Hey Leen, One of our volunteers has noticed a pattern where they submit a reimbursement for an exact amount but get less money and the amount they get less is more than the fluctuations in transfer rate would cause.
They recently had to submit https://opencollective.com/symbiosis-pdx/expenses/87422 to rectify this but I'm wondering if there is a general problem here with hidden fees due to paypal or due to the conversion that are causing this. I had initially thought it was just due to fluctuations in conversion rates but I don't think that makes sense considering they are losing more than 2-3% of the reimbursement in a day when the rate didn't change that much.
Hi there! I looked into it, took a screenshot of what it looks in the PayPal backoffice for this expense: https://opencollective.com/symbiosis-pdx/expenses/87186 This is what I get: The uploaded expense is €105,75. PayPal transactions are automated, so I click a button and the payment is made. No manual transaction is required. I'm very surprised why the gross amount is showing €101,78, and not €105,75.
I've checked other ones: In this case the expense is the exact amount of the gross amount. (very struck by the fees)
Will ask the help of the Open Collective support team to get more insight in what exactly is happening here
Would it make sense in the future for our people who are asking for refunds via paypal to calculate the % of the paypal fee and add that to the conversion rate expectation?
The support team is looking into it. For now, I try to make all PayPal request manually, so I see exactly how much fees we are paying. But I get a lot of error notifications. Doing the best I can :-)
Hi! reporting back on this I've been on a family holiday, so sorry for late replies.
The issue with PayPal is not resolved yet, but we are working on it. It is more complex than we thought. There is a big issue with the fees, that have been paid from our A4C balance, not by the collective balance. An issue for the technical back office of Open Collective.
Are there any payments now pending that are really urgent? Or can they wait until I get more news from the Open Collective team? If urgent, I can use Wise.com.
thank you for understanding, and for your patience kind regards Leen
I don't think any of the reimbursals can wait to be honest, we may just have to request the difference if that comes up later with a separate reimbursement. Can you pay out as is for now?
Symbiosis PDX
Posted on July 22, 2022
One of our volunteers has noticed a pattern where they submit a reimbursement for an exact amount but get less money and the amount they get less is more than the fluctuations in transfer rate would cause.
They recently had to submit https://opencollective.com/symbiosis-pdx/expenses/87422 to rectify this but I'm wondering if there is a general problem here with hidden fees due to paypal or due to the conversion that are causing this. I had initially thought it was just due to fluctuations in conversion rates but I don't think that makes sense considering they are losing more than 2-3% of the reimbursement in a day when the rate didn't change that much.