Currency, PayPal, Conversion and Fee

[Rabbcon]

Urgent!

I am really green to International purchases.

Facts:
Default currency is US$
Will accept other currencies (e.g. Pound)
Payment methods: Currently only PayPal
ZC Version: 1.3.7

Question:
A customer can pay in any of the currencies we have listed on our site. I have one potential customer in the UK. I am unsure which currency they will pay. Please forgive my ignorance. What I do know is that PayPal will charge a conversion fee if they do not pay in US dollars. How do I set this up in the Zen Cart shop to add on this fee to pass that fee on to the customer? The Pound and the Euro are more than the US$. The shop will lose money if the fee is not passed on.

All help in understanding exactly how it works is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[kenaniah]

Urgent!

I am really green to International purchases.

Facts:
Default currency is US$
Will accept other currencies (e.g. Pound)
Payment methods: Currently only PayPal
ZC Version: 1.3.7

Question:
A customer can pay in any of the currencies we have listed on our site. I have one potential customer in the UK. I am unsure which currency they will pay. Please forgive my ignorance. What I do know is that PayPal will charge a conversion fee if they do not pay in US dollars. How do I set this up in the Zen Cart shop to add on this fee to pass that fee on to the customer? The Pound and the Euro are more than the US$. The shop will lose money if the fee is not passed on.

All help in understanding exactly how it works is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

First, you need to find what the current exchange is with a site like xe.com
currently 1 USD = .50351 GBP
Second, add your spread onto this so you might add .05 to recover conversion cost so you would use 1 USD = .55351 GBP
Third, in Admin, go to Localization, Currencies, edit the British Pound to .55351
Then you will be fine assuming your customer is looking at the item in Pounds... if they pay in dollars they will absorb the conversion.... if they pay using authorize_aim the order will use USD and they will also pay the conversion.

There is a mod to autoupdate the conversions daily... or just check everyonce in a while. If you use the autoupdate you can set your spread into Admin, Configuration, My Store, Currency Conversion Ratio .... if you have this value set to 1.05 it will increase the conversion by 5% in your favor.

Be careful about international priority and express as the post office just tripled the rates.

[Rabbcon]

Thank you for your feedback. I will do that. I called UPS for shipping rates on a 1 lb box to the UK and they gave me 3 quotes, each over $100. I forgot the USPS increased their rates. I will call them tomorrow to confirm if what I saw on their site is correct.