Most affordable to pay for buying on foreign sites

[arnprasad]

Hi..i routinely buy on ebay, Amazon outside India - can be US, UK ..whatever. I also routinely buy on aliexpress, banggod, gearbest..etc including paypal. In almost all of these cases, they charge 7-8% more than the standard exchange rate. Being a CA I understand the logic behind this - but am sure between these sites and different ways of paying - there are better ways.. Hence based on your experience - you can clarify on the following:

(a) Given that we have limited options of buying on US, UK sites - any preference between the sites? not all sites offer us the option of paying by Indian credit cards
(b) Once you choose the site - is there a better way of paying? say credit card vs paypal, if we have a choice?
(c) Amazon offers you the option of paying in USD vs INR - but I see they more or less cost us the same
(d) During last weeks black friday sale - I Bought google mini on Google Express - surprisingly - they charged me less than 65 per USD compared to 69-70 by others - but then they may not have everything we want.

Reason I ask is that I bought a mavic pro for 900 dollars on ebay. While the cost itself is prohibitive and sometimes depressing - when you learn you pay 5 rupees extra FX - thats 4500 of extra FX charges I want to avoid if I can.

many thanks in advance for all your responses!:clapping:

 

[reignofchaos]

My SBI Visa Signature gives me forex conversion at 2% markup + GST. Far cheaper than using the site based converters/Paypal. Also foreign currency transactions give me more points.