

Ask HN: How do you receive USD for work abroad without getting ripped off? - waterlooalex

To those that work for a US company (but live elsewhere), how do you get paid, and do you manage to avoid horrible fees?
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mdekkers
We use transferwise for almost all of our international payments. transferwise
rocks. We used to use XETrade, but this isn't available to us where we
currently live and work. Our bank(s) hate us for using transferwise, and
actually try many different ways to stop us from using it (except for making
the process cheaper - funny thing, that)

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waterlooalex
I'm curious, are those payments for work you've done for a US company?

I do love what transferwise is doing, thats awesome that the banks are riled
up about it :)

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mdekkers
Yes, and we use it pay companies in the US that we use. Anything that annoys
the banks is OK in my book :)

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khronnuz
I've used Paypal because it was very simple to setup, until I realised how
much I was losing, then I setup a bank to bank international wire, which took
some time because most account managers I have talked had no idea how to do.
It still takes some fees, but a lot less compared to Paypal.

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waterlooalex
Wire transfers always seem to take so long. How long do they take for you?

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toomuchtodo
Wire transfers should be instantaneous. ACH transfers take 2-5 days.

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waterlooalex
Even international wire transfers? Eg US to another country.

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toomuchtodo
Yes.

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waterlooalex
Wow. When ever I've done cross border wires they take at minumum 1 day.

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donw
I've got a business bank account with Chase, and they'll do currency
conversions and international transfers, via online banking, with a minimum of
fees.

They've also got a credit card (Sapphire Preferred, I believe) that has no
currency exchange fees, and has both a chip (useful in Europe) and a magstrip
(useful everywhere else).

If you set up a local bank account, keep the FBAR in mind.

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maguay
Some banks—such as Thailand's Bangkok Bank—have a US branch just for receiving
transfers. That way, you have a US routing number along with your normal local
bank account number, and then can get your US pay despoiled just as if it were
going to a US account. Fees tend to be lower than manually wiring money each
month.

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waterlooalex
Thats pretty slick.

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therealmarv
You mean bank transfer fees?! You cannot avoid them unless you also have an US
bank account which you won't get if you are not living in the US. Private
money transfer is pretty cheap with well known services like e.g. Paypal (I'm
guessing this is one of the main reasons Paypal exists, easy and cheap).

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benologist
Paypal's cheapness varies by country, here in Costa Rica they only work with
one bank who charge 0.5% per transaction with a generous $11 minimum fee.

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waterlooalex
Does PayPal also charge their international fee and currency exchange fee?

[https://www.paypal.com/cr/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-
xborde...](https://www.paypal.com/cr/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-xborder-fees-
outside&countries=)

[https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/helpcenter/helphub/article...](https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/helpcenter/helphub/article/?solutionId=FAQ1976&topicID=FEES_US&m=TCI)

~~~
benologist
The bank fees are separate and on top of PayPal's, moving money to/from PayPal
can only be done through their website instead of PayPal's and they collect
their fees that way.

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seekingcharlie
I have a US bank account & use OzForex (you can use USForex as a US citizen).
I've also used XE Trade in the past.

Transferwise is awesome (much better UI), but not as good as OZ/USForex or XE
in terms of rates.

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anthony_barker
A lot of this is dependent on where you live? Are you billing via a
US/International LLC? Or is this a direct contract? do you spend USD in the
current country or another currency?

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PedroSena
At least here in Brazil the best way is to convert the USD to Bitcoins and
sell it in the local market, however not every company is willing to do so.

When there is no such option: Wire transfer

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waterlooalex
Is it safe to use Bitcoin?

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Someone1234
No.

Bitcoin is very volatile, so you could lose or gain unknown amounts during the
"transfer" (even if it is within a few minutes).

Additionally unlike a traditional wire transfer you cannot prove that you're
transferring it to yourself (it is an anonymous currency by design after all)
therefore they could come after you for tax (or worse accuse you of
laundering).

Wires are a rip-off. However the costs are knowable and there is a very low
risk of any misunderstanding from the big G in either country.

I use a company called XE, and to be frank it is a huge PITA. But at least all
money is completely traceable/verifiable (the broker is almost too paranoid
about fraud, that's why it is such a pain) and the fees are relatively low. It
would be very easy to prove with XE that I sent it to myself.

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waterlooalex
A friend had mentioned XE to me, it looked like a good option. What makes it a
PITA? You mentioned broker but I'm not sure exactly what you mean.

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mattm
I also use XE. I think he might be referring to setup. Setting up an account
takes a lot of documentation and took a few weeks IIRC. Once it's setup
though, things are easy.

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hackerboos
TransferWise.

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waterlooalex
I read about them, they sound awesome. Is your employer happy to use them?

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hackerboos
I just use it to send money to myself internationally.

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canterburry
Is no one here aware of WesternUnion? It's the oldest and largest money
transfer company around.

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waterlooalex
[https://transferwise.com/blog/2012-04/send-money-abroad-
comp...](https://transferwise.com/blog/2012-04/send-money-abroad-comparison/)

