PayPal withdrawal currency

I’ve just received $40 into my PayPal and wanted to transfer it straight into my Monzo account as dollars and let Monzo do the conversion instead of the crappy PayPal rate but I can’t figure it out? Anyone know if it’s possible?

As far as I know PayPal will not transfer non-native currency from a PayPal account into an attached bank account, it will always convert to the native currency first.

The lowest cost workaround would be to create a TransferWise Borderless Account which you’d then connect to your PayPal account, transfer the $ from PayPal to your TransferWise account and then transfer from your TransferWise account to your Monzo account. The rate you’ll get with TransferWise will be very good relative to PayPal, you’ll just pay a small fee for the transfer.

PayPal $ out -> TransferWise: $ converted to £ at the “real” rate -> £ into Monzo.

TransferWise have a partnership with Monzo for outbound international transactions, so you can trust that they are a credible service. That said, this would take a few days to set up and might save you a few dollars at most, so I’m not sure it’s worth the hassle for a $40 transaction.

Edit: Transferwise would charge $1.45 total. PayPal seem to charge 3.5% over base rate, so you’re looking at saving $1.54 by using TransferWise if my numbers are right.

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Like you say for a small amount doesn’t make a massive difference. Every now and then it’ll be a few hundred dollars so does add up. Thanks for the advice!

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If you have a UK Paypal account they will only let you withdraw in GBP, even if you have a non-GBP bank account linked, so you are forced to use their crap exchange rate.