Ever gotten stuck getting paid from clients instantly? How about getting paid in local currency from your favourite freelance network? No? What if you live in a country that isn’t fully supported by PayPal yet or doesn’t have it? If any of the above cases is true for you, then Payoneer is your go-to answer.
The Payoneer payment solution supports online billing, local currency withdrawals, payments to other users. It is available as a payment option in many of the freelance marketplaces such as Fiverr, Upwork, Guru, Freelancer.com etc. Payoneer also happens to be integrated with many of the top Affiliate marketing networks to ensure smooth and timely payouts.
The service is available for Entrepreneurs, Freelancers, Bloggers, Amazon Sellers, Small businesses and even companies with a global workforce. Let’s take a look at what they offer and how you can signup for their service.
Receive Payments
Very much like PayPal, Payoneer too is readily available as a payment option in freelance networks such as Guru, Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer.com & seller marketplaces such as Amazon, NewEgg, Getty Images, Envato etc. This is great since most people don’t live in countries that match the currency of the marketplace with the currency of withdrawal. With Payoneer offering a USD account (in addition to GBP, EUR, JPY, CNY and AUD) you don’t lose out on the conversion charges. When you are ready to withdraw, you pay the conversion rate according to that day. Mind you, Payoneer’s conversion rate is a reasonable 1 to 1.5% lesser than that of banks and PayPal. Some points to keep in mind:
- Payoneer gives virtual bank account numbers in your name for USD, GBP, EUR, AUD, CNY (via CNH), JPY and CAD. They call this the Global Payment Service and the currency list is growing.
- Using bank accounts is limited as you can receive via company accounts local to that currency only. Hence only business payments from the USA can be paid to you in USD or only business payments from the UK can be paid to you in GBP etc.
Bill Clients
The Payoneer billing service is another cool feature offered in many countries straight away. Essentially, the billing service allows the Payoneer account holder to send payment requests via Payoneer to clients. Clients can be existing Payoneer users or outside of it. They can pay via Credit & Debit Cards issued by Visa and MasterCard in over 200 countries, eCheck and local bank transfer. While eCheck and local bank transfers are limited to people residing in US for USD payments, UK and Ireland for GBP payments and SEPA member countries for Euro payments; cards are available everywhere. A couple of things to keep in mind when using the billing service:
- There is a 3% fee when paying by card. For USD payments clients can choose who pays the fee. For others (GBP and EUR, there is no choice and the amount is deducted from the payment/invoice amount.)
- There is a 2 day waiting/loading period for the payment to clear from card payments. No waiting period if the invoice is paid from a Payoneer balance.
- The GBP billing service is severely lacking. For me, the failure rate is at around 40-45%. Payment can fail for days on end and then suddenly starts working or doesn’t work the first time around and then on the second immediate attempt, it works.
Withdraw Money
The Payoneer Prepaid card is issued by MasterCard which means that it can be used globally to pay for shopping at POS terminals and to withdraw cash at ATMs in over 200 countries. There is a fee of course, however, its what you expect to pay for using any bank card overseas. You can add multiple bank accounts to Payoneer as long as you can prove that they belong to you or you have a reason to withdraw your money there. For instance, a business bank account will not match your given name however, you can withdraw your money to it if you can prove that you are a partner or owner of that business. Thankfully, their questionnaire is straightforward and easy to use. Proving your ID is simple and doesn’t take too much time.
Here’s what we’ve discovered so far when using Payoneer:
- There is a minimum amount of $/£/€ 50.00 for a withdrawal.
- Local currency withdrawals to personal accounts are on the same day regardless of the day and time.
- Payoneer FX rates for local currency withdrawals and/or any fees charged by them is shown before you agree to the transfer.
- Withdrawal to a business account takes longer and depends on the withdrawal country’s banking policies.
- Payoneer’s partner for processing withdrawals in local currencies is Earthport. You’ll need that info to get to the bottom of withdrawals when things go awry.
- You cannot convert currencies or move funds within your Payoneer account.
- You can get the Payoneer MasterCard for GBP and EUR currencies as well. However, that is subject to its own fees.
Other Benefits
The best thing about Payoneer is how it continues to grow its service offerings to users. Unlike PayPal, which till last week was stuck within its own ecosystem, Payoneer is well ahead when it comes to global reach and affordability. Some of their other services are listed here:
Pay VAT: Yes, you read that right. You can pay your VAT dues directly from Payoneer to European and British authorities. This ties in directly with seller marketplaces where VAT dues and their filing can be cumbersome when you start making serious money.
Generate bills from software and get paid online: Xero, Time Doctor, Envoice and Green-invoice are some of invoicing and billing software already integrated with Payoneer.
Sell on Marketplaces: We mentioned this before, however, you can have fully functional Amazon Marketplace accounts and get paid via Payoneer. You can read all about that in detail here.
Conclusion
Payoneer has its hiccups like any other service, however, they continue to evolve, and respond to the needs of their customers. Their customer support could do with a lot of improvement and some things on their platform just don’t make sense to me (such as minimum payment threshold when paying another Payoneer customer). However, they are here with a service that allows the rest of us to get paid on time and from anywhere in the world.