It seems I can't even get a PayPal Mastercard and take the funds 
out locally using an ATM.  5% would have been OK in my view, but 14.5 0s 
far too much, in my opinion.

PayPal is convenient, but the cost takes some dealing with. I am trying to 
understand all the fees that apply to me; but I still haven't got an answer 
from 
them about why they use the exchange rate table they do. That is a hidden 
significant cost.

I will be investigating other ways of paying.  Now I understand why most 
sellers on German eBay do not use PayPal.

Brian

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