Writers love to freelance for a number of reasons — you can choose your hours, pick your favourite topics, and wear boxers and t-shirts at least 80% of the time.
For me, this career has mostly been motivated by my two great loves: literature and travel. But it turns out the two don’t go hand-in-hand as easily as you’d hope.
Earning US dollars and UK pounds while spending Mexican pesos sounds pretty ideal, but getting that money into your hands can be an absolute nightmare.
I’m a Canadian freelance writer, currently based in Mexico. Because most of my work is done for US, UK and Canadian clients, I’ve had to juggle all kinds of payment methods to make this business work for me.
Sometimes it’s like trying to extract money from an old shoe; other times I have to barter. For example:
“Okay, I’ll agree to rework the English side of your web site, but only if you build a big carpeted cat house for me as payment!”
“Okay, deal. What colour?”
When all the moons align, getting paid on the go is the best thing in the world. If you’re in search of a solution to the international payment issue, read on for an explanation of the most commonly used payment methods.
Bank transfers
At first glance, being paid via a bank transfer is fairly straightforward. The client sends a payment, and in a few days that money you’ve earned is sitting in your bank account.
But wait! Where did these fees come from, and why has your money just disappeared into the digiverse?
Here’s how a bank transfer works:
- An account holder requests that money be taken from his or her bank account and placed into the account of another person.
- The bank needs the account details and in the case of international transfers, a SWIFT code. Simple!
- Here’s the catch – until that payment reaches its destination, there is literally no one at either bank that can tell you its status. It’s just… somewhere.
Waiting for an invisible, untraceable lump sum to make its appearance is stressful, and there are transfer fees that will reduce the final amount. Although bank transfers are usually successful, they aren’t ideal when you need your cash quickly.
Wire transfer
Wire transfers are incredibly quick, and can get you out of a financial jam just in time. Unfortunately, you’ll have to prepare yourself to lose a good chunk of your pay to fees, and hope the client remembers to stop by Western Union on the way home.
Wire transfers are the same as bank transfers, except that they can be performed by businesses that are not banks. This is why you’ll see Western Union signs in the Post Office, or MoneyGram counters in the grocery store.
Transactions at these places are very straightforward, easy and super quick. All you need is your passport and the transaction number, and in some cases you can have your cash in your hands just an hour or so after the client sends it.
The problem with wire transfer companies is that the fees are stiff. Although sending the money is usually free of charge, collecting it will cost you upwards of $22 at Western Union and $15 from MoneyGram.
Cheques
Yes, there are people still writing cheques in the digital age!
Usually, for international bloggers, this involves Bank One (home of the funds) talking to Bank Two (future home of the funds) and disagreeing. If that cheque is from another country? Forget it. Better just mail the cheque to your mom to deposit and transfer to you another way.
When a cheque from another country is deposited into a local bank, it takes one working week to clear – and that’s only if the currencies match. So, not too shabby for members of the European Union, because Euros make that match easy.
For all cheques deposited with a different currency than the local bank, however, it may take close to two months to clear.
PayPal
PayPal is my go-to payment plan for 99% of my work.
I can access it from my laptop, receive payments from most other countries, and finally deposit that account balance into a real, physical bank in whichever country I’m currently calling home. The process takes less than one working week.
Fees apply when you receive money for services rendered, in which case you’ll be charged 2.9% of the total funds you received, plus the equivalent of USD $0.30. If you’re receiving payments from a content agency or some other kind of intermediary between you and the client, then the transaction fees may be paid by the issuing agency.
The only real annoying thing about using PayPal is the setup process. My original Canadian PayPal account managed to connect to my TD Bank account with virtually no problems. In Mexico, however, I discovered that I could only connect to a local bank with a specifically Mexican PayPal account.
When connecting the two, I faced a lot of confusion from local bank tellers, and it wasn’t just the language barrier. When my accounts were finally connected, I faced a further problem: a cap on the total amount of transfers I could make each month, due to my being an “unverified client.” The cap was a measly USD $500!
To work around that limitation, I was forced to set up a PayPal account for my fiancé, and then connect it to his regular bank account. Each month, I would send myself $500, and then send Pepe $500 via PayPal. Then, he would transfer that money to his bank account, and voilà, we had a whole $1000!
