ebay/paypal woes--can't get it to change to UK account

I had a nightmare of a time trying to make a purchase on ebay yesterday.  Won an auction on something I've been wanting, but it took me forever to get the account to show I was even here in the UK.  There was some funny glitch in it.  I did get my addresses and such changed over finally, but the account was still showing up in US dollars even for UK purchases.  I read that you need to put a credit card for some countries (US included) to change the currency setting, but I couldn't get it to accept a credit card for me.

I was going to just delete it and start from scratch with a UK account, but read in the help section that if you delete an account on ebay, you can never use that email addy again for an ebay account--seems a bit harsh to me.  I want my ebay stuff to come to the email I actually use so I can stay up to date on payment problems or auctions I'm interested in.

Once I finally got the addresses changed, I tried to pay for my item, but couldn't for the life of me get my paypal account to change to a UK one.  I don't want my US paypal!!  I'm so frustrated at the moment.  The seller only accepted paypal, so I couldn't pay by some other means.  I emailed them asking for another way to pay, but haven't heard back since it's a weekend.  I went back in to try to fix the problem and accidentally hit a button that then said my paypal payment had gone through.  The only info paypal had was for a bank account which was closed in the States.  I kept looking for an email saying there was a problem with my payment so I could try to correct it, but none has come.  I'm wondering if it somehow went through still and the bank my account was closed in is still going to charge me somehow.

The help sections aren't coming up with anything helpful.  Surely there are others who have worked around this.  How does one change their paypal account to a UK one from an American one?

I had the same, but it was 3 years ago so I am a bit scruffy in how I did it. However here is what I have now:

1. I changed over the location and preferences for my Ebay account to the UK. There are instructions in Ebay help to state how to do this. See here:
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/account/updating-registration-information.html

2. I setup a new paypal account for paypal UK. This of course requires a second email address. So I have 2 Gmail accounts, 1 for the US and 1 for the UK. The UK one automatically forwards all emails to my US account which I use as my primary email.

In setting up the UK account you also will have to go through all the security checks again, including the telephone ring back check. My account is not the same level as the US account but for basic needs is sufficient for me.

3. Now when using Ebay I have the choice at payment to use my US or UK paypal account. I log in with the one I choose and complete the transaction with that account.

For what it's worth, I did it pretty much the same way.  I have a yahoo.com email address and a yahoo.co.uk email address, so it's worked pretty well.  Nowadays most of my email comes to my yahoo.co.uk account anyway, I basically only keep an eye on the other one if I'm doing something with PayPal or eBay.

I ended up doing it this way because I finally gave up on getting in touch with PayPal.  It seemed (at that time anyway) impossible to even find a phone number for them to ring them up to tell them there was a problem...I don't remember if any of my emails were responded to.

They did phone me up, though, because part of the reason I set things up this way was to transfer student loan funds from my US bank to my UK bank.  I transferred too much the first time, so they wanted to make sure I wasn't doing anything illegal.  They took my word for it that it was what it was, student loan funds.     But also kept their word not to call me again due to large transfers, as it was student loan funds...

Can't you just select "profile" and then click on funding options-that will show your primary account. Then click on "add" funding source. There should be a drop down menu to select country and then add an account or debit/credit card That's what I did. In fact, I've got US and UK banking and credit cards linked to the same email address.

There is a phone number in paypal, but it's well hidden-go to the bottom of the page in small print and click on "contact us".

There are all sorts of seemingly odd restrictions in the system.

I've had a PayPal account registered to my U.K. address but denominated in U.S. dollars for several years, with which I had no problems.  Then PayPal announced that all U.K. account holders would move to the U.K. system, even with U.S. dollar accounts, and suddenly I seem unable to use certain options.

For example, previously I could always select to charge a payment for an eBay item to my credit card, even if my U.S. dollar PayPal balance had more than enough to cover it (useful with fluctuating exchange rates).  There now appears to be no option to do that:  If the balance is sufficient to cover the amount, it just won't let you charge to your credit card instead.   

