Canadian Freelancers - how to receive international payments?
Thread poster: ritatranslat (X)
ritatranslat (X)
ritatranslat (X)  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 11:56
English
+ ...
Oct 8, 2019

Greetings, fellow Canadian colleagues.

How are you receiving payment from international clients?

I've researched some money transfer companies and their features aren't very favorable to Canadians unless I've missed something.


Cheers!

R.H.


Tina Vonhof (X)
 
Andy Lemminger
Andy Lemminger  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 09:56
Member (2002)
English to German
Transferwise Oct 8, 2019

Hi Rita,
I just signed up with Transferwise.com. They offer a business account and provide accounts in GBP, USD, AUD/NZD plus EUR, including your own account number.
So my plan is to get paid on these and then transfer the money to my Canadian account.
I can't say if they're great yet, since I just signed up but it sure looks good. I did use them in the past though to wire money from my Canadian account to my German account, which worked great.
This is my personal invitat
... See more
Hi Rita,
I just signed up with Transferwise.com. They offer a business account and provide accounts in GBP, USD, AUD/NZD plus EUR, including your own account number.
So my plan is to get paid on these and then transfer the money to my Canadian account.
I can't say if they're great yet, since I just signed up but it sure looks good. I did use them in the past though to wire money from my Canadian account to my German account, which worked great.
This is my personal invitation link: https://transferwise.com/u/andreasl61
Here are the FAQs: https://transferwise.com/help/19/transferwise-for-business
And this is their pricing: https://transferwise.com/gb/business/pricing-and-coverage
All the best
Andy

[Bearbeitet am 2019-10-08 15:22 GMT]

[Bearbeitet am 2019-10-08 15:23 GMT]
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ritatranslat (X)
Thomas T. Frost
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Jessica Noyes
 
ritatranslat (X)
ritatranslat (X)  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 11:56
English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you, Andy. Oct 8, 2019

Thank you, Andy! I will look into it.

 
Adam Dickinson
Adam Dickinson  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 11:56
Member (2016)
Spanish to English
+ ...
+1 on Transferwise Oct 8, 2019

I'll second the mention of Transferwise. I've been using it for over a year now - my clients are mostly in the US and Europe, and the service gives me local bank details for both currencies (though as Andy mentioned, you can get local accounts for GBP, AUD and NZD as well). For clients, this means that it's just like sending a local wire transfer within their country. The full amount is deposited in the Transferwise account, and then I use the service to transfer it into my Canadian bank account... See more
I'll second the mention of Transferwise. I've been using it for over a year now - my clients are mostly in the US and Europe, and the service gives me local bank details for both currencies (though as Andy mentioned, you can get local accounts for GBP, AUD and NZD as well). For clients, this means that it's just like sending a local wire transfer within their country. The full amount is deposited in the Transferwise account, and then I use the service to transfer it into my Canadian bank account.

The key benefit is that they use a far more advantageous rate than PayPal or most bank transfers. For large transfers, I find that it saves me a considerable amount against PayPal, which not only charges high fees but uses an abysmal exchange rate when converting into CAD.
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Thomas T. Frost
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Jessica Noyes
 
ritatranslat (X)
ritatranslat (X)  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 11:56
English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
transferwise vs wire transfer Oct 8, 2019

Adam Dickinson wrote:
For large transfers, I find that it saves me a considerable amount against PayPal, which not only charges high fees but uses an abysmal exchange rate when converting into CAD.

Thank you, Adam. For large transfers, is there an advantage to use Transferwise over wire transfer?


 
Adam Dickinson
Adam Dickinson  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 11:56
Member (2016)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Depends Oct 8, 2019

It really depends on the fees charged by banks and the exchange rate they use. In my experience, international wire transfers usually involve fees at the sending or receiving bank (or both), and the bank will usually use a lower exchange rate when converting into CAD (banks usually buy and sell a currency at different rates). In those cases, Transferwise would be better since they use a single exchange rate.

Again, that's been my experience. Personally, I only use wire transfers/e-t
... See more
It really depends on the fees charged by banks and the exchange rate they use. In my experience, international wire transfers usually involve fees at the sending or receiving bank (or both), and the bank will usually use a lower exchange rate when converting into CAD (banks usually buy and sell a currency at different rates). In those cases, Transferwise would be better since they use a single exchange rate.

Again, that's been my experience. Personally, I only use wire transfers/e-transfers when getting CAD payments from within Canada.
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Thomas T. Frost
ritatranslat (X)
 
Tina Vonhof (X)
Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 09:56
Dutch to English
+ ...
Bank transfers Oct 8, 2019

I have asked different banks about their fees and currently they all charge $ 14 for an incoming transfer. That's not too bad if the transfer is a large amount but many transfers I get are modest amounts and the $14 take a real bite out of them. Paypal fees may be a bit high but many of my clients use it and they are not going to switch to something else just for me.

ritatranslat (X)
 
Andy Lemminger
Andy Lemminger  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 09:56
Member (2002)
English to German
Wires Oct 8, 2019

Also I really like the ease of sending international wires with Transferwise. I can type in all the information myself, as I am used to with my European accounts.
In the past I had to make an appointment at the bank to send a wire, which is just inconvenient in my opinion.


Jessica Noyes
ritatranslat (X)
 
Julie Pigeon
Julie Pigeon
Canada
Local time: 11:56
English to French
Bank account or PayPal Oct 8, 2019

I'm using PayPal for payments under 300$. For bigger payments, I just provide my bank account number and the agencies are making the transfer, which costs me about 15$ (with Desjardins). For clients who are not using PayPal, I usually send invoices only when the amount is big enough, combining sometimes serveral months.

ritatranslat (X)
 
ELENA MITULESCU
ELENA MITULESCU
Canada
Local time: 11:56
English to Romanian
+ ...
VEEM transfers for Canadian translators Oct 9, 2019

Hi all,
I am paid through VEEM by one of my US clients and it works perfectly. What I like about VEEM is that the payment is tracked and I can always access my VEEM account to see the status of my transactions. I also get notified when the transfer was completed and the amount deposited to my bank account. VEEM also has the live chat option, which is very useful. I hope this helps.


ritatranslat (X)
 
ritatranslat (X)
ritatranslat (X)  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 11:56
English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
appealing features Oct 10, 2019

ELENA MITULESCU wrote:

Hi all,
I am paid through VEEM by one of my US clients and it works perfectly. What I like about VEEM is that the payment is tracked and I can always access my VEEM account to see the status of my transactions. I also get notified when the transfer was completed and the amount deposited to my bank account. VEEM also has the live chat option, which is very useful. I hope this helps.
Thank you for introducing this, Elena. I had a live chat with their CSR and the features do seem very appealing e.g. no fees for receivers. I'm going to give it a try.

And thank you to all who had shared their experience!


 


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Canadian Freelancers - how to receive international payments?







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