Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer • Hacker News Board

Re: Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer

#251

Post by xii22 » Tue, Apr 14, 2020, 7:45 PM UTC

novok wrote: post #205

renewiltord wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If $1 = 100 Homeland units through Bitcoin but only 75 Homeland units through currency conversion. Why don't you move 1000 dollars over and bring back $1333.33 and repeat?

It's probably done by government fiat and transferring homeland units to usd probably has a similar penalty to prevent such arbitrage.

Correct! Very surprised you got it!

To elaborate, there is a tax on buying dollars, so although the 'official' price is X, the true price is X + 30% if you want to buy.

I think there might be a possibility for arbitrage eventually, since sometimes the true price is lower than the price you might get for bitcoin but the difference is so minuscule that it would take years to make an interesting profit out of it. Also, it would be a pain in the ass to wire the transfer out of the country, since for example Transferwise doesn't allow you to send money in my homeland's currency, only receive.

Re: Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer

#252

Post by unnouinceput » Wed, Apr 15, 2020, 12:52 AM UTC

Ayesh wrote: post #239

unnouinceput wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try going for long-term projects or creating relationship with your customers. Once you charge them more then 10k USD the rate is ~6%, which is quite nice to have 94 cents on a dollar. It's something Upwork actually encourages, opposite for Fiverr as example

If you reach 10K in payments, it means there's a good level of trust between two parties, at which point even the 5% charge is not necessary. Their messaging and time tracking tools are mediocre at best, and they certainly aren't worth the 5% charge. Payments are held for a week, and it still costs money for the worker to withdraw them. Their local currency withdraw is 2-3% lower than Transferwise.

I have no problem using their messaging, it allows me and my clients to exchange information and upload files too.

The tracking tools is just as it should be. I don't want a keylogger, so the fact that they simply count keystrokes and mouse clicks is good enough to not step too much into privacy zone.

Payments are held for a week in order to allow the paying customer to analyze screenshots, and if necessary to allow for complaints to be filed.

As for local currency withdrawal, I'd say they don't make a dime on that one at all. That's completely based on your local bank currency exchange rate, which is always skewed for them to make a buck too. Also they have plenty of different payment methods. And in the end it doesn't even matter.

Care to share any better online market for freelancers that you're happy with instead Upwork?

Re: Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer

#253

Post by underthensun » Wed, Apr 15, 2020, 7:42 PM UTC

livre wrote: post #165

underthensun wrote: post #149

I find TW amazing but it doesn't ship debit card to my country (due to my over complex government's legislation). Does anyone knows a bank (can be a fintech) that allows me to open an account all online?

Argentina? People have been recommending Payoneer (not a bank) or Dukascopy (online bank). As far as I know Payoneer still ships cards, I'm not sure about Dukascopy. You can open an account 100% online with both of them.

Thanks for your answer! The country is Brazil. Payoneer - fails to meet my needs because there's no direct way to deposit through a bank, even it's my own bank account. Ask someone else to deposit (by the billing service) every time I need is inviable. And it charges 1-3% per deposit by the costumer. So, I would end up paying that per deposit. Also, it’s too hacky. Dukascopy – I’m researching this one, you give the best answer so far. Allow non-residents to open an account, some fees nonexistent (monthly, annually or inactivity), doesn’t seem to be bureaucratic, the support seems good (even one for my native language is available), ship the card to my country, the bank seems really solid. Sounds really good. I’m finishing my review, looking for good and bad experiences of current uses and possible hidden fees. If you have anything to say about this bank, please, let me know too. :)

Re: Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer

#254

Post by fierarul » Fri, Apr 17, 2020, 9:50 AM UTC

brudgers wrote: post #180

fierarul wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, easy, just charge more! I wonder why doesn't everybody just do it? Because it's non-trivial, it involves risk and you might end up making less money! While cost saving has almost no risk. Here's a relevant piece of the article: > But what if it's a 6-month project and instead of billing them 1000 per month, you are billing them 10.000 per month? > Now you could have saved €150 per month for 6 months, meaning you…

Charging more is harder than shopping for ways to save money and less pleasurable than dreaming of new MacBooks. Yes there is risk. Mostly of rejection. And rejection is painful and saving money sounds like what a responsible adult does and charging more just because you can doesn’t come with universal social approval. Your clients know this if they are hard negotiating on fees they are using that knowledge to their…

> charging more just because you can

You can try to charge more, but it's rarely obvious you will receive that extra money.

Currency risk is a cost of doing exports. Of course, sometimes it's also advantageous if your local currency is devaluing against the customer's currency.

Re: Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer

#255

Post by livre » Sat, Apr 18, 2020, 4:05 PM UTC

underthensun wrote: post #253

livre wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Argentina? People have been recommending Payoneer (not a bank) or Dukascopy (online bank). As far as I know Payoneer still ships cards, I'm not sure about Dukascopy. You can open an account 100% online with both of them.

Thanks for your answer! The country is Brazil. Payoneer - fails to meet my needs because there's no direct way to deposit through a bank, even it's my own bank account. Ask someone else to deposit (by the billing service) every time I need is inviable. And it charges 1-3% per deposit by the costumer. So, I would end up paying that per deposit. Also, it’s too hacky. Dukascopy – I’m researching this one, you give the b…

Sorry for replying a bit late, I'm new here and not getting notifications for replies is something I'm not used to. We have a similar problem with Payoneer, so many restrictions that it's very difficult to deposit to our banks so people go to Uruguay and use their ATMs to get cash or alternatively they use the Payoneer card to buy things. Unfortunately I have zero experience with Dukascopy, if you have a Reddit account you can try asking in /r/Argentina or /r/merval, some people there have accounts with that bank.

Re: Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer

#256

Post by underthensun » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 8:47 PM UTC

livre wrote: post #255

underthensun wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for your answer! The country is Brazil. Payoneer - fails to meet my needs because there's no direct way to deposit through a bank, even it's my own bank account. Ask someone else to deposit (by the billing service) every time I need is inviable. And it charges 1-3% per deposit by the costumer. So, I would end up paying that per deposit. Also, it’s too hacky. Dukascopy – I’m researching this one, you give the b…

Sorry for replying a bit late, I'm new here and not getting notifications for replies is something I'm not used to. We have a similar problem with Payoneer, so many restrictions that it's very difficult to deposit to our banks so people go to Uruguay and use their ATMs to get cash or alternatively they use the Payoneer card to buy things. Unfortunately I have zero experience with Dukascopy, if you have a Reddit accou…

Yeah, the lack of notifications of hacker new is unsual. I did alot of research on Dukascopy, including on reddit. It seems that bank really fit my needs. Thank you very much for that suggestion.