Being an international freelancer isn’t easy. You have to work really hard for finding and getting freelance jobs. Then you also have to figure out how to receive your hard-earned payments in your wallet. To make your life easy, we have shortlisted some Paypal alternative payment gateways to help you get your freelance payments right in your pocket.
If you are residing in the USA, UK, Europe, Canada, you likely won’t face any payment-related problems. There are plenty of options there. However, if you are from emerging markets like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, you might come across such issues.
Most of the Freelance platforms support Paypal as their primary payment gateway. However, a few major platforms including Upwork, PeoplePerHour, and Fiverr offer other payment options including Wire Transfer and Payoneer.
How to receive Freelance Payments without a Bank Account?
In many situations, your employer can only send your payments via Wire transfer or Bank transfer. However, if, for some reason, you don’t have access to a bank account then there’s another way. Services like Payoneer and Transferwise allow you to create virtual bank accounts. Once you have received your funds, you can send them to yours or your relative’s bank account at a later time.
What if my Payoneer account is blocked? Is there an alternative?
Actually, yes. If, for some reason your Payoneer account got blocked, there’s an alternate payment gateway that acts exactly like Payoneer. I have mentioned it in the list below. Make sure not to repeat the same mistake that ended up getting your Payoneer account banned. While these services provide ease of payments, the way they function is sensitive. Any illegitimate action or mistake can cause your account to get blocked.
List of Alternative Payment Gateways for Freelance Payments
Here’s a list of the most trusted and widely available payment gateways that you can use if you don’t have access to Paypal:
- TransferWise (now known as ‘Wise’)
- Payoneer
- Stripe
- Skrill (MoneyBookers)
- Google Pay
Wise
Wise (formerly known as ‘TransferWise’) is a UK-based financial technology company that offers a payment solution for everyone. The basic idea of the service is to send and receive money quickly and cheaply. They offer some of the lowest transaction rates compared to other platforms.
One of the best features Wise offers is multi-currency accounts. You can open a US account or a UK account from any country. Many other currencies are also supported. Those accounts will act like actual bank accounts. Individuals and companies can send you money on your virtual bank account number.
You have the option to withdraw money from your Wise account to your local bank account with a few clicks.
They also offer a Debit card in some countries that allows you to make local transactions, just like your local debit cards.
If you’re a freelancer, you can receive earnings on your Wise account from marketplaces like Upwork, Freelancer.com, and other platforms that pay via bank transfer.
Join TransferWise Here (Get a Free International Transfer of up to £500)
Payoneer
If you haven’t heard about Payoneer, know that it’s one of the most popular payment gateways that allows you to send and receive money in almost every country. It was launched in 2005 and it proved to be a ray of hope for developing countries where Paypal and other similar gateways were inaccessible.
Payoneer offers an easy way to withdraw your freelance earnings directly to your local bank account. Of course, there’s a small fee for each transaction but considering its benefits, it’s almost negligible.
The best thing about Payoneer is its popularity. Almost all major freelance marketplaces support Payoneer as their gateway. Those include Fiverr, OneHourTranslation, Crossover, Amazon, eBay, and many other companies.
You can create an account with few simple steps and it’s completely free.
Stripe
Stripe is a combination of programmable APIs that lets you receive payments directly via your software, your marketplace and even lets you pay your employees globally.
If you own an eCommerce platform, for example, you can use Stripe connect to process payments from your customers. If you’re selling a service, you can receive payments from your subscribers.
Fortunately, there is a use case for freelancers as well that lets you receive your freelance payments. Medium, one of the biggest content creation platforms, also offers Stripe as a way to receive your earnings.
Skrill (formerly ‘Moneybookers’)
Skrill is another global payment solution provider that lets you send and receive money in a matter of clicks. Although it’s useful in many cases, it’s not the favorite choice among freelancers because of their transaction fees.
Skrill allows you to send and get money from individuals very easily using their email addresses. Many micro gig platforms also support Skrill as one of their supported payment gateways.
If you download their mobile app, you can enjoy free transactions without any fees.
Some users have reported delayed payments and other issues while using Skrill. So make sure you ask a few friends before joining it.
Google Pay
Google Pay is a digital wallet platform and a payment solution that allows you to make contact-less transactions in a matter of seconds. You can make instant purchases with your Android phone, tablet, or smartwatch.
Google Pay also lets you receive your payments directly to your wallet and ultimately to your bank account.
The biggest advantage of using Google Pay to handle your payments is the “Zero” transaction fee. This alone puts it ahead of its competitors.
The only downside is that Google Pay is not supported by many freelance platforms. Although, this may change in the future.
We will keep on adding more alternate payment options to Paypal to the list from time to time. Do share your feedback and suggest other platforms that have helped you.