I had a lengthy conversation with my accountant today and we came across my Paypal account statement. The confusing thing about this document for him was the mixing of transactions in euros and US dollars. I still print out a column with the current balance and it just shows "nv" for payments with US dollars as the currency, which of course is a bit unsatisfactory for finance people.
Chapter in this post:
Cause of currency mishmash: old PayPal accounts
The reason for the mixed currencies seems to be the age of my account, because now you have to specify a main currency when you create the account. When I opened my PayPal account almost 10 years ago, it didn't exist. And my last accountant didn't mind those strange bank statements with USD and EUR - who knows what he was cheating.
Procedure: Remove EUR as the main currency and USD as the currency
If you now want all payments and credits to appear only in euros and these strange "nv" notes in the balance column to disappear in the future, then you have to carry out three steps in Paypal:
- Set EUR as the main currency
- Convert USD credit to EUR
- Remove USD as currency
How this works in detail I explain here with a small guide and corresponding screenshots below. But first of all, here are the instructions:
- Log in to PayPal (I have a business account)
Settings (gear icon)→ Update: recently I have to go to my name in the top right corner and then to “Account Settings”.Profile and settings→ Apparently this is no longer correct (you go to “Account settings)- left menu: “Money, bank accounts and credit cards”
- scroll to “manage currencies”
- Click on the three dots to the right of the EUR currency and select "Set as primary currency".
- Click on the three dots to the right of US Dollars and select "Remove Currency".
- Now you will be asked whether you want to “Debit” or “Convert” (I chose “Convert”)
- Paypal now uses the current exchange rate to determine the value of the credit in the USD currency
- Clicking on “Continue” shows the final balance again and you confirm with “Convert”
- Now you confirm again with “Done” and get to the question whether you want to remove US dollars as currency (complete the process here with “Remove currency”)
During the whole campaign I took screenshots that I would like to include here so that you can find the corresponding buttons and menus.
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Jens has been running the blog since 2012. He acts as Sir Apfelot for his readers and helps them with technical problems. In his spare time he rides electric unicycles, takes photos (preferably with the iPhone, of course), climbs around in the Hessian mountains or hikes with the family. His articles deal with Apple products, news from the world of drones or solutions to current bugs.