This was okay for me at the time, because my rent was only the equivalent of $274. Viva México! The problem was later solved by setting up an online credit card with Entropay – another long and complicated process.
Cash
Cash! It’s a wondrous way to be paid, and oh-so-rare.
To make cash payments happen, I’ve done writing for local businesses wherever I happen to be travelling. You can do it too!
It’s possible to find local, cash work in a near-infinite number of ways once you start thinking about it. For example, take note of all those badly translated restaurant menus and reviews you find in non-English speaking places, and offer to fix them up for a cash fee.
E-transfers via debit
Interac, also called debit and EFTPOS (plus I’m sure plenty of other country-specific names) is another method of moving money from one account to another. These all fall under the umbrella of e-transfers.
Interac is a service that comes with your bank’s debit card, meaning that when you make a purchase you can pay simply by swiping your card and withdrawing money directly from your bank balance.
In some cases, it’s possible to use your Interac or an equivalent service to get paid.
Your client will have to access his or her provider via phone or web, and request to send money to your email address. In this way, e-transfers are similar to PayPal. The difference is that Interac transfers are viable only if yours and the client’s accounts are both in the same country.
Bill.com
This is an interesting option for freelance bloggers in the United States. Bill.com allows freelancers to choose a payment option (your choices are PayPal, credit card or e-transfer), send invoices to clients and receive funds quickly. Bill.com will send the invoices for you if you choose, either via email or paper mail. Although I haven’t used Bill.com, it seems like a pretty good option for dealing with US-based clients.
Don’t panic, but things will still go wrong
As hard as you try, international and even local payments will still pull at your last nerves sometimes.
About a month ago I was set to receive a bank transfer from a UK client into my Mexican bank account. When it was late, I went up to the bank teller to ask what the deal was. The conversation (in Spanish) went something like this:
Me: My UK money transfer has not showed up in this account. I am worried that because your bank only has one central SWIFT code, it may have been transferred to Mexico City instead of here.
Bank Teller: What is a SWIFT code?
Me: Umm. It’s the code that every bank has so that other banks can identify it and send money? Yours is AZTKMXMM?
Bank Teller: Well I don’t know about that. Where is the money coming from?
Me: England! It was supposed to be here four days ago!
Bank Teller: Oh, well, you just have to wait longer.
Sadly, this conversation was not all that surprising to me. I remember a few years ago trying to take money off a Canadian credit card at a British bank, and they looked at me as if I were an alien.
Banks are terrible places full of people who only know the simplest answers to your simplest questions. At least, that’s how it feels when you’re waiting for a payment and nobody can tell you anything but “keep waiting.”
Make the process as easy on yourself as you can. Plan way, way ahead, always keep some emergency money in your pocket, and if necessary, have clients send money to your family or friends who can then PayPal it to you for further “processing.”
The truth is you’ll figure out your own special system for getting paid, and once you do, life is going to be pretty golden. People will ask you what you do for a living, and then gasp in jealousy at the response. “I want to do that!” they’ll say. “Tell me how to do that!”
And you’ll just smile mysteriously, go back to sipping your cocktail at 11am on a Wednesday, and realize you’re one of the luckiest people in the world.
Christina E says
Hahahahaha! Such an amusing and informative post. Thanks for your amazing problem solving skills and optimism! You’ve definitely chosen the right career.
John Coutts says
I’m Scottish and I live in Spain, and over the years, I’ve faced most of the problems you mention. I had an established writing business before I came to live in Spain, though, which definitely helped.
However, I discovered that I had to set up a new PayPal account for Spain in order to connect my new Spanish bank to the PayPal account. I use PayPal for almost everything. They take off 3.9% plus 30 cents in fees, which is a bit hard to swallow, but I can claim it against tax as a legitimate expense of doing business.
Here in Spain every business has to register their activity. That was fun! The local government department dealing with that had never encountered a freelance writer working entirely online with international clients before, and had no idea what to do.
