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Basic Paypal advice

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in Home, Law & Money
Hello :)

I'm struggling to understand a few things about paypal (and am still none the wiser after reading their T&Cs) and wonder if you can help me.

I am selling an item to someone in America, through my blog rather than Folksy or Etsy or eBay. My questions are:

If I give them my paypal email, are they then able to send me the money?
If they pay in US dollars, will it arrive in my account in dollars or sterling?
Will there be a charge to receive funds in a currency that is not sterling?
Will there be a charge to convert the dollars to sterling? Do I pay this?

Oh and can the buyer send me money in UK£ even though she is in America?

Sorry to be so naive, any help would be very much appreciated. Thank you xxx

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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    hmm I think I can request payment in UK£ and then she can pay that, and the currency will end up in my account in UK£ because that's what I'm set up to receive.

    ah well, trial and error and all that :thumb:
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Knee High Stripy Socks wrote: »
    hmm I think I can request payment in UK£ and then she can pay that, and the currency will end up in my account in UK£ because that's what I'm set up to receive.

    ah well, trial and error and all that :thumb:

    AFAIK they pay the conversion charge (i know when I paid with paypal I paid the conversion charge) I assume they only charge it once.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Knee High Stripy Socks wrote: »
    Hello :)

    I'm struggling to understand a few things about paypal (and am still none the wiser after reading their T&Cs) and wonder if you can help me.

    I am selling an item to someone in America, through my blog rather than Folksy or Etsy or eBay. My questions are:

    If I give them my paypal email, are they then able to send me the money?
    If they pay in US dollars, will it arrive in my account in dollars or sterling?
    Will there be a charge to receive funds in a currency that is not sterling?
    Will there be a charge to convert the dollars to sterling? Do I pay this?

    Oh and can the buyer send me money in UK£ even though she is in America?

    Sorry to be so naive, any help would be very much appreciated. Thank you xxx

    If I remember correctly and from person experience...

    Yep you just let them know the paypal email and they can make a charge.

    However best thing is that you can, if I'm right, send a request to them for money, you ask for it in the currency you want. When the person is paying they'll see the amount in pounds along with the conversion rate that paypal are using.

    This conversion is how they'd be any profit for paypal, so there wouldn't be any charges other than what's hidden in that. The money would show up as the correct funds in your account.

    Anyway, think that's right, been a while since I was selling stuff :)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Thanks both of you :D

    I think sending the request for payment is the way to go.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    1. If I give them my paypal email, are they then able to send me the money?

    yes, but it should be your the address which you are using for paypal

    2. If they pay in US dollars, will it arrive in my account in dollars or sterling?
    In sterling but you can mange your account in more than on currencies, sterling (default) and dollar in which you have received the payment (it will then show you payment in 2 currencies). Which means if you wanted to buy something on the net, and you have to pay in dollars,

    3. Will there be a charge to receive funds in a currency that is not sterling?
    Yes

    4. Will there be a charge to convert the dollars to sterling? Do I pay this?
    Yes and Yes

    5. Oh and can the buyer send me money in UK£ even though she is in America?
    No unless your client account is in sterling or she is managing her account in 2 currencies, in that case you don't have to pay any fee for conversion (because client has already paid that) and because amount is already in sterling.

    Remember: You will always get payment in your bank account in sterling.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    ^^^ thanks for that. I'm most concerned about the payment being in sterling because while you can have balances for different currencies, there isn't anywhere that I could spend US$ at the moment and so that's not worth anything to me!
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    You can spend a dollar balance in the UK - Paypal automatically converts it at the time. And conversely you can spend a sterling balance to buy something in dollars. I believe there is a conversion fee, but unless you're dealing with big balances, it's not much.

    You can also have multiple balances in your Paypal account (one for each currency) at the same time. I quite often have a little sterling one and a little dollar one, and yesterday I used a little bit of each to buy a Rav pattern priced in dollars - Paypal took what I had in dollars, and converted the remainder out of my sterling balance.

    Hope that makes sense! Confused myself a wee bit there :D
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Knee High Stripy Socks wrote: »
    ^^^ thanks for that. I'm most concerned about the payment being in sterling because while you can have balances for different currencies, there isn't anywhere that I could spend US$ at the moment and so that's not worth anything to me!
    Well you can actually. I know it from experience.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kaff wrote: »
    You can spend a dollar balance in the UK - Paypal automatically converts it at the time. And conversely you can spend a sterling balance to buy something in dollars. I believe there is a conversion fee, but unless you're dealing with big balances, it's not much.

    You can also have multiple balances in your Paypal account (one for each currency) at the same time. I quite often have a little sterling one and a little dollar one, and yesterday I used a little bit of each to buy a Rav pattern priced in dollars - Paypal took what I had in dollars, and converted the remainder out of my sterling balance.

    Hope that makes sense! Confused myself a wee bit there :D
    sooo say I had a balance in dollars, and wanted to buy some more Kool Kotton from Texere, which is an English site using £, I could pay in my dollars and that would work? Excellent :)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Knee High Stripy Socks wrote: »
    sooo say I had a balance in dollars, and wanted to buy some more Kool Kotton from Texere, which is an English site using £, I could pay in my dollars and that would work? Excellent :)

    Yep!

    Paypal would exchange the necessary amount of your dollars at the current rate (and I *think* charge you a 2.5% conversion fee on top) and Texere would get their payment in sterling :)

    What I don't know is how it works if you have a dollar balance and you want to withdraw it to your bank account - I tend to just leave it in there and spend as and when!
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