How to avoid PayPal's conversion fee?

[Goxar]

Recently, I started providing services here on CK and therefore getting paid for it. The problem is that I don't live in the US, which means that every time I receive money via PayPal I have to pay a VERY HIGH fee in order to convert the USD to my country's currency. PayPal doesn't offer the option to keep the USD the way it is. The conversion is automatic and mandatory. I just wish I could receive the USD without them being straight away converted. Even if I wanted to convert my money, I would do it somewhere else, definitely not paying PayPal's fees

I tried creating a fake american PayPal account, but PayPal requires official US documents as verifying information, such as driver's license or SSN, which clearly I don't have.

Any other non-americans going through this? Any suggestions on how to avoid PayPal's ridiculously high fees? What are your thoughts? I'm kinda new to all this, if anybody has useful information regarding the topic I would be immensely grateful.

[Melle]

Have you try requesting the sender to select USD as the currency you will receive? I have some of my sellers requested that, I'd assume it helps with the conversion fee

[motherfucker]

Recently, I started providing services here on CK and therefore getting paid for it. The problem is that I don't live in the US, which means that every time I receive money via PayPal I have to pay a VERY HIGH fee in order to convert the USD to my country's currency. PayPal doesn't offer the option to keep the USD the way it is. The conversion is automatic and mandatory. I just wish I could receive the USD without them being straight away converted. Even if I wanted to convert my money, I would do it somewhere else, definitely not paying PayPal's fees

I tried creating a fake american PayPal account, but PayPal requires official US documents as verifying information, such as driver's license or SSN, which clearly I don't have.

Any other non-americans going through this? Any suggestions on how to avoid PayPal's ridiculously high fees? What are your thoughts? I'm kinda new to all this, if anybody has useful information regarding the topic I would be immensely grateful.

I believe that if your buyers select the currency you wish to receive, all conversion costs would fall onto them. For example, I am in CAD. If they send me CAD, they pay to convert it.

You can also increase your prices by the conversion rate (you'll never fully collect the deficit because you'll always have to pay the conversion on all funds, but you can recuperate some of it that way).

Logic-wise, one party taking the brunt of the conversion should be in the beneficial side of things. Either by paying "less" in USD, or receiving "more" in your own currency. (Not sure if I've worded that correctly).

For example, for myself, receiving USD is a benefit, regardless of bearing the conversion costs.
1 USD is about 1.31 CAD, meaning I'd make about 30% more in Canadian Currency. Even paying out a 5% conversion fee benefits me more.

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I believe setting up an account in Puerto Rico would allow to to use USD as their currency is USD (I don't know anything about proof of identity with PR). The issue with this is you will always be paying the conversion fee. I would be hesitant to set up fake paypal accounts to hide identity and location because I wouldn't want to be screwed by Paypal or my bank if something were to happen. (And in turn, I wouldn't want it to screw over my buyers).

[Goxar]

Have you try requesting the sender to select USD as the currency you will receive? I have some of my sellers requested that, I'd assume it helps with the conversion fee

Yes, I've tried that, but sadly it doesn't help. I always request my payments to be made in USD, but as soons as the money gets in my acc it is automatically converted

@(you need an account to see links), thanks for the insightful reply! The buyer will indeed pay to convert HIS currency into USD, but I will be the one paying to convert the USD I got to BRL (my currency). Let's say you're the one buying from me. You'll pay in CAD and the taxes to convert CAD to USD are on you. As soon as I get the USD, PayPal automatically converts the USD to BRL, charging me conversion fees

And yes, I could raise my prices, but it's just so sad to know I can't have the full money for bureaucratic reasons *sighs* I don't even want better conversion rates, I just want the money to NOT be converted at all.

[motherfucker]

Yes, I've tried that, but sadly it doesn't help. I always request my payments to be made in USD, but as soons as the money gets in my acc it is automatically converted

@(you need an account to see links), thanks for the insightful reply! The buyer will indeed pay to convert HIS currency into USD, but I will the one paying to convert the USD I got to my BRL (my currency). Let's say you're the one buying from me. You'll pay in CAD and the taxes to convert CAD to USD are on you. As soon as I get the USD, PayPal automatically converts the USD to BRL, charging conversion fees again

Ohhh ok - that makes sense. Then they need to be sending you BRL, if I'm correct.

There are plenty of BRL sellers in the Trades section, selling NC cards. They may be able to help you out better than myself!

[Goxar]

Ohhh ok - that makes sense. Then they need to be sending you BRL, if I'm correct.

There are plenty of BRL sellers in the Trades section, selling NC cards. They may be able to help you out better than myself!

Sad part is almost all of my customers are americans haha I'll try to reach BRL sellers. Ty for the reminder!

[Koto]

I recently noticed that PayPal has a new feature when you pay for stuff. Im in Canada and purchased something in the US and at the time of currency conversion I was able to opt out of having PayPal do the conversion and instead that fell to my bank, which doesn't charge me anything. This information probably isn't super useful to you as a seller, but there might be a way to set up PayPal or send invoices in your currency which will move the conversion fee onto the seller rather than you?

[j03]

Open up an account that is strictly for US dollars, like a chequing account, or find one where you can in your country. Then link that account to your PayPal so you can directly transfer money to that account and convert the USD elsewhere.

[Drizzy]

I'm not sure if this has been answered already, but alternatively you can accept USD in your PayPal from whichever country you're based in.
Once you have the USD, you can strategically convert to your native currency when the conversion rate suits you.

[Goxar]

I recently noticed that PayPal has a new feature when you pay for stuff. Im in Canada and purchased something in the US and at the time of currency conversion I was able to opt out of having PayPal do the conversion and instead that fell to my bank, which doesn't charge me anything. This information probably isn't super useful to you as a seller, but there might be a way to set up PayPal or send invoices in your currency which will move the conversion fee onto the seller rather than you?

That's interesting. It might be the case of me starting to charge in BRL, Brazil's currency.

I'm not sure if this has been answered already, but alternatively you can accept USD in your PayPal from whichever country you're based in.
Once you have the USD, you can strategically convert to your native currency when the conversion rate suits you.

I didn't know I could wait until the conversion rates got better. Thanks for that!