Paypal.ca problem in USD purchase

there use to be an option so u could default to charging the cc in the sellers currency but paypal wants u to use there crappy rates and pay them 2.5% to convert so they default it to using them.

when u get to the page were it tells u how much it will be in CAD there is normally some blue text that will say other currency options or something along those lines click on that and u should be able to set it to charge in usd or whatever the sellers currency is. u have to do this every single time u buy something.

Thank you @CorSter and @aaron158 for your reply.

When setup to link my TD USD visa (borderless plan) to paypal.ca
why is the charge in CAD not USD ?

By Charging $2.45 CAD to USD Visa card and later withdrawing that will be two conversion fees in the credit card. How can I let paypal.ca know credit card is in USD. I call paypal.ca but being pass around again.

when confirming your card cad is the only option

when you are buying something u will get to the menu on the left screenshot when u click the blue text and it brings up the menu on the right u select usd.

since u have a Canadian pp account there is no way to default it to usd. but if u open a us pp account u won't be able to add your TD card as it will require a us billing address. if u have a home address in the us u could try to get that address attached to the TD visa and then u could make a us pp account and add the td card but that is iffy idk if td will even let u do that.

jtan2000 wrote: ↑ Hi, I am in Canada and open the account at paypal.ca

I set the account default currency as USD and link TD CAD visa card and TD USD visa card (borderless plan)

When I purchase something from USD, I use to be able to charge it to TD USD visa card without any conversion.

But now Mar 2022, when I purchased 599 USD item they convert $599 USD x 1.3227 to $792.30 CAD.
Then with $792.30 CAD amount charge to my TD USD visa. That cause the 2nd conversion $792.30 CAD / 1.2279 = $645.25 USD.

For a simple purchase of $599 USD , I end up paying $645.25 USD.

My question is... if I open a USA TD Convenience Checking account can I avoid currency exchange ?
Has anyone tried this method ?

My plan is to
transfer $100 usd from TD USD checking base in Canada --> TD Convenience Checking base in USA --> paypal usd cash

Then when I purchase anything USA item from paypal use the paypal USD cash in the account.

I have a Canadian PayPal account and not sure why you aren't able to pay in USD but I suspect that the reason why is that you have a USD credit card issued by a Canadian institutions (TD Canada Trust) as opposed to a (USD) credit card issued by a US institution (TD Bank NA).

Your issue could/might also be related to a setting on PayPal (which I currently can't find) but it specifies that PayPal should not use their currency conversion and should use the currency conversion of the credit card. I remember having setting my PayPal account (even before getting my USD credit card) specifying that I didn't want to use PayPal's currency conversion for my purchases.

My Canadian PayPal account looks like this:

I'm able to toggle/pick which credit card I want to use even though it shows "default" method to be my US credit card.

You will notice that I have 2 Canadian merchants which I didn't redact show that I was charged CAD and the other merchants where the transactions were based in USD, are charged in USD (and I selected my USD credit card) when I was prompted which credit card I wanted to use.

aaron158 wrote: ↑ when confirming your card cad is the only option

when you are buying something u will get to the menu on the left screenshot when u click the blue text and it brings up the menu on the right u select usd.

since u have a Canadian pp account there is no way to default it to usd. but if u open a us pp account u won't be able to add your TD card as it will require a us billing address. if u have a home address in the us u could try to get that address attached to the TD visa and then u could make a us pp account and add the td card but that is iffy idk if td will even let u do that.

Yep you gotta change the currency options each time. It's been like this for a while and they prey on you not paying attention to make a bit of money.

goob3r wrote: ↑ Yep you gotta change the currency options each time. It's been like this for a while and they prey on you not paying attention to make a bit of money.

Yes.... to gouge horribly. It would be one thing if their rates were competitive with VISA/Mastercard default rates, but their exchange rates are very padded on top of the fee. I personally boycott Paypal at every opportunity. If a company accepts my credit card directly and also offers Paypal, I will always put my credit card manually into the website. They tout security, but if a place is too shady to pay by credit card, should you really be using Paypal either? It annoys me that even dodging the paypal login, they may actually still be making money on transactions if they are the payment processor for a website. Maybe I'm being ridiculous but I want to deprive Paypal of my business because of their corrupt business practices (such as the all but forced CAD/USD conversion that noone wants them to do)

aaron158 wrote: ↑ when confirming your card cad is the only option

when you are buying something u will get to the menu on the left screenshot when u click the blue text and it brings up the menu on the right u select usd.

since u have a Canadian pp account there is no way to default it to usd. but if u open a us pp account u won't be able to add your TD card as it will require a us billing address. if u have a home address in the us u could try to get that address attached to the TD visa and then u could make a us pp account and add the td card but that is iffy idk if td will even let u do that.

