How Do I Get Paid As Freelancer? Freelancer Payment Method Recommendation
As internet is getting more efficient and convenient nowadays, more and more people involve in freelance industry. As a freelancer, it is fantastic to work at anywhere, any place and anytime, as long as you have computer or ladtop with internet access.
So here comes an important question: how do I get paid as a freelancer?
Using wire transfer? This old school method is slow and high fees incurred. Most importantly this method is untraceable, you never know when the money will transfer in in real time.
Talking about online transfer, most likely the first company comes to your mind is PayPal, they are mature and reputable company in the market, many people is using PayPal for online transactions.
Yes, you can use PayPal as your main gateway to receive payment from your customer online.
But to me personally, I won’t choose PayPal as my first choice of receiving payment.
Why Not PayPal?
Although PayPal is reputable in the market, its fees also “reputable” in the market. Around 3% fees apply on your amount, the fee can up to 3.9% if you using business account.
Some people might think: 3% is acceptable. What if you are living in other countries, you need to convert the currency received to your country currency, so you can spend your hard earn money, a 2.5% conversion fee will be applied on your transaction.
So you can see that PayPal is not cheap to use. Since we are freelancers, always looking for jobs, projects, or receive ecommerce payment online, we probably need low-cost fund transfer solution, after all this money are our hard earn money.
Based on my personal experience, here comes my recommendation: Wise.
Wise
Wise, previously named as Transferwise, is a financial technology solution company, listed in London Stock Exchange.
Their service including international money transfer, receive international payment and debit card.
Regarding receives international payment, Wise will provide you bank account details, you can provide this bank account details to your employers, customers. So they can send the money to the bank account provided by you, and you can receive your money without any issues. In most countries, local transfer usually is free of charge, with the method provided by Wise, you are actually receiving money by local transfer to your Wise bank account.
Here’s example: you are living in US, you open GBP bank account details in Wise. Then you provide the GBP bank account details to your employer in UK, so your employer can transfer your money into your GBP bank account. Lastly, you only pay little conversion fee, convert your GBP into USD, so you can spend that money in US.
Given the example, you receive money without any fees, then only pay little conversion fee to spend in your local currency. You can click here to Wise website, there is a convert calculator on their website.
Unlike PayPal, when you receive your money, a 3% fees is deducted, then pay expensive conversion fee to get your local currency. Which is better?
Why Wise? Not Any Other Providers?
Wise is one of the largest players in the remittance market. They are worldwide coverage, regulated by the local regulators. The other providers coverage is not many as Wise.
Besides that, the competitors fee usually slightly higher than Wise.
Since Wise has more coverage, so it can hold more different currencies, its competitors have fewer currencies to hold. If you are a freelancer who always stay in different countries, the ability to hold different currencies is really convenient, all you need to do is getting a free debit card from Wise, whenever you spend with that debit card, it will only deduct the local currency balance. Sounds like magic?
Conclusion
This article is written based on my personal experience. It has no intention to criticize which company is good or bad.
Under some circumstance, PayPal might be a better choice, you also can use PayPal as your first and main gateway to receive your money.
If you read until here, at least you know you have another option. Personally I still very recommend Wise (Click here to find out more) to freelancers or online business owners.