They eventually classified me as something artistic, which was actually a good thing as it allows me to be quite flexible in what I can do. For example, if your activity is classed as plumbing, that’s all you can legally do. If someone offers you work digging a ditch, you can’t do it through your plumbing business, at least, not legally. But having my activity classed as artistic has a lot of flexibility, should I choose to explore other avenues.
My accountant has struggled to understand what I do as well. While most of my work is writing and fairly easy to understand, I do some Internet marketing as an affiliate for certain products as well. Trying to convince my accountant that I could not charge sales tax on an affiliate commission was also fun. She finally understood, but it was a struggle.
The new EU VAT tax law that came in on the first of January this year looked like a nightmare in the making, until I discovered (my accountant didn’t!) that I am exempt from charging VAT tax in the buyer’s EU country. It all has to do with automation; I, like most writers, I imagine, deliver the product manually, as and when required to the client’s specification, and that situation, because it is not a digitally delivered automated system, is thankfully exempt from the new tax rules here in Europe.
John.
Lauren says
Hi John
I’m also from Scotland but currently living in California and working as a freelance writer. I’d be keen to touch base with you on the new EU VAT laws as I’m returning to live in France soon and it would be great to chat about your experiences, tips, ideas if you were happy to do that?
John Coutts says
Hi Lauren,
No problem. If you want to discuss the new EU VAT laws, or what I understand of them, at least, send me a message to my email (contact@writesystem.com), rather than continue here in the comments section.
Regards,
John.
Anthony Dejolde says
Hi Mandy,
Thank you for sharing all these. I’ve been freelance writing for more than two years now, but I just use one system to get paid. I only use Paypal. I don’t want to put Paypal in a bad light, but the fees are too heavy for freelancers like us.
I’m quite intrigued with your strategy to get the full amount of your income using your fiance’s Paypal account and your own Paypal account. It’s wonderful, although, I would appreciate if you can elaborate some more on this?
Why do you have to send separate $500 on each of your Paypal accounts and then have him transfer the $500 to your account? And what’s the reason why you get the full amount?
Like you I would like to get the full amount of my income. Do you suggest that I open a Paypal account for my wife and then imitate your strategy to get the full amount of the writing fees sent to me?
I also want to share this: one time I got paid via https://www.xoom.com/. It takes 2 to 4 days to receive your income using this service. I found some other interesting ways to get paid and to send cash from one country to another. Here’s one: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012/03/the-best-ways-to-send-money-abroad/index.htm. And just recently, I unearthed something that absolutely aroused my curiosity. Google is also delving its hands in this business of sending cash to other countries. What’s exciting about it is anyone who has an email address can benefit from this new service. Take a look: http://lifehacker.com/whats-the-best-way-to-send-money-online-1342156640.
Thanks,
Anthony
alisoa florine says
hi, i am a new member so can u help me for anything that can be informed as a freelancer , i like writing ,
Heather says
Hi Mandy,
Funnily enough, I had just been wondering about this very subject over the weekend. PayPal is what I currently use 100% of the time but it did occur to me that there may come a point with a new client who doesn’t use it (or want to use it). Bookmarking this for future reference.
Thanks for info on the various ways to be paid – e-transfers are a new one on me but sound good too!
Best,
Heather
Stephen L. Dalton says
I retired from the US Army in Korea and moved to the Philippines a few years later and started freelancing writing. At first everything was good because I had a Department of Defense (DOD) bank account in Korea, PayPal, and a debit card, but then my DOD account was canceled because I was longer in the Army or Korea. So I set up a bank account in the Philippines, but now with a lot of money in my PayPal account I can get it transferred to my Philippine bank because of the requirement for two small deposits. So, currently I can only use that PayPal money to pay bills online, such as hosting, or order items for those that take PayPal.
Another option is Schwab Free Checking, which you can even set up internationally and overseas ATM fees are refunded, just the ATM fees though. Great system, but of course they do want you to invest in their products.
KB says
Great post, Mandy! So relevant to our shrinking world.
So are there any service that are absolutely free?
If not, which ones are the ones that ensure only the sender pays fees – and, really do work in all countries…?
Alternatively, which are the ones that don’t charge when you transfer the money received within their own system (versus actually transferring it into a real bank…)?
