AVR-Chat

Replying to John Samperi:

I have as much chance of rubbing shoulders with Mark Latham as I do of 
seeing Little Johnny Howard walking out of The Lodge (do I have to spell 
out how small a chance that is?).

   http://www.pm.gov.au/aus_in_focus/kids/residences.html
   http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/12/06/1070625580653.html


But, money ...


Graham Davies wrote:

> --- In AVR-Chat@yahoogroups.com, "Dingo" <nsjunklists@h...> wrote:
> So, on to PayPal. I have been assuming that someone paying for my 
> products with a credit card through PayPal benefits from the same 
> fair exchange rate as using a credit card in other ways. Is this not 
> so? Is the credit card debited in the "native" currency and then this 
> converted to dollars at a rip-off rate?

With PayPal merchants, your customers pay with US$s which is fine, but 
if you want to convert that to say AU$ (ie. return the proceeds of your 
sales to your native currency) then PayPal will give you an exchange 
rate that is, in my experience, at least 3-4% worse than the rate you 
would otherwise get. As well, they charge higher sales fees and cross 
border fees for customers who don't reside in the USA - this all adds up 
to a fee of 6 to 7% compared to a Visa/Mastercard fee of maybe half. I 
don't need to point out that if you do say 100k worth of turnover, then 
you'll be maybe AU$3,500-4,000 worse off with PayPal compared with a 
card transaction.

> Before I signed up with PayPal, people had a lot of trouble paying me 
> from non-dollar contries. Some resorted to mailing a wad of dollar 
> bills as these were cheaper than dollar-denominated checks. PayPal 
> has solved this problem and I've received no comments about lousy 
> exchange rates. Am I setting up my overseas customers for a rip-off?

There's no question PayPal is convenient, and that convenience may be 
worth the extra percentage costs, but the extra-extra costs, if you 
don't reside (or have set up your bank account) to be in the USA, seem 
like the straw that broke the camels back.

It's all about having different classes of people - in general, us 
Aussies don't like that concept.

BTW, off topic? rubbish!

Peter.