That's not the case. I have a Canadian PayPal account (I don't have a US address configured on PayPal either) and I'm able to switch between my USD credit card and my CAD credit card depending on whether I'm purchasing something from a Canadian website or a US website. See my earlier post on this thread for screenshots.

I suspect the original poster's issue is either that his/her account isn't configured to charge the card directly the currency or the system is charging his USD credit card in CAD because his/her USD credit card is issued by a Canadian bank.

lmcjipo wrote: ↑ That's not the case. I have a Canadian PayPal account (I don't have a US address configured on PayPal either) and I'm able to switch between my USD credit card and my CAD credit card depending on whether I'm purchasing something from a Canadian website or a US website. See my earlier post on this thread for screenshots.

I suspect the original poster's issue is either that his/her account isn't configured to charge the card directly the currency or the system is charging his USD credit card in CAD because his/her USD credit card is issued by a Canadian bank.

u didn't read what i said right. the us address part i was talking about was so if he wanted to open a US paypal account then he could add his usd td cc to the us account and would be charged in usd by default to do that a us address would need to be on the billing address of the cc though since a Canadian billing address can't be used to add a cc to a us paypal account.

u can have a usd or cad cc on a Canadian account that is no problem but with a Canadian account there is just no way to set it to only charge the cc in usd by default u have to manually change the option everytime.


the menu u screenshoted has nothing to do with what the op is talking about the menu u showed is the one to select the default payment method weather its cc bank or money within the paypal account.

what the op is talking about is setting the option for what currency u are a charged in so like if u buy off a us site and use even if u use a usd cc they will charge u in cad and they will change a fee for changing usd to cad. u have manually switch each time to make it charge your card in usd. makes no dif if the card is from a Canadian bank or not it has to do with the pp account being Canadian.

aaron158 wrote: ↑ u didn't read what i said right. the us address part i was talking about was so if he wanted to open a US paypal account then he could add his usd td cc to the us account and would be charged in usd by default to do that a us address would need to be on the billing address of the cc though since a Canadian billing address can't be used to add a cc to a us paypal account.

u can have a usd or cad cc on a Canadian account that is no problem but with a Canadian account there is just no way to set it to only charge the cc in usd by default u have to manually change the option everytime.


the menu u screenshoted has nothing to do with what the op is talking about the menu u showed is the one to select the default payment method weather its cc bank or money within the paypal account.

what the op is talking about is setting the option for what currency u are a charged in so like if u buy off a us site and use even if u use a usd cc they will charge u in cad and they will change a fee for changing usd to cad. u have manually switch each time to make it charge your card in usd. makes no dif if the card is from a Canadian bank or not it has to do with the pp account being Canadian.

If you look at my second screenshot (since I am showing 2 screenshots in my previous post), you will see that I am charged the currency of the transaction and there is no conversion. When I'm charged CAD, I pick the Canadian credit card and when I'm charged USD, I pick the USD credit card. I have a Canadian PayPal account.

When I am charged for Uber Canada, you see that I'm charged in CAD and with my purchase from NewEgg.ca (which is Canadian), I was also charged CAD without any conversions. With my redacted US purchases, you see that I am charged in USD (a few charges of $11 USD and one charge of $89 USD). There were no conversions in the list of the transactions that I showed.

I'm not sure what you're referring to since your post. I answered the original poster's question/issue which is that when I pick my USD credit card for a USD purchase, there is no conversion done and when I pick my CAD credit card for a CAD purchase, there is no conversion done.

How do you explain my screenshot showing the transactions on my Canadian PayPal account where I show BOTH USD transactions without any conversions and CAD transactions without any conversions? I have a Canadian PayPal account and don't have a US address and can pick & choose which currency I'm charged and which credit card to use depending on the charge.

The only reason I left the Canadian company names is because the amount wasn't a whole number and some people might think that it was a converted value which it isn't. With the USD transactions, these were whole numbers so you can hopefully easily tell that there is no conversion and I was charged the amount specified in USD.

lmcjipo wrote: ↑ If you look at my second screenshot (since I am showing 2 screenshots in my previous post), you will see that I am charged the currency of the transaction and there is no conversion. When I'm charged CAD, I pick the Canadian credit card and when I'm charged USD, I pick the USD credit card. I have a Canadian PayPal account.

When I am charged for Uber Canada, you see that I'm charged in CAD and with my purchase from NewEgg.ca (which is Canadian), I was also charged CAD without any conversions. With my redacted US purchases, you see that I am charged in USD (a few charges of $11 USD and one charge of $89 USD). There were no conversions in the list of the transactions that I showed.

