Currencies, Zen & PayPal

I have searched through the forum for as much information as possible but there are still gaps in my understanding and would like to see if anyone can help me.

I am setting up my cart here in Canada. I have Canadian dollars set as default. I want to make my cart user friendly and encourage international sales from the US, Europe, Great Britain, Australia and a few other countries and so have enable the cart for users to chose their currencies (it is still in test mode).

Now, currently in PayPal I have Canadian dollars set as my 'Primary' Currency balance and have added a US currency balance. If I leave it at that, will that mean customers using one of the other currencies on the cart be faced with choosing to pay in either CDN$ or US$ when they get to PayPal? If so, then, with my understanding of posts by S_Mack, the customer will have to pay the currency conversion. Is this correct?

If I set up all those other currencies balances in PayPal, then does that mean the customer gets to pay in their currencies but I will have to pay the conversion over to Canadian dollars?

In one of his posts, S_Mack mentions that if you accept other currencies you should be conscious of the "spread" between the bank rate which the cart currently shows and what you actually pay for that currency. He said he over comes this by adding 4 to 5 percent to the currency's value above what the cart is setting. Can you do this in ZenCart? Or, can it only be done with S_Mack's add-on 'userCurrencies'?

I am not sure what to do and if I really have a grasp of this. Look forward to getting feedback and suggestions. Thanks.

Anita

good questions
I want to know this too

Hi Zas

After posting, I went to back to my downloaded PayPal manuals and in the "PayPal Merchant Manual" I did find some info on page 19 about currencies balances. However, it would still be helpful knowing how to set the exchange rate in the cart to account for the "spread" charged consumers. One thought I had was to do an "update currencies" and then manually multiple the new values by say 1.03 and put in that new value. I haven't tried it yet... too many other things to think about but I intend to.

Anita

thanks Anita, will look at paypal set up