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

Subject: Re: [OM] ( OM ) off - topic - *ay*al
From: "Roger D. Key" <rdk@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2002 13:05:15 +0200
I have found Billpoint (eBay Payments) to be the most convenient for me
when buying items on UK eBay, priced in pounds, with payment coming from my
Danish Eurocard (Mastercard) in Danish kroner. The currency conversion is
that done by Eurocard in Denmark, which is normally a pretty good rate.

I much prefer it to PayPal.

Roger Key, Copenhagen



Brian Swale wrote:

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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