Avoiding Paypal foreign fees

[carreauchompeur]

Folks,

This is a bit of 'stable door, horse' type affair but it'd be useful to know how to proceed in future...

Anyway, bought a set of Bilstein suspension from German eBay for just under £600 delivered. At the Paypal checkout I declined their conversion service as I'm aware these tend to be over-priced...

However, completely failed to account for the non-sterling transaction charge on my LTSB credit card, which came out just under £20... I have a feeling there is also a load on the exchange rate as well.

Bugger, bugger, bugger... I have a Post Office credit card and also a Caxton FX currency card that I could have used which charge far less. Wanted to do it through Paypal for security however.

In future is it worth setting up the Caxton FX card or PO card as alternative funding sources on Paypal or just going with their conversion rate? It's a nuisance because I know how scandalous LTSB's foreign charges are but didn't factor that in since I thought Paypal just came out in GBP anyway! Lesson learnt...

Suspension is still a good £100 cheaper than UK but it'd be nice to know for future!

[KTF]

Get a Halifax Clarity Mastercard. You get the inter-bank exchange rate with no loading or additional fees for overseas purchases then you can set that as the primary card on Paypal.