Currency Conversion Inaccurate / International Purchase Overcharge?

[jack_mord]

I'm in the US and won an item from the UK. The price breakdown on the order details page is as follows:

1 item: 332 GBP
Shipping: 37.99 GBP
Tax: 19.92 GBP
Order Total: 392.19 GBP

1. First of all, when I add those numbers up I get 389.91, not 392.19. 

2. Ebay shows that the amount I ended up paying was $527.75 USD.

3. When I do the currency conversion for 392.19 GBP I get $491.86 (and $489 if I went with 389.19), not $527.75. . That's almost $40.00 that I can't account for.

*The exchange rate on the day of the order, which is shown on eBay's order page, was $1.00 = GBP 0.74314

I don't buy a lot of international and am probably missing something really obvious! Any thoughts?

[house*of*paws]

Hi @jack_mord 

Possible reasons for the discrepancy:

*  Conversion rates change regularly.

*   There’s a fee involved in converting currencies.

[ittybitnot]

When I do the currency conversion for.....

@jack_mord 

Where did you get the conversion rate?   Did your seller use the "Global Shipping Program" where you had to pay a separate additional shipping fee? 

This issue has not come to the attention to the discussion board here for a while, so the information may not be  exactly up to date.  There is nothing much on the eBay policy pages that deals specifically  with currency conversion and the rate, fees, etc. 

Generally speaking, eBay does not use the published rates available on line.  These are " commercial bank" type rates so to speak and indeed not reflective of  what you will be charged.  You will not get much of a favorable rate in the first place, and there are also fees related to this activity charged to the buyer for changing USD to GPB which makes it even less favorable.  I don't know if these 'fees' are visible prior to making the actual payment.   eBay says it will be visible in your transaction "order details", but I have no way of looking. You should take a look   Until you commit or pay, all the 'conversion' amounts are estimates. 

Where the $2.28  dollar difference originated, I am clueless.  Let us know if you find out. 
Thank you for posting this topic, and hopefully you will get some good information from others. 

[jack_mord]

@ittybitnot Thanks for the reply! The conversion rate came from eBay's Order Details page, and is only 3 or 4 cents different than what online currency converters show. I have no idea if the seller used Global Shipping, it doesn't mention anything on the Order Details page, let alone any additional fees associated with it. If was charged a nearly $40 fee because the seller used Global Shipping, I am never bidding on an international order again. Thanks again

[ittybitnot · Accepted solution]

@jack_mord 

Thanks for the update.  If the seller used the 'Global Shipping Program' it used to be a separate charge you would have to pay in addition to the above.  You can see this in advance from the listing page under "shipping" unless they changed the interface and stuck it someplace else. 

If the exchange was at that rate, it appears that is what you were charged.  $527.747127055..... (392.19 divided by 0.74314).  

A quick look today showed the rate at .80 to $1 which if used, you would pay $490. 24.   I suppose you could look of the publicly published rate on the day you purchased and compare ti to the rate you were charged for the transaction.  

Still don't know about the wonky "addition" you mentioned in your original post.  Perhaps I will just be eternally wondering. 

[jack_mord]

Thank you! My mistake was not realizing that eBay uses their own conversion rate, so when I did the calculations offsite for the day of the sale and for today, neither of them was close. I appreciate you taking the time to reply. JM

[sniper10000]

It seems they are trying to rip people off. The rates they post always go up by 2.5% for conversion fee. With Canadapost strike they are collecting tax which is fine but charging tax on shipping and adding duties and charging tax. My total $278.68 CAD in Cart with global shipping charge and tax, click to pay they added $9.85 USD Duty charge and bill went too $306.03 CAD . They might want to brush up on math. First time in 25yrs I asked to cancel a order. US exchange rate is 1.4 not 2.8. 

[1985toys]

I just ran into this. I called Ebay and got the run around twice.

Both times they said they were sending me to "Billing" by which I was then disconnected. 2 hours of phone based run around later, I then opened a "Chat" window with one of their reps and explained the sitch.

Basically, my line items (item cost + shipping + tax) do not add up to what Ebay has tabulated.

I add GBP 239.98 + 127.12 + 24.48, then subtract my Gift Card Balance of GBP 138.68 and I get GBP 252.90, not GBP 265.87.

Ebay took $348.54 USD out of my account. If I do the conversion, it should have been $331.54 USD. Either way, we end up with about GBP 12.97 (close to $17.00 USD) in overcharges.

I was told by Ebay in the Chat that this was a "transaction fee" added by Paypal, my processor. I called Paypal, and they said NOPE, absolutely NO transaction fee was added on our end. My PPL account summary also showed NO transaction fees. I then checked my origin bank connected to Paypal, and NOPE, no additional transaction fees there either.

Lastly, as you can see, NO transaction fee is even listed on the Ebay Payment Summary, and that is the ONLY summary Ebay has for me regarding that transaction.

IF there IS a foreign transaction fee for BUYERS via Ebay, they're not disclosing it clearly, and that should be grounds for investigation. Buyers need clear visibility on what they're being charged. In this case, I was taken for almost $20 additional USD, which would have sent me walking away from the sale had I been given accurate information at checkout.