Add New Currency Balance in PayPal to avoid Currency Exchange Losses
Many of us PayPal users have been using USD as our primary currency in our PayPal account despite not living in the US.
If USD is the only currency in your PayPal account and you plan to store Malaysian Ringgit or other currency balances separately from the USD balance, this article is for you to avoid currency conversion losses.
With the PayPal policy update on October 14, currencies such as Malaysian Ringgit, Philipino Peso, Taiwanese Dollar, Thai Baht, Argentinean Peso and Brazilian Reais have been offered as holding currencies in our PayPal account.
To add a new currency balance such Malaysian Ringgit in your PayPal account follow the following steps.
1. Log into your PayPal account.
2. Under “My Account” section, click on “Profile” link.
3. Under the column “Financial Information”, click on “Currency Balances”
4. Next, select “Malaysian Ringgit” and click “Add Currency” button.
5. PayPal will then acknowledge you have added a new currency balance. You can change your primary currency to this new currency while payments in USD will still be stored in the USD balance instead of being converted to your primary currency. The choice is yours. My primary currency is still USD while maintaining a Malaysian Ringgit balance specifically for any incoming payments in Ringgit. This will also mean, USD will be my primary currency for sending and requesting payments unless I change to send/request in a different currency.
6. Now, when you withdraw your “Malaysian Ringgit” balance to your Malaysian bank account (feature coming soon), or “Philipines Peso” balance to your bank account in the Philipines, you avoid currency conversion loss!
Wow….Not bad ya…. LOL gonna try it soon
Thx for the infos!
This sounds great but doesn’t seems to be useful for me, yet.
Hi.. then do you know how to switch balance from USD to MYR?
Hi Vin Chan. Do you mean you want MYR to be the primary currency and any incoming USD funds will be converted to MYR as well?
Actually what I want is to convert between my existing funds. Is it possible? I read from PayPal website that we can do it under the “Manage Currency” part. However, the “Exchange Currency” as mentioned does not exist. Is it because we are in Malaysia? Thanks
Hi Vin Chan. Thank you for your question. You will have to close the currency under “Manage Currency” and the funds will be converted to your main currency.
If you maintain separate balances for currencies, any incoming payment of that currency will be deposited to that currency balance. If you receive payment in the currency you do not maintain in PayPal, you can set either to auto convert to your primary currency or “ask you first” on what to do.
To set this, go to Profile –> Selling Preferences –> Payment Receiving Preferences –> Block payments sent to me in a currency I do not hold
“If you receive payment in the currency you do not maintain in PayPal, you can set either to auto convert to your primary currency or “ask you first” on what to do.”
Does that mean auto convert from any other currencies to MYR will prevent currency loss? If so, I will consider closing down all other currencies, and set it to auto convert to MYR when receiving $ in other currencies.
Hi Jecky. No, auto-convert to your primary currency does not prevent currency loss.
Very helpful article. Thx for sharing. ..
so meanin if i have set usd as primary and myr is in my manage llist, if i receive funds in myr it auto go into my myr accout or usd account?
or should i, change my primary to myr first then only get the person to send money to me??
When you have MYR balance in your PayPal account, all MYR payments will be credited to this balance only. You don’t need to set your primary currency to MYR to receive MYR payments.