Avoid foreign currency conversion fee UK buyer and UK seller

[electrofun74]

I must be out of the loop because never seen this before.

I have tried to buy an item which is located in the UK (I am in the UK too), but because they listed it on ebay.com the currency is in dollars. The listing gives a GBP estimate of £220, but when I select the option to pay in GBP it then wants just over £230.

If I pay in dollars my banks charges conversion fees of around 3%.

I have to pay  in dollars and a resulting currency conversion fee to pay a UK seller to post an item to a UK buyer...

Is there a way to avoid this?

[papso22]

When you look at the seller's feedback page where does it say they are registered?

[electrofun74]

It says they are UK based and they have a UK business address on their listings. I did message them about this and they confirmed that it is due to them listing on ebay.com (for better exposure).

[papso22 · Accepted solution]

Then the system seems to be working as planned and there is no way to avoid the extra charges.  I wonder if the extra exposure is worth the cost in UK sales.

[electrofun74]

Thanks for your quick replies btw.

That is a real shame that this is the new system, its plain bizarre that I have to pay in a foreign currency and the resulting fees to someone that lives about 60 miles away.

I closed my ebay business acount about a year ago as the service and charges have got much worse (quasi-required promoted listings were the final straw). Nice to see the buy side has also deteriorated!

[papso22]

Actually I have just thought of a potential workaround in your case, which is for the business to list this item on ebay.co.uk.  Presumably you can then buy it as a normal UK to UK sale with no conversion fees.

The business would need to want the sale enough to go to the bother of the individual listing though.

[ett1954]

"The business would need to want the sale enough to go to the bother of the individual listing though." - It would only take 10 seconds.  A sell similar to the UK only (changing or moving one character on the title if an auction). Activate and send the link to the buyer; not forgetting to end the listing on .com immediately the item sells.

[ile136yz]

There is a glitch for the last 3-4 weeks that if the eBay Discussion Forum is viewed.  Then the eBayer goes to look at items for sale the prices are coming up in Dollars.

This has been reported to eBay Tech by many members.

Make sure that when you view items that you are on www.eBay.co.uk  and not www.ebay.com