[sambonee]

set up a US dollar account here in canada. otherwise you get hit with this

from chat with Phil at Reverb.com
"However, if your buyers submitted payment using USD, you may assume another 1% currency conversion fee

Excuse me, sorry this fee is a 2.5% conversion fee."

nuff said

 

[Alex]

I'm not quite following - if Reverb is transferring US$ to a CDN$ bank account, the hit is from the bank converting the US$ dollars into CAD$.

PayPal does the same - it takes a margin everytime you convert currencies (typically larger than the credit card company or bank). Unless you are going to use US$, there will be a hit everytime a conversion is done (if you sell in $US).

PayPal's latest changes are troubling for me - when a buyer pays in US$ to a Canadian (or foreign) PayPal account holder, the buyer has to do a 2nd step for the funds to be deposited in the original $US currency. I've had a few sales in US$ whereby I received Canadian $ and essentially PayPal forced the conversion. I called PayPal and ended up talking to a "supervisor" and they just umm'ed and awe'd. I asked years ago why they wouldn't allow US$ to be transferred to a $US bank account in Canada and ended up biting my lip. This new measure is ridiculous and a real piss off. [/rant over].

 

[sambonee]

just like paypal, if they send USD to a canadian dollar account, there's an additional 2.5 for reverb direct checkout and 3.9 with paypal IIRC. that's why it's best to have a USD account to receive funds and then withdraw cash and go to the money changers. the guy beside Johnson and Magwood tire in mississauga is the best deal IMO

 

[Alex]

just like paypal, if they send USD to a canadian dollar account, there's an additional 2.5 for reverb direct checkout and 3.9 with paypal IIRC. that's why it's best to have a USD account to receive funds and then withdraw cash and go to the money changers. the guy beside Johnson and Magwood tire in mississauga is the best deal IMO

The 2.5% for Reverb or 3.9% for PayPal is the all in fee for using their services. PayPal for US Residents is 2.9%. The additional fee for Canadians (or foreigners to the US) is 1% for a total of 3.9%. It would be interesting to know the Reverb rate for US residents and then compare to the rate for Canadians. PayPal also takes a margin when converting currencies say from US$ to CDN$ (so does any bank or trader). The margin varies but Paypal takes up to 200-300 basis points based on my previous transactions.

 

[sambonee]

I did the math and found that if I converted my us curency within Paypal to Canadian dollars and THEN withdrew the money, there was a 2.5 or so savings. (Comparing to transferring from US dollars into a Canadian dollar account. ).

Same applies to reverb.