NTD

Paypal is getting expensive: But what are the alternatives?

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The real beef with Paypal is that fees keep going up. The typical fees are now approaching !0% by my reckoning, and my in some cases exceed 10%. Please can someone else verify this.

If you have a sale @ $100, then you have to pay 4.4%+30cents. So that is 4.7%. Now if you convert that to NTD, you will pay 2.5% exchange rate. So that’s another $2.50 gone or you pay a $5.00 fee for withdrawal to US account.

USD>NTD: $4.70*+$2.50+$1.15* for that $100 purchase or 8.35%.
USD>USD:  $4.70*+$5.00* for that $100 or 9.7%.

If you charge the price in a non-US currency, then there will be an addition 2.5% extra (usually covered by the purchaser).

Obviously you can minimize or eliminate some of the costs so the final rate may be different… but you can see why Paypal is a cashcow. Just not sure why we need to be the ‘feed’!

Is my math correct? Are there cheaper alternatives to Paypal? I’ll be checking several alternatives, just in case.

The British Pound vs. The Dollar

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What is going on now? Last year the pound traded at over NT$66, now it is at NT$47 and likely to go to $45 soon. I was in Taipei 101 for lunch, and went upstairs to see the Taipei Stock Exchange which has recently agreed with London’s Stock Exchange on the sale of ETFs. This should be a good deal for Taiwanese investors making it easier and cheaper to find good quality, diverse ETFs.

It was while I was there that I noticed how much the British Pound had fallen that day against the US Dollar. It’s currently trading at about $1.3833 today and about NT$46.4864. This down by about 1/3rd against the US, and slightly less against the NTD! While my stocks are suffering, too, it gladly boosts my relative purchasing power!

british pound

But the vagaries of recent markets really make the mind boggle! Still when things are like this, there are opportunities for tremendous riches!