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Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer

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Re: Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer

#221

Post by rchowe »

What is the secret sauce to TransferWise? Are banks greedy, or do they have access to an exchange market that nobody else does? I've avoided them because whenever I look up wire transfer fees I get their SEO'd blog posts, but it seems from this thread that they have a legitimately good product.

I use a local bank account for incoming wires so that, if there is a problem, I can go down to the bank and talk to someone in person instead of being subject to the customer service whims of a tech startup. For me, that's worth the $10/transfer fee (though I bill in USD so I don't see forex or origination fees).

Re: Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer

#222

Post by vivab0rg »

nanexcool wrote: post #134
needle0 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are stablecoins viable in the real world for this kind of use case? Anyone have any firsthand experience?

I live in Argentina and have been getting paid in Dai (stablecoin on Ethereum) for over 2 years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHji4x5C1q0

I'm also in Argentina. Do you use a service or provider for this? How do you turn your DAI into cash? Thanks for your insight!

Re: Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer

#223

Post by alephnan »

rchowe wrote: post #221

What is the secret sauce to TransferWise? Are banks greedy, or do they have access to an exchange market that nobody else does? I've avoided them because whenever I look up wire transfer fees I get their SEO'd blog posts, but it seems from this thread that they have a legitimately good product. I use a local bank account for incoming wires so that, if there is a problem, I can go down to the bank and talk to someone…

> Are banks greedy

And Western Union.

*I've worked at one of the major remittance companies.

Re: Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer

#224

Post by emptysongglass »

shadowprofile77 wrote: post #184
StavrosK wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have similarly been bitten by them. I tried to test the service by transferring $40ish or something small like that that from one of my accounts to another, and they told me they're not doing it and are shutting my account permanently, but they can't tell me why. This was my first transfer on my first ever account with them, it's not like I had any prior history with them. Woo.

This. It is so absolutely, positively, disgustingly maddening to see companies like Stripe, Paypal, now apparently transferwise as well, based on this and other comments I've read, simply freeze accounts for seemingly trivial "violations" of some obscure TOC and then not only permanently ban you for what was in 99% of cases an honest mistake, but also simply refuse to state why they do so. What is the bloody fucking…

I wish you hadn't led with a "this" but man you put words to my heart.

It is so brazenly unjust, it strikes me right at the firmament of my being. If this is AML and KYC and not the financial institutions, why aren't there advocacy groups standing up against this gross mistreatment?

Re: Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer

#225

Post by ValentineC »

jkaplowitz wrote: post #198
shadowprofile77 wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. It is so absolutely, positively, disgustingly maddening to see companies like Stripe, Paypal, now apparently transferwise as well, based on this and other comments I've read, simply freeze accounts for seemingly trivial "violations" of some obscure TOC and then not only permanently ban you for what was in 99% of cases an honest mistake, but also simply refuse to state why they do so. What is the bloody fucking…

I don't know the specifics of any of the companies you've listed, but I do know that financial institutions can't generally tell customers when they're doing something like filing a Suspicious Activity Report. I suspect one such report got filed for me or a nonprofit I volunteered with when I came across the Canada-US border a few years back to deposit several Canada Post USD money orders plus a single US$20 bill int…

> My reason for suspecting this is how many people came over to the teller's desk to help with handling the deposit, and how long it took with mostly periods of silence. But that said, the deposit happened just fine with no objections raised and no follow-up inquiries reaching me or the nonprofit.

Just confirming what I've read: you suspect that a report was filed, but your non-profit's account has not been closed by the bank?

Re: Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer

#226

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

rchowe wrote: post #221

What is the secret sauce to TransferWise? Are banks greedy, or do they have access to an exchange market that nobody else does? I've avoided them because whenever I look up wire transfer fees I get their SEO'd blog posts, but it seems from this thread that they have a legitimately good product. I use a local bank account for incoming wires so that, if there is a problem, I can go down to the bank and talk to someone…

The secret sauce is that TW doesn't actually do currency exchange.

They have their own pools of different currencies, and receive/disburse into/from those pools rather than selling/buying.

So if you send $100 to someone who will receive EU, TW doesn't actually change $100 into EU; they credit your $100 to their dollar pool, and pay the recipient from their EU pool. As long as the pool sizes remain well matched with the inflow/outflow in that currency, TW isn't actually having to deal with any currency conversion at all.

This is simultaneously similar to and utterly different from what banks have done for international transfers. The difference is that TW is free to take on the risk of the rates changing because the risk is reduced substantively.

Re: Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer

#227

Post by markdown »

sho wrote: post #162
markdown wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

So what exactly do you want? The law might be stupid, I agree it's stupid, but it's the bloody law. You wanted TW to break the law just to help our your friend? Then guess what happens? No more TW. It is literally the first item in the AUP that you're not allowed to use the service for anything unlawful. Of course they monitor that. They did everything right. And I'm sure your "friend" got their money back reasonably…

> It is literally the first item in the AUP that you're not allowed to use the service for anything unlawful.

Again, kava isn't unlawful. It's a food product. The UK law says it is illegal to import kava for consumption, and illegal to trade in it in the UK.

TransferWise is neither trading in kava, nor importing it into the UK.

All they're doing is moving money from one person to another, neither of whom is in the UK or importing kava into the UK.

Re: Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer

#228

Post by sealthedeal »

notdang wrote: post #202
sealthedeal wrote: post #192

I am the CEO of Routefusion (routefusion.co). While we don't handle individual international freelancer payments, we have the most comprehensive API for companies to send cross-border/international payments to contractors, or SMBs, etc. Based on my experience, here are some recommendations for whom I would use in no particular order. Deel (letsdeel.com): They are an amazing option for paying and hiring freelancers/re…

I think you are missing the main point why so many prefer Payoneer. It's not about the fees, it's about having a card in a different country that your fiscal residency country.

Makes sense. They are a great company, so I imagine customers have lots of reasons for using them.

Re: Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer

#229

Post by stustustu »

plantain wrote: post #188
Youden wrote: post #157

FWIW, where possible, I advise having both a TransferWise account and a Revolut or Interactive Brokers account. TransferWise is fantastic for receiving money. They have local bank accounts in USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, NZD and PLN. However for sending money and converting money, their fees can really suck: for $10k USD -> EUR (EURUSD is one of the most liquid forex pairs), they charge 81 USD in fees, or %0.8. Even for local…

FYI Transferwise doesn't have NZD accounts currently, and they have no schedule for restoring them.

Really my one is working fine

Re: Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer

#230

Post by saym »

Havoc wrote: post #220
Youden wrote: post #157

FWIW, where possible, I advise having both a TransferWise account and a Revolut or Interactive Brokers account. TransferWise is fantastic for receiving money. They have local bank accounts in USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, NZD and PLN. However for sending money and converting money, their fees can really suck: for $10k USD -> EUR (EURUSD is one of the most liquid forex pairs), they charge 81 USD in fees, or %0.8. Even for local…

>They process your orders directly against the forex market Sorta. Orders below 25k are odd lots https://ibkb.interactivebrokers.com/node/1459

From that page, it looks like odd lots are still transacted damn near the same rate. '1 to 2 basis points' off would be .01-.02% extra
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