How do you manage your payments? What about transfer fees? What do you use and is the best? Autor vlákna: Brigita Marković
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Brigita Marković
Chorvatsko
Local time: 23:25
Člen (2023)
chorvatština -> němčina
+ ...
Please advise me what to use for my clients for payments (bank account, pay pal or something else) I am new here.
Thanx.
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I only accept payments either via bank transfer (EU clients) or through Wise + TransferMate (non-EU clients). No Paypal – it‘s slow, expensive and cumbersome…
| | | | | | Samuel Murray 
Nizozemsko
Local time: 23:25
Člen (2006)
angličtina -> afrikánština
+ ...
Brigita Marković wrote:
Please advise me what to use for my clients for payments (bank account, pay pal or something else).
It's best to ask someone else from Croatia what they prefer.
You should offer multiple payment methods so that more clients are able to pay you, but don't use a payment method that is too cumbersome for you. For example, if you have a Western Union office in your own town, you can offer that as a payment method, but if you need to travel half a day to get to a Western Union office, you may wish to rethink it.
It also depends on what payment methods your clients can use. I recommend providing your bank account details, and then get two or three additional payment methods like PayPal. You could wait before signing up to such services until a client requests it, or you could go ahead and register with a few of them already.
So, on your invoice you'd list your banking details (account number, SWIFT number, IBAN number, your bank's name and street address, and your name). Also list the other payment methods that you prefer, e.g. your PayPal email address.
As far as I'm aware, if a client wants to pay you via Wise they still need your banking details (unlike with PayPal, where the client only needs to know what your PayPal username/email address is).
Wise is just a portal for making bank transfers, so it's not really a "payment method" -- but you're welcome to recommend Wise to your clients, of course. The downside of Wise is that the actual steps to make a payment depends on your and the client's countries and currencies, so for each client it's slightly different, and if your client has trouble figuring out the steps, they won't enjoy the experience (and you won't be able to explain to them what to do because the steps for them depend on their country and their currency). This is the upside of something like PayPal -- different clients will all follow roughly the same steps to pay.
Added: with services like PayPal, you may need to supply additional information the first time you receive payments. This is annoying but it's fairly common on such platforms.
[Edited at 2023-07-04 07:04 GMT]
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Sebastian Witte
Německo
Local time: 23:25
Člen (2004)
angličtina -> němčina
+ ...
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Samuel Murray wrote:
You should offer multiple payment methods so that more clients are able to pay you, but don't use a payment method that is too cumbersome for you. For example, if you have a Western Union office in your own town, you can offer that as a payment method, but if you need to travel half a day to get to a Western Union office, you may wish to rethink it.
It also depends on what payment methods your clients can use. I recommend providing your bank account details, and then get two or three additional payment methods like PayPal. You could wait before signing up to such services until a client requests it, or you could go ahead and register with a few of them already.
Both Western Union and PayPal are extremely expensive and both keep up to 8 per cent of the amount (including the cost of a poor exchange rate), which is why I don't use them.
Samuel Murray wrote:
So, on your invoice you'd list your banking details (account number, SWIFT number, IBAN number, your bank's name and street address, and your name). Also list the other payment methods that you prefer, e.g. your PayPal email address.
I only include the one payment method I have agreed with the client, which ensures I won't end up paying exorbitant fees.
Samuel Murray wrote:
As far as I'm aware, if a client wants to pay you via Wise they still need your banking details (unlike with PayPal, where the client only needs to know what your PayPal username/email address is).
Wise is just a portal for making bank transfers, so it's not really a "payment method" -- but you're welcome to recommend Wise to your clients, of course. The downside of Wise is that the actual steps to make a payment depends on your and the client's countries and currencies, so for each client it's slightly different, and if your client has trouble figuring out the steps, they won't enjoy the experience (and you won't be able to explain to them what to do because the steps for them depend on their country and their currency). This is the upside of something like PayPal -- different clients will all follow roughly the same steps to pay.
Samuel clearly isn't up to date on how Wise works, so the above is best ignored.
It's possible for a Wise client to pay into your bank account without your having a Wise account, but this is not the core functionality of Wise. The primary advantage of Wise is that it gives you local bank account numbers in many countries such as the US, the UK, Canada, the EU, Australia and New Zealand that you can give to clients in these countries.
Hence, a US client just needs to make a domestic US ACH bank transfer (and should be told to avoid the very expensive Wire method). Then you get the amount into your USD balance in your Wise account without any fees deducted and can change it to EUR or whatever you like instantly (or deferred if you want to wait until the exchange rate reaches a better value, in which case Wise then changes it automatically). Exchanging currency is done at the live interbank exchange rate with a deduction of a clearly specified fee of about 0.5 per cent (PayPal typically takes 3 per cent). You can keep your money in the various currencies or just one and transfer it to a bank account in any of the currencies when you want. You also get a multicurrency debit card, so Proz members can pay their annual membership fee in USD from their Wise USD account.
Samuel Murray wrote:
Added: with services like PayPal, you may need to supply additional information the first time you receive payments. This is annoying but it's fairly common on such platforms.