I did set up another paypal account using a different gmail addy like you said.  It worked out okay.  Thanks so much. 

I was surprised by some of the weird things that came up before I was able to do that though.  It just wouldn't do certain thing.  Like when I changed my country in my profile and the name box disappeared entirely, but when I put the addy in it came back saying I'd left the name blank and needed to fill it in, but there was no space at all for a name b/c it had disappeared when I changed the country.  At another point I managed to get my name fixed and changed the country to UK, but it still had a "state" box and wouldn't let me proceed without entering a state.  I think I really got ebay on a bad day yesterday!  I'm fairly technologically sound, but couldn't get basic things to work right.  They kept reverting to my US account.

I also tried to change the currency.  I changed it the way the help menu told me to, but it stayed in US dollars.  I then read that some of the bigger countries have to have a credit card in that currency attached, which I tried to do, but it wouldn't work either.  Seriously, it was a bad ebay day!  I think I have it mostly working.  My purchase from yesterday was still billed in dollars instead of pounds, but hopefully I will be able to get future ones in pounds.

Thank you all for the help!

okay, y'all are great.  Thanks for the help.  I just got an email from the seller telling me that this time the payment went through fine and they will dispatch it tomorrow.  I also went back in to ebay and it appears that after making a payment with my uk debit card, it has switched the accounts back over to pounds sterling.  I'm happy again!  It was a crazy amount of work though!

wow...what a hassle.   Good to know though. Thanks for posting about this. I use paypal/ebay a lot too.

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For example, previously I could always select to charge a payment for an eBay item to my credit card, even if my U.S. dollar PayPal balance had more than enough to cover it (useful with fluctuating exchange rates).  There now appears to be no option to do that:  If the balance is sufficient to cover the amount, it just won't let you charge to your credit card instead.   

Have you added the credit card as a permanent option? Becuase I just did that the other day and it was fine. It gives you a screen that warns you that using a  bank account is cheaper and are you sure you want to use a credit card, and you just say yes. Now I'm worried...

good idea- however, only some ebay buyers can accept creditcard/paypal payments.

Have you added the credit card as a permanent option? Becuase I just did that the other day and it was fine.

Yes, I have two credit cards registered, with one set as my primary payment option.  But if my outstanding PayPal balance is sufficient to cover the amount, I no longer seem to be able to charge to the cards. 

For example, say I had $100 balance with PayPal and wanted to pay for something costing $50, it always used to be the case that the system would give me the option of deducting it from the balance or of charging the full $50 to the card.  Now there just seems to be no way of billing to the card and leaving the $100 balance alone.

Similarly, say the balance was $100 and I wanted to pay for something costing $125.  Previously, I could choose to use the $100 balance and charge the remaining $25 to my card, or leave the $100 intact and charge the full $125 to the card.  Now only the former option seems to be available.

Whether this is something to do with the fact that I have a U.S. dollar PayPal account linked with U.K. pound Sterling credit cards since the creation of the separate European branch of PayPal, I don't know.   

Oh, ,I see. I never leave balances in my account-I always move it to my checking account. maybe that's why?

Is that an option for you?

I hadn't thought about doing that, but it's a possibility.   

The PayPal change isn't a huge problem, but the old system was convenient sometimes to leave a U.S. dollar balance and have a purchase charged directly to my U.K. card to manipulate the exchange rate to my best advantage.

I think some of the changes have been forced by PayPal's move of accounts with U.K. addresses to the separate European branch, as presumably they are then regulated by the U.K. credit card rules.   To give another example, I just bought something from the U.S. and charged it to my credit card via PayPal.   A couple of days later the seller sent me a note that he was passing on a small postage discount and sent a credit through for $1.46.  Instead of that just appearing in my PayPal balance as it would have done in the past, it was immediately moved out of the account as a 76 pence refund to my card.

I'm guessing that's because the U.K. card regulations require that if you pay for something in a shop with your card and then take it back for a refund, the shop is obliged to refund the amount to your card, not just give you cash instead.