I'm not sure what you're referring to since your post. I answered the original poster's question/issue which is that when I pick my USD credit card for a USD purchase, there is no conversion done and when I pick my CAD credit card for a CAD purchase, there is no conversion done.

How do you explain my screenshot showing the transactions on my Canadian PayPal account where I show BOTH USD transactions without any conversions and CAD transactions without any conversions? I have a Canadian PayPal account and don't have a US address and can pick & choose which currency I'm charged and which credit card to use depending on the charge.

ya u can do that i even post screenshots of how to do that. the op wants to always be charged in usd without having to fiddle with the option i screened in one of my post. only way to do that is to open a US paypal account... witch requires a us address....

Also FYI - the eBay app (when checking out with PayPal) will NOT give you an option to choose the currency. So it always charges you in CAD where they handle the forex.

jtan2000 wrote: ↑ When setup to link my TD USD visa (borderless plan) to paypal.ca
why is the charge in CAD not USD ?

I suspect that the reason why the charge is in CAD and not in USD is because your USD Visa is issued by a Canadian bank. There is a difference between a USD credit card offered by a Canadian institution and a credit card (obviously in USD) offered by a US bank.

That being said, I didn't confirm my USD credit card or my CAD credit card since the charge/withdrawal limits haven't really affected what I wanted to purchase (and I've used PayPal for purchases up to $500 and never had an issue so didn't feel that I needed to confirm my credit cards)

They did this for long time, and hide that option to charge based on purchase currency instead of using their rip off exchange rate.
Even if you found it and set it, they will reset back to use them for currency exchange from time to time.
I try not to use them now.

Yes my TD VISA card is issued by Canadian Bank

https://www.td.com/ca/en/personal-banki ... visa-card/

lmcjipo wrote: ↑ If you look at my second screenshot (since I am showing 2 screenshots in my previous post), you will see that I am charged the currency of the transaction and there is no conversion. When I'm charged CAD, I pick the Canadian credit card and when I'm charged USD, I pick the USD credit card. I have a Canadian PayPal account.

Yes that work for me before too but ...

this time for this particular merchant website
without any option and it processed the transaction USD -> CAD and using that CAD amount to charge my USD Visa card (issued by Canadian Bank)

I have call more than 5 time to paypal.ca to explain the situation
and it is useless the people pass me around.

Like @CouponBaron I hesitated to use paypal unless that is the only acceptable payment by the merchant.

This is my current settings of my paypal.ca

Correct me if I am wrong ...

If I totally forget about using USD Visa card (issued by Canadian Bank).

Will the following method avoid currency exchange ?

https://www.td.com/us/en/personal-banki ... nvenience/

My plan is to fund
transfer $1000 usd from TD USD checking base in Canada --> TD Convenience Checking base in USA --> paypal.ca usd cash

Then when I purchase anything USA item from paypal.ca use the paypal.ca USD cash in the account.

jtan2000 wrote: ↑ Correct me if I am wrong ...

If I totally forget about using USD Visa card (issued by Canadian Bank).

Will the following method avoid currency exchange ?

https://www.td.com/us/en/personal-banki ... nvenience/

My plan is to fund
transfer $1000 usd from TD USD checking base in Canada --> TD Convenience Checking base in USA --> paypal.ca usd cash

Then when I purchase anything USA item from paypal.ca use the paypal.ca USD cash in the account.

This should work as long as you trust PayPal with our banking information.

For me, whereas I don't have an issue with PayPal having/knowing my credit card information, I don't trust PayPal with my banking information. It is the same reason for recurring/automatic payments, I will never fund this with my bank account (like insurance payments which don't accept credit cards) since if a mistake happens, the money is removed from the account until the problem is solved but with a credit card, if a mistake happens, generally one can call the credit card company and dispute the charge.

goob3r wrote: ↑ Yep you gotta change the currency options each time. It's been like this for a while and they prey on you not paying attention to make a bit of money.

I don't get those currency options each time.

When I buy something which is in USD, I just pick my USD credit card (there is no conversion done/offered to me). When I buy something which is in CAD, I just pick my CAD credit card.

As stated earlier, my PayPal account is a Canadian PayPal account.

In my case, my USD credit card is issued by a US bank and not a Canadian bank which I'm not sure if it makes any difference.

According to @titaniumtux in thread td-cash-visa-td-bank-n-2201330/ there is a difference in how some merchants and charging systems treat a USD credit card issued by a non-US bank (like a Canadian bank) and a (USD) credit card offered by a US bank in the thread: td-cash-visa-td-bank-n-2201330/