Thank you again for such a useful piece!
claudiacv says
I live in Mexico too. What bank do you recommend for setting up a paypal account? I had given up hope but reading your most made me want to try again.
Diana Marinova says
Good overview, Mandy – Informational post, and funny, too 🙂
I also use PayPal heavily but I also use two options which you didn’t mention – Skrill and Payoneer – you may want to check them out. Hope they work in Mexico 🙂
~ Diana
Daryl says
Collecting money from clients as an international freelancer can be a pain – especially those who don’t use Paypal. Enjoy those 11 am cocktails Mandy.
Lauren says
Great article Mandy and really useful ideas to try as alternatives for getting paid easier.
If anyone uses Freshbooks cloud accounting they might want to check out the deal with PayPal that they are piloting. It only works within the US at the moment but it will save you money on fees with your US clients.
You are charged a flat fee of 0.50 for every transaction instead of the usual percentage fee. Requirements are:
1.US accounts to US clients
2.Valid only for bank or PayPal balance transfers only (no credit cards)
3.Client must have a PayPal account
4.USD only
You can find out more here. http://www.freshbooks.com/support/paypal-business-payments-0-50-flat-fee-transactions.
Another useful option is a Fairfx MasterCard Currency card. You can use it anywhere and transfer money with it. I initially used it as a travel cash card which worked beautifully but you can use it for business too.
You’ll find more details here: https://www.fairfx.com/product/corporate
Thanks again Mandy for the info.
Alicia Rades, BAFB Moderator says
Thanks for the resources. I love the idea of the $0.50 option, but most of my clients are outside the U.S., and the ones that are inside the U.S. generally pay via check, so it’s not the best choice for me. 🙁 Too bad. I wish it worked for international clients.
Elke Feuer says
Great article. A lot of things to think about and consider.
I’ve had wonderful challenges with this. I live in a country (Cayman Islands) that doesn’t work with Paypal when it comes to receiving funds. Thankfully, my clients pay by check (3 weeks to clear and a $10.00 bank fee) or directly to my account for clients based in Cayman. Love those!
I’m relocating to the US next month which means I can receive payment through Paypal. It’ll be interesting to see if I have to create another Paypal account or just add my US account to my existing account. Oh boy!
The fun part will be setting up my business license in the US. I don’t need one where I leave for the type of work I do.
Remi says
Thank you so much Mandy, super useful!
Do you (or anyone else here) know how visa / work authorization factors in? Like, don’t you also need work authorization for the countries whose blogs you’re writing for?
Alicia Rades, BAFB Moderator says
I wouldn’t think so considering you’re an independent contractor, not an employee.
Amanda Tallman says
Being an ex-banker myself, I got a kick out of this article. I also wanted to offer a couple of extra tidbits for anyone dealing with US banks from someone who used to work behind the scenes for two different ones.
– Not all US banks have SWIFT codes. I’ve worked for a small credit union as well as a small savings bank and neither of them had a SWIFT code for incoming international wires. If the bank in the US doesn’t have a SWIFT code, just ask the receiving bank for their wiring instructions (many have wire instructions right on their website). Some banks and credit unions go through a correspondent bank while others get their international wires right through the Fed (banker term for the Federal Reserve Bank) using their routing number.
– In terms of fees, if you’re using a bank in the US and want to avoid fees, make sure to ask if they have a fee for incoming wires. The two banks I worked for didn’t charge fees, however I have banked with institutions that did charge a fee for incoming.
-Due to changing disclosure regulations, some banks and credit unions won’t send international wires anymore. Again, this is why it’s a good idea to ask before doing business somewhere.
If anybody is looking for any more info on dealing with banks in the US, feel free to drop me a line. I “retired” from banking 2 months ago but I do have lots of insight from the 10 years I was in the industry that I can share if anyone needs banking help!
Adolf Nevan says
Hi Mandy,
This is so very informative. As a blogger, I focus on my country only. Now, I can do the blog internationally because of this article. Thank you so much for sharing.
SwiftR says
I tried using Upwork which is better and safe in terms of being paid. There were couple of instances where clients in order to avoid paying me made up a story. They said they couldn’t wire me the payment coz of some issue with some code. Lost precious time but didn’t get paid.