Payment service providers are required by law to know their clients, but PayPal can be very heavy-handed about it, even freezing your account for a number of days. Wise needs to confirm your identify too but it's usually a smooth process.
With PayPal, the high fees you pay include buyer and seller protection, but seller protection is not granted to sellers of services, so you are paying indirectly for merchants' seller protection. In case of fraud, PayPal is also known to be less than helpful. I don't see what I need them for today.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Nizozemsko
Local time: 23:25
Člen (2006)
angličtina -> afrikánština
+ ...
Thomas T. Frost wrote:
Both Western Union and PayPal are extremely expensive and both keep up to 8 per cent of the amount (including the cost of a poor exchange rate)...
That is very true, unfortunately. Various payment methods have various fees attached to them, so you should balance how much something costs with the convenience of using it (and how likely your using it might result in a client selecting you as their preferred provider).
I only include the one payment method [on the invoice] I have agreed with the client, which ensures I won't end up paying exorbitant fees.
This is a very good idea, if this is easy for you to manage (e.g. if you use invoicing software that allows you to customize the more information on the invoice to each client than just the client's address).
Samuel clearly isn't up to date on how Wise works, so the above is best ignored.
No, clearly not (-: Thanks for showing peer review in action.
| | | | | Invoices and payment methods | Jul 4, 2023 |
Samuel Murray wrote: I only include the one payment method [on the invoice] I have agreed with the client, which ensures I won't end up paying exorbitant fees. This is a very good idea, if this is easy for you to manage (e.g. if you use invoicing software that allows you to customize the more information on the invoice to each client than just the client's address).
This is how I do it without much inconvenience, in case it can help others:
Here in Portugal, the law obliges me to use approved accounting software linked to the tax systems (I use TOC, which allows me to invoice in USD, GBP, EUR and many other currencies). It lacks the facility to state a client-dependent payment method and also the facility to upload a list of tasks with PO numbers and other details, so I generate this mandatory part without any payment method mentioned and with just one task that refers to an attached specification.
Then I generate this separate specification in an Excel template, which I configure once per client to display the relevant payment method and currency. The settings are in a secondary sheet. The primary sheet (which is the only sheet the client gets) uses variables to refer to the settings. So once I have chosen the payment method from a list in the secondary sheet, the primary sheet will display the relevant account number. I then copy the task list per client into this template and save it as PDF. To finish, I use ilovepdf.com to merge the two PDFs. For the good order, I also upload the specification sheet to the official accounting system as an annexe.
People who don't have to use specific software can skip the first part and just use the template as the main invoice. It does require a few Excel skills, though. There may be simpler ways.
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You go "Dear Customer, this is my bank account, please put the money you owe me in it", and they then put the money they owe in it. How they do so is their problem.
| | | | Hayley Wakenshaw
Velká Británie
Local time: 22:25
Člen (2018)
nizozemština -> angličtina
| I use EU and UK accounts and Wise | Jul 5, 2023 |
I have current accounts in both the UK and the Netherlands and originally used these exclusively since all my clients paid in Euros or GBP.
Some clients prefer to pay via PayPal, especially those outside Europe. If they really, really insist, I'll allow it, but the fees are ridiculous, and I prefer to avoid it, if I can. Instead, for customers outside the EU, I take payments via Wise. In many cases, people can pay you using only your email address, just like PayPal. You'll need to s... See more I have current accounts in both the UK and the Netherlands and originally used these exclusively since all my clients paid in Euros or GBP.
Some clients prefer to pay via PayPal, especially those outside Europe. If they really, really insist, I'll allow it, but the fees are ridiculous, and I prefer to avoid it, if I can. Instead, for customers outside the EU, I take payments via Wise. In many cases, people can pay you using only your email address, just like PayPal. You'll need to set up an account for each currency you want to accept. These are basically bank accounts, and you can give clients these details just as you would with your regular bank account. Once everything is set up, converting and transferring money with Wise is really easy. I used other currency conversion companies before I settled on Wise, but I found that Wise is usually cheaper and infinitely easier and more flexible. ▲ Collapse
| | | | IrinaN
Spojené státy americké
Local time: 16:25
angličtina -> ruština
+ ...
| Never in 30 years | Jul 9, 2023 |
have I, or would I put all that detailed information on my invoice. Name, address, phone No, SS/EIN but even the latter is not required.
It's all in the contract. In case of direct deposit, a scan of a void check or a bank account confirmation page was to be provided just once only to become one of the pages in the contract package initialized by both parties and serve as a proof of the agreed payment method confirmation. In the US, good old checks are not entirely extinct so I sti... See more have I, or would I put all that detailed information on my invoice. Name, address, phone No, SS/EIN but even the latter is not required.
It's all in the contract. In case of direct deposit, a scan of a void check or a bank account confirmation page was to be provided just once only to become one of the pages in the contract package initialized by both parties and serve as a proof of the agreed payment method confirmation. In the US, good old checks are not entirely extinct so I still have a checkbook that lasts for years:-). I never wanted to have my "vitals" flying back and force all over the net on a bi-weekly basis. ▲ Collapse
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