Hi Tanja,

So far, RBC is the only bank that would work with linking to PayPal. The reason is because RBC has a routing number for their branch based in New York.

And routing numbers are the ones that the US banks use (as opposed to transit numbers used by Canadian banks).

I suggest you give it a try (no need to open the checking account so that you don't pay the fees), and enjoy the benefit of receiving the full amount from PayPal.

My $49.95 were transferred to RBC US eSavings account without any fees on PayPal. And I can either leave my USD in the account, or withdraw with the RBC preferred currency exchange rate.

Hope this helps!
Zarina

Thanks Zarina. Just to clarify, what exactly do you mean by "I suggest you give it a try (no need to open the checking account so that you don't pay the fees), and enjoy the benefit of receiving the full amount from PayPal."

What should I try without opening a checking account?

Hi Tanja,

Sorry, didn't mean to confuse you.
What I meant is that if you want to avoid the Paypal 2.5% conversion rate every time you transfer your USD to a Canadian bank, then it is recommended to open the RBC U.S. eSavings account as I mentioned in the tutorial.

Personally, I don't recommend opening a checking account as well, as there are monthly fees associated with any Canadian bank when opening a checking account.

So, what I thought is that I would open a Canadian savings account as well (along with the US eSavings account), so that it gives me access to ONLINE banking. I do everything online - so online banking is super convenient for me.

Now, in terms of the full amount from PayPal - if you were to transfer from PayPal to any other bank, then you would be hit with conversion rate. When I opened my RBC US eSavings account, I transferred the full $49.95 that I had on PayPal, and it transferred the whole amount (I didn't see any fees on PayPal account). And then whenever I want I can exchange my USD for CAD with the banks preferred currency exchange rate.

I hope this helps!

Thank you,
Zarina

Thanks Zarina for the clarification. So are there no fees with the Canadian savings account and the associated US esavings account? I do all my banking with BMO so I don't want an account with a different bank, unless there were no fees.

Hi Tanja,

I wouldn't recommend a bank account with fees!
I know this is too much of a hassle and nobody likes the fees. Not to mention that no one would make a switch with the other bank with fees.

So, US eSavings account does not have the fee, HOWEVER, there is only 1 free monthly debit. Every debit exceeding the monthly debit will be $3 each. So just keep this in mind*

The Canadian savings account - I didn't plan on opening at first, but my RBC representative said that the Canadian Savings account also doesn't have any fees. I opened it just to have an online access and mobile banking. But it should be free of feels, have one free debit monthly and $2 for any debit exceeding monthly limit.

But since you already have BMO, I don't think you will be using the RBC savings account so you wouldn't worry about one only free debit monthly :)

When you set up an account - please be sure to follow the instructions of the tutorial step by step! Especially, when you are at the process of linking RBC account to PayPal account.

Hope this helps :)
Zarina

Perfect! Thanks. That all makes sense. Once I start getting some money into my paypal account I will open an RBC account (and follow this training)

My pleasure, Tanja!
Good luck to you! :)

Hi Tanja,
Just follow-up on you - were you able to open an account with RBC? Did this work for you?

Thanks for checking in. I actually haven't tried yet because I don't have any money to transfer :(

Oh, so you are waiting until you have commissions on your PayPal and then deal with RBC accounts - makes sense. Well, when you finally do it - let me know how it worked out for you :)

Yes, that is my plan. I will let you know how it goes.

Sounds good. Good luck, Tanja!

Hey, Tanja!

Just was re-reading the comments here and wanted to say that you should start visualizing how your money comes to your account ;)

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Hi Helen,
I've never been to Australia yet, and I am not familiar with the banks that are there. Unless you have Royal Bank of Canada and can try the same trick.
Thanks for stopping by,
Zarina

no Canadian bank that I know of thanks anyway cheers

Sorry, I couldn't help with the PayPal thing in Australia!
Good luck,
Z

thanks anyway cheers Helen

You are welcome! :)

Hi Rick,
Well, I am excited to meet fellow Canadians!! :)
By the way, nice to meet you and am following you now!
It is my absolute pleasure to help!
Thank you for stopping by :)
Zarina

Hi Rick,
Did you have success with setting up a link between RBC and PayPal to avoid the hefty 2.5% conversion rate??

Hi. No, I never did use RBC.

Oh, did you work it around with another banking institution? As far as I recall only with RBC US eSavings account it was possible to play around PayPal's conversion rate.
If you have any new information - I would appreciate you sharing it here so that I add an update to this training :)

Hi Olga,
Good to see you here ;)
My pleasure to be helpful, and I hope you enjoy this community!!! :)
Cheers,
Zarina

Hey, Olga!
Long time no talk :)
Just following up on you here - did you manage to work things around with PayPal and RBC bank?

I feel you, Sandy!

I am happy to hear it is useful information for you :)
If you know any other Canadian WA member, please spread a word!

There is not a single tutorial/blog post talking about Canadian PayPal users and conversion rates! So it will definitely be helpful to lots of Canadians.

Thanks for stopping by!
Zarina

Hey there, Sandy!
Did you manage to set up a new account with RBC Bank to avoid the conversion rate? Was the training useful?
Looking forward to hearing from you!

Have not set up the account yet. I do have a question though. It has to do with our monthly membership. I am being charged $56.11 for our $47.00 membership which I understand because of the US conversion will the US RBC account help with that?
Also I'm having issues with paypal not only am I being charged $56.11 but they for some reason have been taking out $76.00 will have to call them as its been going on for about 3 months and they are ignoring my emails have you had any issues?

Hey Sandy,
To respond to your questions.

1). Yes, the price is higher in Canadian dollars because of the USD-CAD rate plus relevant fees with your bank may apply. In terms of US RBC to make payments - honestly that's a good question. I don't really know the answer though. I have annual membership, so I can't even experiment with making a payment from my new RBC US account.

I do remember though that we can move funds from PayPal to US RBC account (which is the purpose of this training), but we can't move the funds from RBC US account to PayPal. So it's a one-way street here for some reason. Not sure why. So I assume if you are making payments to WA through PayPal then it might be complicated to do through RBC US account.

As an alternative, you could just leave your commissions in PayPal account and just pay for your membership with these commissions (and not use any bank card that you use to make payments).

2). In terms of PayPal charging more - just about when this training was created, I talked to my friend who's a freelancer and receives her $ through PayPal. She also complained that for some reason, PayPal withdrew a lot of fees from her salary here and there without any particular reason (at least she didn't figure it out). And she also complained that they never responded to her emails so you might want to give them a call.

What I can recommend to you though is to call the French help line (1-855-477-1170) because I heard that the other normal help lines didn’t seem to be helpful for others so this is worth a shot. I am sure you will find anyone who speaks English there.

I hope this helps, Sandy!

P.S. When you figure things out for sure - do you mind getting back to me and say how things really are with regards to your concerns? It will be a valuable knowledge to me and to others who will read through the comments here - so it will be an additional help to them.

Is there anything else I can help you with, Sandy?

Hi kasotty thanks for getting back to me. That is my main concern right now I will call paypal and try to find out why they are taking out so much I will let you know what I find out.

Sounds good. Good luck and hope to hear from you soon with some good news!