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Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer

blog.jurn.io

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Re: Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer

#31

Post by markdown »

emdowling wrote: post #6

I’m a former TransferWise employee and I cannot speak more highly of them. Yes, they aim to make money like every business, but I’ve never seen a company so focused on transparency to customers. The CEO intensely interrogates roadmaps from the customer perspective, and fairness to customers is non-negotiable. Their economy of scale enables them to offer increasingly lower fees, but I can speak first hand to the pain…

> fairness to customers is non-negotiable.

Nice try, TransferWise CEO.

I know someone who had their money frozen because they made the mistake of mentioning that the money being sent was for kava. You simply can't trust TransferWise to put their customers first.

Re: Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer

#32

Post by msadowski »

EastSmith wrote: post #21

I am receiving SWIFT payments each months in EU as a commercial entity. I am invoicing in USD, providing a bank account number, where the money I receive are automatically converted to the local currency (not EUR). Just checked the exchange rate on TransferWise and it seems it is way better than any bank exchange rate in my country (not EUR). So, what I am concerned about right now is taxes. It seems I can create an…

I don't think you are liable for any taxes just because you have a bank account in some place. If your company is registered outside of the US and you are not an US citizen then you shouldn't have to pay taxes there but as someone in tgis thread said - better ask an accountant.

Re: Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer

#33

Post by ashleysmithgpu »

Just to add a dissenting voice to the conversation, I recently attempted to transfer some money with transferwise and they refused just after I had uploaded all of my ID etc. In the end I went with worldremit and they were much easier to deal with. Slightly more expensive but I'd choose that over the hassle of tw.

Re: Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer

#34

Post by stared »

As a freelancer often working remotely: I have a great experience with Revolut Business.

From time to time I used TransferWise, and I am happy with the service. However, it is a transfer, not an account. For some contracts (universities in various places) a bank account is a must, so to fulfill local procedures. Revolut Business works like a bank account (including SWIFT transfer) with seamless exchanges between accounts. I created an account specifically to be paid in SGD (Singaporean dollar). If I used my "normal" bank account, the charges would be enormous (effective ~10%).

Re: Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer

#35

Post by eckesicle »

My wife runs a small research startup in the UK and their clients are almost exclusively based in the developing world (ranging from the likes of Kenya to South Sudan and Myanmar).

They are having difficulties receiving payments from many clients because: * They're a small company so many traditional banks aren't interested in banking them because they perceive risk to be too high (I guess from an AML standpoint?) * TW does not support receiving funds from these countries.

There just doesn't seem to exist a reliable way to receive money from many of these countries. Does anyone know of a solution or bank that offers this kind of service?

Re: Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer

#39

Post by bromuro »

emdowling wrote: post #6

I’m a former TransferWise employee and I cannot speak more highly of them. Yes, they aim to make money like every business, but I’ve never seen a company so focused on transparency to customers. The CEO intensely interrogates roadmaps from the customer perspective, and fairness to customers is non-negotiable. Their economy of scale enables them to offer increasingly lower fees, but I can speak first hand to the pain…

I am using TransferWise since a year now to support my digital nomad business. Couldn’t be happier — The app is beautiful, it always worked, transfers are quick, and it is even cheap. Support is great too.

Can’t thanks them enough for their business: traveling with my primitive European bank was a nightmare.

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