HertogJan: You do known that with PayPal you pay a 5% fee on the currency exchange rate?
Actually it depends on where in the world you are and the type of transaction.
For the UK at least, PayPal receives a quoted wholesale rate twice a day. We then add a 2.5% spread above this rate to determine the retail foreign exchange rate that is applied to transactions involving a currency conversion.
This does not apply though in all cases: for example, when I buy off of Steam with PayPal and my Romanian associated credit card (so not with money in the PayPal account - this is very important to note) I don't get charged anything extra (I don't count VAT here because it is already included in the shown price) and
my bank is the one that does the currency conversion to USD or GBP or whichever currency I'm paying at a known rate (either Mastercards rate or the National Bank of Romania's established rate for the day which all commercial banks must follow) and don't pay any transaction fees or currency exchange fees.
So, if for example I need to pay 10 USD with PayPal, the system goes like this: PayPal asks for auth for my bank and asks for 10 USD, then my bank does a conversion from USD to RON at
my banks established rate then clears the funds.
If I had to pay 10 GBP then the conversion would of been from GBP to RON.
If I had to pay in some really unknown currency that's not rated by BNR (national bank) then the conversion would go unknown currency -> euro (based on some numbers) -> RON.
This
does not apply if you are going the route of transfer money from bank account into PayPal account (this is where that fee I mentioned above applies) and then pay with the money you have in your PayPal account (the available balance).
This whole procedure may depend on your bank and the various changes to the TOS PayPal has in effect in your region.
Also, to clear something out. BNR isn't a commercial bank, they are a sort of state institution that manages finances and relations and regulations that commercial banks (the ones you go to and open account at) must follow.